Let’s sit down with Miles in Transit to talk about his motivation and process for making videos of arbitrary transit riding challenges!
Links
- Miles in Transit
- Other creators Miles mentioned
Attributions
Our theme song is Tanz den Dobberstein, and our interstitial song is Puck’s Blues. Both tracks used by permission of their creator, Erik Brandt. Find out more about his band, The Urban Hillbilly Quartet, on their website.
This episode was produced by Parker Seaman aka Strongthany, was edited and transcribed by Stina Neel, and was hosted by Ian R Buck. Many thanks to Miles Taylor for coming on the show! We’re always looking to feature new voices on the show, so if you have ideas for future episodes, drop us a line at [email protected].
Transcript
[00:00:00] Ian: Welcome to the Streets.MN podcast, the show where we highlight how transportation and land use can make our communities better places. Coming to you from beautiful uptown Minneapolis, Minnesota, I am your host, Ian R. Buck. It’s time for another For Fun and For Profit episode, in which producer Parker Seaman interviews urbanist content creators about their process.
Today’s guest, Miles In Transit. Take it away, Parker
[00:00:32] Parker: Welcome, everyone, to the Streets.MN podcast. This is our second part in our series For Fun and for Profit, where we talk to different transit and urbanism content creators, getting into how they balance, uh, content creation, the passion, and also the need to put food on the table.
And we’re here today with Miles in Transit. Uh, Miles, you wanna say hello? Tell a little bit about yourself to our wonderful listeners.
[00:00:55] Miles: Hello. I would like to say hello. My name is Miles and, uh, I, uh… My tagline’s that I push transit to its limits while attempting to be entertaining. So, uh, you’ll usually see me riding Greyhounds across the country or trying to ride a bunch of bus systems in one day.
Um, or simpler stuff, but certainly I have the most fun doing the crazy challenges.
[00:01:19] Ian: To, to give folks kind of a, a sense of, like, what we’re, what we’re working with, like, how, how big is your channel? Like, what, what do you usually… How many people usually watch one of your videos?
[00:01:31] Miles: Um, well, I’ve got almost 95,000 subscribers, uh, at time of recording.
Um, and, uh, the video views, I would say, uh, gosh, for someone who’s as obsessed with YouTube Studio as I am, I should be better- … equipped to answer this. Um, but, uh, I would say, you know, a, a good video would get, like, 50K views. Um, but, like, if it gets, like, 30, I’m pretty happy.
[00:02:02] Ian: Yeah. And how did you get to this point?
Like, like was it, was it, like, when, when did it grow enough that you were like, “Whoa, wait, this is something. Something’s happening here”?
[00:02:14] Miles: Well, I feel like I have a weird relationship to it compared to other folks because I had been making regular content on the internet since 2013, um, because I started writing a blog about bus routes and train stations on the MBTA.
I was going out and reviewing those. Uh, and it wasn’t really until– I, I had done some video stuff for fun, but it wasn’t really until COVID that I just kinda lost the desire to write and just thought, “Well, I’ll switch to video,” and just made a goal to upload once a week. Um-
[00:02:48] Ian: Mm.
[00:02:49] Miles: And yeah, and I mean, I, I, I have always seen the work I do online as, as trying to encapsulate the stuff that I’d be doing anyway just for fun.
Um, but trying to make something out of it. And so I never had lofty am- ambitions really. I, I don’t know, I’m just– I, I never thought that I would be, you know, even just close to 100K, which I’m, I’m now quite close to and will presumably hit at some point this year. There’ll be a big celebration, I’m sure.
Um, I didn’t, um, I don’t know what it will be, but, uh, I hope, I hope so. I didn’t think I would get to this point, but I also didn’t care that much, and so the fact that it’s gotten to this point is just extremely exciting. Um, and, you know, being able to kinda do the, like, kind of raise my ambitions as far as, as the stuff I’m able to do in the videos has been really- Nice
enjoyable. Uh, ’cause at the end of the day it’s just about having fun. That’s, that’s how I see it.
[00:03:51] Parker: Yeah. I’ve, I’ve noticed a lot of your videos focus on, like, for lack of a better term, transit joy, like the fun of riding the bus or train or, like, a lot of the positive sort of aspects of that. Is that, has that been kind of an intentional thing or just do you have a positive disposition that just kinda comes out that way?
