Earlier this month Mariia Zimmerman, Principal of MZ Strategies, LLC met up via Podcast with her old colleague from Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit Oriented Development: Jeff Wood of Talking Headways and the Direct Transfer.

Podcast link to Jeff and Mariia's discussion of the Transportation Transformation project.

Through the "Direct Transfer" Jeff Wood synthesizes a massive amount of daily news on transit, urban design and environmental issues. His blog spotlights some of the most interesting trends affecting transportation and transit today. Interested urbanists can subscribe to his daily RSS feed to stay on top of what is happening around the country and globe.

Jeff asked Mariia to be a guest on his regular Streetsblog podcast "Talking Headways" to discuss the recently completed "Transportation Transformation" project which MZ Strategies, LLC undertook for a group of national funders at the Ford, Rockefeller and Surdna Foundation and TransitCenter. The project looks at key trends affecting transportation reform particularly at the local level, and offers a set of recommendations for philanthropy and advocates to further innovation and opportunities for transit to better serve community goals.

The roughly 30 minute conversation covers a lot of the territory from the final report, case studies, survey and interviews with advocates from across the country. To read more about the project, click on this link to the Transportation Transformation project page.

Stay tuned. Later this spring Mariia Zimmerman will be speaking at the American Planning Association annual conference in Seattle, WA; the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities annual conference in Los Angeles, CA; the Congress for New Urbanism's CNU 23 in Dallas, TX; and serving as an instructor at the National League of Cities' NLC University in Washington, DC.