This week I chat again with Jonn Ellege of CityMetric (catch up on part one, if you haven't listened yet). This time it’s my turn to interview and we cover a lot of ground. We talk about major London transit projects including Crossrail and high speed rail, how Transport for London is regulating Uber, what’s happening to the buses on Oxford Street, and more.

This week's guests are Breen Masciotra, transit-oriented development manager for the Port Authority of Allegheny County, and Karina Ricks, director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure for the city of Pittsburgh. We discuss the challenges they face in Pittsburgh, including topography, new technologies, and hostile streets. You'll also hear about how they're making a more walkable and multi-modal city through new bus rapid transit projects, transit-oriented development initiatives, and "eco innovation districts."

This week we’re joined by James Corless, CEO of Sacramento's regional planning agency. We chat about the Sacramento area and the connections between its urban and rural economies, his past working on federal transportation advocacy, how mid-sized cities are nationally important for providing jobs and housing, and why it’s kind of ridiculous to do 30-year long range regional transportation plans.

This week we return to Rail~Volution for a talk with Diana Mendes, who leads the transit and rail practice at HNTB. Diana tells us about meeting the author of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), what needs to change about environmental planning, the early use of GIS, and the environmental planning process for the Lower Manhattan Recovery after 9/11.

This episode examines the obstacles streets and transit agencies face when trying to move good projects forward, and the relationships that help make progress possible.