Events

Trains, Buses, People, Second Edition | Island Press

CodeRedTO Christof Spieler : Trains, Buses, People

Monday, September 27, 2021 - 8:00pm EDT

CodeRedTO welcomes back Christof Spieler, author of Trains, Buses, People, Second Edition: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit, to speak with the CodeRedTO community on September 27 about lessons Toronto and the GTHA could learn from other cities’ experiences.

Christof Spieler is an engineer and planner, a senior lecturer at Rice University in the architecture and engineering schools, and spent eight years on the board of Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO). He’s also a member of the American Public Transit Association’s Sustainability and Urban Design Working Group, which drafts national standards on transit and urban design, a contributor to NACTO’s Transit Street Design Guide, a member of the Central Houston Transportation Committee, and a board member at TransitCenter in New York.

Christof Spieler presented at a CodeRedTO event in 2019 and we are thrilled to welcome him back (virtually!) to launch Trains, Buses, People, Second Edition: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit, which now covers every rail transit and bus rapid transit system in the United States and Canada!

Having the Right Conversation About Transit

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - 12:00pm PDT

Join Capital Bike and the Better Transit Alliance in welcoming Christof Spieler for a webinar, "Having the Right Conversation About Transit".

Christof Spieler is the author of one of Island Press' best-selling transit books, Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit. This second edition of the book was published on August 24th. Updated features in this revised edition include information on fares, governance, funding, and stations, plus a new section on inclusivity to help all readers understand how to welcome riders regardless of race, gender, income, or disability. Eight metropolitan Canadian areas have been added and all the U.S. regions have been updated.

Spieler asserts that "we need to have the right conversations about transit. We need to talk about what matters—to focus on the quality of service, not the technology that delivers it." This webinar will focus on having productive conversations about public transit, walking and cycling.

This book is intended for non-experts. Anyone with a vested interest in making a more effective transit system can use the tools provided in this book. The maps and data for the 57 metro areas make it easy to compare each region to its peers, see which area is doing well, and highlight the gaps in transit service. That said, Capital Bike, Better Transit Alliance, and their supporters will find the book particularly useful, given the local context it provides.

Shanna Farrell | An Island Press author | Photo credit: Nicola Parisi

A Good Drink: In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits

Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 12:00pm MST

Shanna Farrell is an interviewer at UC Berkeley's Oral History Center, where she works on a wide variety of projects and specializes in contemporary cocktail culture. She is the author of Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community, and Craft.

In her new book, A Good Drink, Farrell goes in search of the bars, distillers, and farmers who are driving a transformation to sustainable spirits. These individuals are part of a growing trend to recognize spirits for what they are—part of our food system. For those who have ever wondered who grew the pears that went into their brandy or why their cocktail is an unnatural shade of red, A Good Drink will be an eye-opening tour of the spirits industry.

Moderated by Dave White, deputy director of the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation.

You can purchase A Good Drink from the independently owned Changing Hands Bookstore, HERE.

Christof Spieler's Trains, Buses, People - Book Launch in Philadelphia

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 2:30pm EDT

5th Square

523 S 4th St

Philadelphia, PA 19147

United States

Join 5th Square, South Street Head House District and Transit Forward Philadelphia in welcoming Christof Spieler author of Trains, Buses, People. The revised edition features updated information on fares, governance, funding, and stations, plus a new section on inclusivity to help all readers understand how to welcome riders regardless of race, gender, income, or disability. Eight metropolitan Canadian areas have been added and all the U.S. regions have been updated.

Light food and drinks will be provided. This is a Vax only event for ages 12+ and children under 12 will be expected to wear a mask.

October Lunch and Learn: Food Town, USA Book Talk

Wednesday, October 6, 2021 - 1:00pm EDT

Join us for a lunch and learn with author Mark Winne to dicuss his book Food Town, USA. The book looks at local food movements in 7 cities across the US, and how these movements are transforming towns impacted by disappearing industries and decades of inequity. This book reminds us about the power of community and how important food can be in bringing people together. We encourage you to read the book before the talk, but it is not required. Island Press is generously offering a 25% discount on books purchased through its website. Use code APGA to take advantage of this discount.