[00:04:10] Miles: Um, I complain a lot- … so I don’t think that I’m I don’t know if I’m naturally positive. But, uh, but certainly, like it, it’s, it- Yeah, like I said, it’s me having fun. Um, and that’s why my friends are in it so often is because it’s just, like, it’s hanging out with people and it’s what we’d be doing anyway. Um, so even in the most miserable times in the videos, it’s like I’m usually thinking like, “Well, this’ll make for good content.”
And like I g- I get kind of happy when stuff goes wrong- … because I’m just thinking like, “Oh, this’ll be good for the video.”
[00:04:46] Parker: I’ve, I’ve, I’ve noticed, speaking of like having fun with your friends, the amount of in-jokes that have cr- cropped up in your channel between, “Oh, hey, Sonny. All hail the Gaelic bar”- … um, which has influenced my, my friends of they don’t ride the bus a ton, but every s- every time that they do, I get a picture of just a bar on the back of a bus.
So thank you for that one.
[00:05:07] Miles: Wow, I’m so happy to have influenced that.
[00:05:09] Parker: Um, but like is it, is that something that’s been hard to keep track of, of all the different jokes there?
[00:05:16] Miles: You know, it actually can be. That’s a really good question because sometimes I’ll get people who are, you know, sometimes there will be a f- a fun fact stated and I, and I didn’t put the fun fact clip in, and someone will be like, “Well, that was a fun fact.
Why didn’t you put the fun fact in?” I’m like, “I c- I don’t know. I forget sometimes.” Well, it, it seems like- Um- …
[00:05:37] Parker: in your comments you have, uh, Kim Jong Un or, leader of North Korea- Yes … and then also Avery the- Cuban … Cuban, uh, coming in- … and filling in all the, all the fun facts and gaps of information in there.
So I think your fans got you covered.
[00:05:51] Miles: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and then but like also sometimes people will be like, “Oh, you know, this video didn’t have any menu shots.” And that’s … There’s one guy, uh, who every video he’ll actually, uh, posts, uh, timestamps of each, uh, recurring joke that appeared within the video.
I really appreciate that, like a catalog of what each video has, and sometimes it’ll be a short list. I’m like, “Ah, you know, I kinda skimped out this week.” Um, so that’s a very helpful, uh, commenter.
[00:06:20] Parker: So like as, as these jokes have accumulated, as you’ve done these videos throughout the year, like how do you feel your channel has changed from like where you started to like where you are now?
Has that been like something that’s been more organic? Have you kind of tried to take it a direction, followed like the fans’ response? Like what’s the, what do you think the process there has been?
[00:06:39] Miles: You know, I don’t feel like my process has changed that much. Like, my editing process and my mentality is always just take the footage that I have and kind of pick the clips that I think are funniest and put those in and, and do whatever editing needs to be done to make it even more entertaining.
Um, but I, I, I have noticed changes that have just kinda happened. Like, uh, there are more jokes now that I have to keep track of. Um, but also just-
[00:07:11] Ian: You need a fan-run wiki to like, you know- Yeah … collate all of the in-jokes and everything.
[00:07:19] Parker: He does have a Wikipedia page-
[00:07:21] Miles: That has been suggested … so like-
Yes
[00:07:22] Parker: theoretically a fan could just, like, put a, a in-jokes section on the page.
[00:07:27] Miles: No, but the thing is that Wikipedia page was very… It, that was a whole thing when that came. It was Christmas Eve of 2024, I believe. Um, and I remember there was a whole, like, after someone made that, there was a whole debate in, like, the talk section about is this actually a relevant person to have an article for?
And all of these wiki wonks came in and were like, “Well, it was actually sourced really well,” and, like, cites all these news articles. And, like, there’s certain guidelines to how to, how you can, like, what things you can cite. Um, you can’t cite the videos themselves, but you can cite articles that talk about the videos.
Um, so there would have to be an article that kept track of all the inside jokes for that to appear.
The idea of a fan-made wiki would be nice, though. That’s been suggested before.
[00:08:09] Parker: This is a thing that Ian and I have talked about before, ’cause I want a… Th- there is not a Streets and Men Wikipedia article because we can’t cite our own articles for it, so we’d have to cite- Right
somebody writing an article about our publication or about an article that was published or something.
