Here's the first installment of my two-part conversation with Jonn Elledge, the editor of City Metric and the host of the Skylines podcast. In this episode Jonn interviews me about American transportation, particularly the history of urban subways and light rail, as well as transportation politics and possible futures.

For the 150th episode of the podcast, this week we welcome back Talking Headways co-founder Tanya Snyder, now a reporter at Politico Magazine. We get into the developing topic of regulating self-driving vehicles, including issues of children’s safety and state versus federal rules. We also discuss aviation legislation in the House of Representatives, what it means for drones, and whether private jets should pay more for air traffic control.

This week we’re coming to you from the UITP Global Transport Summit in Montreal with guest Projjal Dutta, director of sustainability at the New York MTA. We chat about the idea of "transit-avoided carbon," how you measure emissions, and the impact of Superstorm Sandy on sustainability thinking in the New York region.

Josh Lapp, a board member at the advocacy organization Transit Columbus, joins us this week to talk about Ohio’s capital city — how it’s becoming more urban, how its stadiums have been situated to support downtown growth and walkability, and how transportation options like light rail and bike-share are developing. And of course, you’ll hear about Columbus’s winning bid [...]