Episode 561: Mpact Poster Sessions

Episode 561: Mpact Poster Sessions

Author: The Overhead Wire January 8, 2026 Duration: 37:24

This week we're back at the Mpact Transit + Community Conference in Portland Oregon at the Mpact Innovators Poster Sessions.  We talk with young professionals about the transportation implementation and policy work they've been doing in the field including designing new transportation hubs, rethinking parking, and improving bus service.

This week we're at the 2025 Mpact Transit + Community Conference in Portland Oregon and we're chatting with young professionals about their work that they presented at the Mpact Innovators poster session. The Innovators is an all-volunteer national networking group that organizes events and networking at the conference each year. Each of the interviews is about five minutes and we have a link to the posters in the show notes in case you want to follow along with the visuals.  I will note that the poster sessions occurred during one of the evening gatherings so you may hear a bit of background noise.  But there are some pretty cool ideas in here so hopefully you all stick around to check all 8 of them out.

Cameron Thompson - Sisters East Portal Transportation Hub

Veronica Mandasari - Reimagining Mill Avenue: What Tempe can Learn from Portland's Walkable Street Design

Emily D'Antonio - TriMet Better Bus: Improving Reliability at Greeley and Going

Eric Gasper - Bridgeless to Better Burnside

Daniel Lambert - Pathways Transit Assistance Team (PTAT):  A Trauma-Informed Alternative to Object-Oriented Security on Transit Systems

Ryan Martyn - Wasted Space: Using Parking Lots to Improve Neighborhood Completeness

Jules Plotts - Employer-Centered Accessibility Model to Non-Dayshift Work

Maddy Belden - Development & Datasets

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Each week, Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast digs into the conversations shaping our cities and streets. Host Jeff Wood, from The Overhead Wire, guides these discussions, which sit at a unique crossroads where the practical realities of urban planning meet the urgent goals of sustainable transportation and thoughtful economic development. Rather than offering abstract theory, the episodes connect policy to the pavement, exploring how decisions made in government offices and community meetings directly affect how people live, move, and work. You’ll hear from a range of voices-planners, advocates, officials, and journalists-who are actively working on these fronts. The dialogue in this podcast is grounded in current events and news, providing context and depth to the week’s most pressing topics in urbanism. It’s for anyone curious about why their city looks and functions the way it does, and for those invested in building more equitable and accessible communities. The tone is engaged and informative, turning complex, interconnected subjects into clear, compelling conversation. Tune in for a regular dose of insight on the forces designing our public realm.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 101

Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast
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