[00:08:29] Ian: Yeah. And, and it would probably be frowned upon if, if two board members from the organization were the run- ones writing the Wikipedia article
[00:08:34] Miles: But yeah, I mean, as far as my process has been, uh, one thing I’ve noticed recently is that my videos have just gotten longer, and I don’t feel like I’m, I, like, I’m just like, I don’t know how that happened because I edit things the same way that I d- have always edited them, and yet…
Like, maybe I just record more, or maybe there’s just more good footage now. I’m not entirely sure. But as a whole, the, the trend for video length has gone up quite a lot. Maybe the adventures are more crazy now. It could be all three
[00:09:08] Ian: I, I assume that your editing process is more along the line… It’s, it’s, it’s an additive process rather than a subtractive process, right? Like for us on the podcast, we like, most of our episodes are we record one conversation and then that’s the starting point and we just cut it down from there. Whereas I assume that for like video projects like yours where you have a lot of different- a lot of footage from different times and different sources and everything, you’re just like, you’re trying to find in this clip, is there, is there a moment that I wanna use?
It, you know- Yeah … and
then, and then it goes to the final project
[00:09:46] Miles: you’ve that- Des- described it pretty well … Yeah, I’ll just, I’ll just watch every clip and decide if I like it or not. Um, and then I’ll usually, you know- Okay …
I’ll watch it back again and, and try to cut stuff. Um, or just I get so… It’s, it’s really bad.
I get so, uh, uh, aggro about like frames when I’m cutting between shots. I ju- I’m just like, well, if I cut a frame off here it would make that cut funnier. Um, so I just, I get super in depth on that and it can make a second pass take a while depending on, on how many cuts I didn’t like
[00:10:27] Ian: Um, let’s go way back to the beginning. Uh, so you said that you started blogging about, like, transportation stuff in 2013 or so. Um, like, what, what got you into that realm in the first place?
[00:10:38] Miles: Um, so there was a- … … blog that, uh, came before mine called, uh, the T Adventure, um, made by this guy Jason Bereza. And, um, he had been influenced by someone in DC, uh, Metro Venture, and both of these were, were, uh, reviewing bus routes and train stations.
And I was 12 years old when I discovered the T Adventure. Um, I couldn’t actually get an email until I was 13, so I just kind of read this blog over and over again. Like, his entire discography of … That’s not what you would say. His entire, you know, oeuvre, I would just like, yeah, um. I would just, you know, read it and, and I started, like, a notebook and I would just write posts in the notebook.
And then o- when I hit my 13th birthday, so January 17th, uh, 2013, the next day, uh, I started the blog and put my first post up. Um, so it … I was ready. I was ready.
[00:11:39] Ian: You were ready.
[00:11:39] Miles: Yeah, and then I just, I just kind of went- … really consistently. Um, ’cause I was in middle school and I had a lot of free time. Um, and I just saw it as a way to justify
I wanted to ride every bus route on the T anyway, so it was just a good way to justify doing that and make it feel like I was kind of producing something out of it.
[00:12:00] Ian: Yeah. Okay, and, and so clarifying question for the, for the Minnesota audience here. Mm. You said MBTA, which is Boston, right? Not MVTA- … which is our Minnesota- Valley Transit Authority.
[00:12:11] Miles: Yeah, and also not the T- … Which you guys stole from us … At least your logo.
[00:12:15] Parker: I, I like ours better. We have a, we have a patch with it.
[00:12:21] Miles: You, you, you used the photo sh- the, the MS Paint paint tool and put like red instead of white
Yeah. Yeah, yeah
[00:12:31] Ian: That’s true
[00:12:32] Parker: Well, at least it’s not up to Papyrus, right? I’ll have to be really good at the account to, you know, for Metro Transit and just do the T but in Papyrus or Comic Sans. So- … as your work, your work doing this has, you know, I mentioned, uh, transitioned from doing more of the blog to doing the YouTube and, you know, expanded out from there and it ob- obviously takes up a lot of time.
But this isn’t your full-time job, right?
[00:12:55] Miles: No.
[00:12:55] Parker: So how do you kinda balance, uh, both the YouTube channel and do you, you work for M- MBTA?
[00:13:05] Miles: I do, yeah. Um, I, I honestly, I don’t know how I do it. Uh, it’s been getting more difficult, uh, recently because the videos have gotten so long, so, um, you know, definitely got some, some, uh, like certainly a lot of my free time is taken up with editing and, and I, I have some late nights sometimes, but I, I, I’ve been trying to avoid doing that and just sort of getting up early the next day.
