Book Club Reflections: Train, Buses, People

On April 2, Journey founder Lauren Mattern and the Association for Commuter Transportation hosted transit leader and author Christof Spieler for the latest TDM Book Club session on Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit. Lauren shared she selected Christof’s book partly because of his strong reputation for mentoring and knowledge-sharing—qualities the industry needs more of.

The book club - moderated by Lauren - aims to break down barriers between TDM and adjacent disciplines and spark more sharing of ideas.

Here are our takeaways from the chat with Christof and the session attendees:

1. Let’s Take the Technical Prowess Off the Shelf!

   • People are smarter than we often give them credit for and can understand transit planning trade-offs when they’re well-explained. We agree. And that’s a foundation of Journey’s planner-led engagement practice.

   • Ditch the technical jargon. Clear, direct language builds broader understanding and support.

   • Don’t just draw lines. Think about origins and destinations and where people want to go. Then get more specific and tell the story of the people who travel.

   • Talking about frequency is tough as it doesn’t have a driving equivalent. Explaining it well matters.

   • Infrastructure often gets the spotlight from elected officials. But service is the story, especially for the community. Every investment should answer: How does this improve service?

   • Advocacy matters. Boards won’t often make bold moves without the public showing up to speak in support of it.

2. History is Messy—and It Lingers.

   • Our transit systems are often shaped by a patchwork of historic decisions, often more random than rational.

   • Christof mapped 57 (!) North American transit systems and found that past choices are incredibly “sticky”. Changing course isn’t easy, but understanding the history helps.

3. The One Big Thing…

   • The most important thing to get right today is land use. Do it well and you’re making transit inevitable. Great land use means easy-to-serve density and activity. Lay things out, so it is very easy to serve people well with transit.

4. Build Bridges, Not Silos.

   • TDM and transit should be closer friends. There is shared passion for creating new riders and building ridership can be a key TDM metric that ties interests. This is a founding thesis of Journey!

   • Transit drives development value - an opportunity to get more supporters for transit.

   • The walk to transit is often the worst part of the trip and is rarely in the agency’s control.

   • For events and stadiums, buses can often work better than rail. Buses get people closer to the front door and can be queued and ready for post-event crowd departures. They are more flexible and cheaper than rail. Transit agencies can do a lot if venues are willing partners. This conversation is timely given the upcoming FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games.

Thanks to the ACT community for bringing energy to this discussion.