Human Transit (the book)

If you’ve read The Source for a while, you may recognize the name of transit planner Jarrett Walker and his professional blog Human Transit. We’ve linked to Walker liberally in order to steer readers to some of his insightful posts on the nuts and bolts of public transit.

And last year Walker was kind enough to share with The Source his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for improving public transit in greater Los Angeles. The entire interview is available here.

Good news for Human Transit fans like us: Walker recently published a book — also titled Human Transit — that elaborates on and synthesizes a number of the key concepts explored in his blog. The book’s garrulous subtitle really says it all: How clearer thinking about public transit can enrich our communities and our lives.

In other words, when we better understand some key transit fundamentals — like how branching a transit line is like a river or how grids are a key to transit mobility — we as a community can make more informed decisions about what we want transit to do for us. I’m about half-way through the book myself and find it to be insightful without being dense and it’s definitely accessible to a lay audience. Plus Walker’s frequent use of Los Angeles as a case study is a treat.

On a personal note, when I broke into the world of transit advocacy and writing, I found the Human Transit blog to be an invaluable compass for navigating a lot of new and sometimes counter-intuitive concepts.

So I’m thrilled to report that Walker is making a trip down to L.A. next week to hold a talk on Human Transit at UCLA in support of his book release*. The event is free and open to the public — plus complimentary refreshments! You can RSVP on Facebook and spread the word by clicking one of those social media icons at the top of the post.

Here are the key details:

• Thursday, January 19th
• 6:00pm until 8:00pm
• UCLA Public Affairs Building, Room 2343
• Accessible via Metro Rapid & Local, Big Blue Bus, Culver City Bus and others. (Google transit directions is your friend.)
• More event info via the UCLA Lewis Center website.

*Full disclosure: I’m helping organize the event as a UCLA urban planning student.