It’s al- it’s almost like, it’s a little bit like how I dealt with homework in high school, but it’s a lot more fun. Um, I haven’t missed a week in a long time, so it’s, it’s going okay so far. Um, but I, I, I don’t know how I do it sometimes. I think that my videos are certainly less intense to edit than a lot of others because it’s, it’s all diegetic audio and it’s, you know, it’s just a linear process of just putting clips in.
Um, but sometimes you’re dealing with just hours and hours of footage- Mm … and just having to, to cut that down can be, can be definitely a challenge
[00:14:19] Ian: Um, so for the, like, the challenges that you set for yourself that you’re, that you’re trying to do in these videos, um, obviously they’re very arbitrary, right? No- nobody, nobody needs to figure out how to go from the Mexican to Canadian borders by public transit, no bikes. You know, like, how do, how do you choose, how do you pick, like, what kinds
of challenges you want to do? What, what makes it fun for you?
[00:14:48] Miles: I think the planning process is- … is always a blast. I mean, like, that Mexico to Canada trip was just something that I had had on my bucket list for years at that point. Um, same with, like, crossing Canada by bus. Like, I just, I discovered that was possible at, at some point years ago and just like, “Oh, I have to do this.”
Um, and I think, yeah, I think just, like, discovering that something is possible using transit is, is really exciting. Um, I, uh, I, I recently stumbled across a, a Guinness World Record for the fastest time traveling to all 48 contiguous US states using only scheduled surface transportation, so like Greyhound, Amtrak, and whatnot.
And, uh, the current record was set by a British guy- Mm-hmm … and it’s very, very beatable. Uh, I don’t know how I’d find the time to do it, ’cause my scheduled time would be, like, 10 days. The record is 14, but I, I… That’s like, that’s like, oh, I would love to do that, but I don’t know when I… The hard part now is just finding time, ’cause that, I think that’s the big thing about having a full-time job is there’s just, like, only so much time off you can take.
Um-
[00:16:05] Ian: Exactly. We need, we need some middle schooler somewhere-
Yeah. Exactly … to take this plan and execute it, right?
[00:16:11] Miles: Yeah, so that like, there’s, there’s like, but there’s, that’s like the kind of thing that’s like, okay, that whenever I do that, that’ll be just a legendary video. It’ll just be like a blast to edit and do.
Um, maybe not do. That’s a lot of time on Greyhound, but, uh, certainly type two fun as it were. So you just, you just kinda find things and, and just file them away. But honestly, I have so much backlog now that I s- I don’t know. I just st- like, stuff just kind of falls into my lap and they just happen. Um, and s- just the backlog keeps getting bigger and bigger.
I probably, if I stop traveling now, I think I could put out a year’s worth of videos. Like, it’s that, it’s that big
[00:16:54] Ian: Whoa. Um, so, so the, the specific phrasing that you used there, uh, for that particular world record, uh, s- scheduled surface transportation, right? Like, that, that tells me that, like, there’s a lot of different ways to kinda cut up the, you know, the categories of different transportation stuff, right? You know, it’s like, like microtransit doesn’t count because that’s not scheduled, but, like, it’s still a shared ride where, you know, uh, pub- like, there’s public mass transit versus privately owned mass transit.
So like, like, where, where have you played with all of those different categories to come up with, like, different ways to structure- these challenges …
[00:17:41] Miles: uh, I mean, usually I, I- …
[00:17:43] Ian: try to,
[00:17:44] Miles: um… Usually it’s, it’s cut and dry. It’s kind of a, like, Supreme Court pornography thing, where it’s just like like, you know, I, I’ve had– In some of my videos, like-
you can see in, like, my DC to Boston by local transit video, um, or, or the Mexico to Canada one, like, there’s, I just wrote, I put, I just put a block of text on screen just, like, for, for someone to try, try to read through that and figure out what my definition was. But it can change sometimes. It depends on, on what I’m dealing with.
Um, the Guinness World Record is a weird one because, like, I think that’s just typical Guinness. You know, they have to be really specific in, in what they do for their, their titles. Um, but what really annoyed me was I was reading through the, the guidelines that they sent, and y- you’re allowed to use cabs within cities to get from one bus terminal to another.
