Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning Series
About This Series
This series, in partnership with the Transportation Planning Division, examines human-centered transportation planning and key trade-offs in street design. It highlights empathy, safety, and limitations in traffic forecasting assumptions, while encouraging rethinking mobility systems, prioritizing people over vehicles, and strengthening equity and decision-making in planning practice.
Current Episode
Connecting Communities: Rural Solutions for Transportation Challenges
In this episode of Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning, co-hosts Divya Gandhi and Em Hall spoke with Luke Van Denend, Outreach Coordinator at AECOM, and Zoe Miller, MPH, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Moving Maine Network, for a wide-ranging discussion focused on rural Transportation Demand Management (TDM) and mobility access.
Episodes
2026
March 2026
Connecting Communities: Rural Solutions for Transportation Challenges
A conversation that explores rural transportation demand management and mobility access, emphasizing community-driven solutions, trust, and local knowledge over technology. It highlights inclusive decision-making, coalition building, employer engagement, and mutual aid as foundations for improving rural mobility.
2025
August 2025
An Interview with Reverend Jessica Abell
A conversation that explores a disruption index for infrastructure projects, examining how maintenance and street improvements affect communities. It highlights faith-based organizing, community resilience, and rethinking transportation metrics to better address social justice and neighborhood impacts.
July 2025
An Interview with Jill Locantore
A conversation that explores Bus Rapid Transit as a tool for Vision Zero goals, examining efforts to transform car-centric corridors into safer streets for people walking, biking, and using transit through policy, design, and community collaboration.
June 2025
An Interview with Mike Pritchard, AICP
A conversation that explores human-centered transportation planning, emphasizing empathy interviews and lived experience over traditional data-driven methods. It highlights inclusive strategies across urban and rural contexts, storytelling, partnerships, and clearer communication to support funding and stakeholder engagement.
May 2025
An Interview with Wes Marshall and Trung Vo, AICP
A conversation that explores transportation safety, questioning flawed traffic engineering standards, such as the level of service and growth assumptions. It emphasizes designing for community needs, addressing arterial road safety, and proactively preventing crashes through safer street design.
February 2025
An Interview with CNT's Nina Idemudia, AICP, and Jacky Grimshaw
A conversation that explores the evolution of transportation planning, emphasizing community engagement, citizen participation, and addressing structural inequities. It highlights innovative approaches to creating equitable, sustainable urban environments and reflects on emerging leadership within the planning profession.
2023
March 2023
An Interview with Misty Klann and Cole Grisham
A conversation that explores transportation planning in Tribal communities, focusing on aligning analysis tools with community needs, improving project selection, and strengthening funding decisions through research that supports more equitable and context-sensitive planning approaches.
January 2023
An Interview with Tamika Butler
A conversation that explores how transportation policy and infrastructure have shaped segregation and mobility barriers, using critical race, historical, and policy analysis to examine equity, inclusion, and the impacts of systemic planning decisions on communities.
2022
December 2022
An Interview with Judy Shanley and Claire Stanley
A conversation that explores reimagining transportation planning for mobility and accessibility, highlighting insights on inclusive infrastructure design and policy approaches that better serve people with disabilities and improve equitable access across transportation systems.
August 2022
An Interview with Olatunji Oboi Reed
A conversation that explores how neighborhood infrastructure influences violence reduction, emphasizing racial equity, mobility justice, and community cohesion through shared transportation experiences like biking, walking tours, and transit that strengthen collective engagement and social connection.