Town Hall Seattle Todd Litman New Mobilities: Planning for the Future of Transportation

Wednesday, October 6, 2021 - 7:30pm PDT

Did you get to work on an e-bike? Go to meet your friends at the restaurant on a scooter? Go to your vacation get-away on an air taxi? There are more and more ways to get from point A to point B. But what impact do all these new technologies have? What are the benefits and the costs?

Transportation expert Todd Litman tries to answer these questions in New Mobilities. Litman examines 12 emerging transportation modes and services that are likely to affect our lives: bike- and car-sharing, micro-mobilities, ridehailing and micro-transit, public transit innovations, telework, autonomous and electric vehicles, air taxis, mobility prioritization, and logistics management. What should city planners be aware of before building these out and developing infrastructures for them? With new technologies comes, undoubtedly, new problems. But, Litman notes, so comes new benefits, as well, that can make all our lives better.

Todd Litman is founder and executive director of the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

Taking Fresh Steps toward a More Walk-Friendly Maryland

Thursday, October 7, 2021 - 10:30am EDT

The Walktober Walkinar 2021 series kicks off with a look at national efforts on walkability, including how pedestrian infrastructure has evolved, and some of the key challenges that pedestrians are facing across the country.

Timothy Taylor of the Federal Highway Administration will share details of the agency’s Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian (STEP) program, which was established in response to the growing number of pedestrian crashes on America’s roadways. Anat Caspi, who leads the University of Washington’s Data Equity Project, will share advances in building equitable data frameworks to improve inclusive access for all pedestrians. And Peter Norton of the University of Virginia will look at the history and future of mobility and sustainable mobility, and the social dimensions of transportation engineering. His new book is Autonorama.

Panelists:

Timothy Taylor, Federal Highway Administration, STEP Program
Peter Norton, Associate Professor, University of Virginia, Department of Engineering and Society
Anat Caspi, Director, Taskar Center for Accessible Technology, University of Washington, Data Equity Project

OCTO Webinar: Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - 1:00pm EDT

Sea level rise will cause interrelated challenges in communities around the United States. The issues extend far beyond land use planning to affect housing policy, financing for public infrastructure, insurance, fostering healthier coastal ecosystems, and more. Planning for the myriad of coastal adaptation challenges is crucial for the survival of many communities. In this webinar you will hear from expert contributors to the new book, A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation: Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy. They will discuss what a framework for comprehensive coastal flood-risk reduction looks like and how public funding of adaptation is possible.

Co-sponsors: OCTO (EBM Tools Network, The Skimmer, OpenChannels, MPA News, MarineDebris.info)

Presented by:

Samuel Brody of the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas at Texas A&M University at Galveston
Carlos Martin of the Urban Institute
Carolyn Kousky of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania

Equitable Local Economic Recovery: How to Rebuild Thriving Downtowns

Wednesday, October 20, 2021 - 1:00pm EDT

Most local economic development strategies do not specifically focus on how to build a more racially inclusive community of business owners, address our urban-rural divide of access to resources, or engage in the detailed elements about how to invest in the infrastructure these business owners need to survive and grow. As we rebuild from the pandemic, while millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds flow to our cities and towns, this moment holds a unique opportunity to make sure that more people benefit moving forward.

Working with small-scale manufacturing businesses is one concrete way to take action and start making changes immediately to build a more inclusive local economy without needing to wait for some big, long-term strategy. Join this event to learn about small-scale manufacturing businesses, their benefit to your local economy, how to work with these businesses to immediately start building a more equitable local economy, and how to use this method to improve local economic development programs to better support diverse business owners in the future.

Pedestrian Safety: Trends, Measures, and Solutions

Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 10:30am EDT

This Walkinar will examine a broad range of issues related to pedestrian safety, including planning, equity, and enforcement. This will include discussion of recent efforts to calculate a “Pedestrian Level of Comfort” in Montgomery County, and efforts on behalf of MDOT’s State Highway Administration to ensure that roadway design features reflect user needs and respond to land use contexts.

Panelists will discuss how to improve how infrastructure is used, and how to cultivate more safe and respectful attitudes and behaviors that reflect the lawful use of shared public spaces. Finally, the session will highlight disturbing trends underpinning America’s crisis in pedestrian safety – and discuss the critical theme of equity in seeking solutions.