And I’m like, what the hell? I’m not gonna do that. Why would you do that?
Yeah.
[00:18:48] Ian: Yeah, that seems very against the spirit of the thing.
[00:18:49] Miles: Most clever, though, is the guy who beat- …
[00:18:51] Ian: yeah …
[00:18:51] Miles: or I, I think he said it. I think he just, he just decided to do it and, and just he’s, he’s this, he’s this guy who’s, like, a very serial, uh, record breaker. Like, he has a ton of records under his belt. But what he did was he set the record both for the fastest time to- Mm
do all 48 states and the longest trip on US scheduled surface transportation, such that if you beat one, you’re not beating the other. I thought that was kinda funny, and good for him, I guess.
[00:19:18] Ian: Hmm.
And, and yeah, like these categories sometimes are going to align with people’s like real world-
[00:19:33] Miles: Yeah …
[00:19:34] Ian: transportation preferences, and other times they’re not, right? Like, like I personally, you know, I try not to fly because the carbon footprint is, you know, lar- You know, so like, like I have kind of a sliding scale of like carbon footprints for different forms of transportation, and I try to keep myself towards the lower end of that, you know?
But it’s not like, it’s not like a cut and dry, you know? Um, like I’ll, I’ll take, I’ll take, um, you know, a, a, a s- a scheduled or, or like a microtransit that in theory could be, uh, a shared ride. And even though it just- Yeah, yeah … happens to not be a shared ride that day- So you won’t fly, but no car … I’m like, “Well, I’m not gonna beat myself up over that.”
[00:20:17] Parker: Okay. Saying car, uh, this isn’t in the question list-
[00:20:20] Ian: Exactly.
[00:20:21] Parker: Exactly … but it’s a comment. Um, I… In, in watching your videos, I never thought that you had much of an accent until I watched the video where you came to the Twin Cities and rode the, the light rail we have here, and you started it at- Uh-huh … our baseball field, and you start the video off by going, “We’re here at Target Field.”
[00:20:42] Miles: Yeah. It, it, it, it comes out sometimes. I get comments about that. Um, I think I have a weird half accent, because like, uh, uh, the way… I had a friend who described it really well where I think I say the vowel as if I’m gonna drop the R, but then I kinda don’t. Like, I’ll say like, I’ll say like parking. Like there’s an R in there, but like the, uh, the-
vowel sounds like it’s gonna be pocking, but it’s more like a parking. But, uh, oof. I- No, I hear- That was nothing … yeah, I hear it.
[00:21:09] Parker: Yeah.
[00:21:10] Miles: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that…
[00:21:14] Parker: That’s interesting. Yeah. Um, speaking of a Boston accent, uh, we have a listener question from somebody, a friend of mine, who is in your neck of the woods.
Um-
[00:21:26] Miles: Okay …
[00:21:27] Parker: and she asks, what are some good and bad approaches to accessibility in transit that you’ve seen that you think are noteworthy?
[00:21:35] Miles: Wow, that’s a really good question. Um, I honestly, I mean, I feel like there are guidelines for a reason. Uh, and like I, like I don’t know. You s- you, you see sometimes, you see these like s- pictures on social media of like, “Look at this innovative staircase,” where it’s like they’ll put the staircase going up and the ramp, there’s like a ramp that’s like built into it that goes like…
And it’s like they’re, they’re trying to like innovate on this thing, but it’s like you’d really be better off just doing a normal ass ramp or like an elevator or something. Um, honestly like- I, I don’t know. I just think like y- you know, redundant elevators. Um, and especially I love when, you know, you have two elevators and when one goes up The other will go down even if it’s unoccupied just to…
So there’s always an elevator at one, on one side of it. Ah. Um, but like I think that, you know- I think as far as good accessibility goes, um, there are very good guidelines that are set out by, um, you know, by the ADA and, uh, the, uh, I never remember what it stands for, but, uh, PROWAG. It’s, like, the Public Rights of Way Accessibility Guidelines.
I got it. Um, and that’s, like, a lot of street stuff and bus stop stuff. And honestly, that’s, that plays a lot into what I do at work, and it can be hard sometimes in a video. Like, I really wanna be like, “Oh, this bus stop is really great.” Mm-hmm. But, like, no one really cares that, like, the sidewalk is eight feet and the curb is, the curb reveal is four to seven inches.
Like, it’s, you know? Right. Um, but, um-
[00:23:20] Ian: I guarantee though, if that was the kind of thing-
[00:23:22] Miles: Yeah, yeah …
[00:23:23] Ian: that you focused on in videos, like you would find your audience.
[00:23:24] Miles: People would like it, I’m sure.
[00:23:26] Ian: Like,It might not be the exact audience that you have right now- But it, it but there would be an audience. …
[00:23:34] Parker: sounds like a lot of that kind of comes back to- a frequent thing I hear from a lot of public transit advocates is like, I know that these self-driving cars or a bunch of these, you know, big tech kind of back- or sounding, uh, innovations can potentially solve this whatever sort of issue that’s being brought up when, like, the much more efficient, cheaper, and f- boring solution is it’s just a bus or just a train or, like- Right making the sidewalk a little bit better. It doesn’t… It’s not as flashy and as hard to sell as, like, a really great innovative thing, but it works really well.
[00:24:11] Miles: Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and there’s interesting… I, I don’t know. Like, I, I’m always surprised when I go to the Sun Belt where… Like, e- ’cause here in Boston we’re working with a lot of old streets, and so the sidewalks are, are actually really not up to snuff a lot of the time just because the right of way is so constrained.
But you’ll go to the Sun Belt, and it’s these new places that have been built, like, so much later, and there’s just so much more right of way that, like, actually every bus stop is, is compliant, and the s- crosswalks are great. And it’s just like, yeah, but it’s just such an unpleasant place to be that who would actually wanna take the bus here?
Um-
[00:24:51] Ian: Hmm …
[00:24:51] Miles: so that’s kind of an interesting dichotomy that, that I see where, like, Boston is more walkable, but because the streets are narrower, like, by the ADA’s requirements that they don’t quite meet the, the, um, the guidelines sometimes.
[00:25:12] Ian: Yeah. And, and I, I mean, I’ve seen a lot of times where, um, people who are trying to argue against, like, uh, transit treatments and, uh, more frequently bus la- or bike lanes, I would say. Um, you know, people trying to use accessibility as an argument for, like, well, we, we can’t take away this parking here because people who are disabled need to have parking- Yeah right at, right in front of where they’re gonna be going.
[00:25:40] Miles: That’s exactly it. You know?
[00:25:42] Ian: And it’s like- … this is not a good faith argument at all … a
[00:25:44] Miles: Yeah, I think it’s commonly used as just a- … catchall, like, kind of easy way to, to try to gain, like, gain woke points for, like, a, a very bad faith argument. Uh, and I don’t even bike.
Mm-hmm. Like, I actually really dislike biking, but I just, uh, to me, bike lanes are just, are, are traffic calming. Like, that’s the benefit that I get from them as a pedestrian is that they narrow the road and they, and they just make everyone drive slower. So I, I am always pro bike lanes even if I personally, uh, actually really hate biking.
But, but I’m glad other people, uh, enjoy it. Um, uh, it’s certainly good to- … to get people off the road.
[00:26:18] Parker: Yeah, I mean, I’ve seen plenty of studies that are about the more bike lanes there are, the more it reduces traffic and calms things down in tons of other ways.
[00:26:27] Miles: And maybe the more I’d be likely to bike ’cause one of the things I hate about it is having to, like, thoroughly plan my route beforehand to see if I’ll die on the way.
Like, that is genuine- like if I’m in the Netherlands, like, you kind of know you can just go anywhere. But when, when there’s no… when there’s not really a comprehensive bike lane network and, and, you know, certain parts of Boston do it a lot better than other places, but even so, you just, you just have to do that research beforehand ’cause next thing you know, you end up on some giant road with nothing and you’re just fearing for your life
[00:27:00] Ian: Yeah. Yeah I have heard people, um, making the case that like, hey, the Twin Cities, like, would be a better transit town-
[00:27:14] Miles: Hmm …
[00:27:15] Ian: If our, if our bikeways weren’t so darn good. Like, there’s so many people who prefer to bike here because the infrastructure’s like really, really good that it, like, kinda sucks the energy out of the argument- Hmm
for, for making transit into a stellar experience. Um, you know, I don’t know how much validity there is to that argument, but it, it is a thing that I have heard alleged, and I’m like, you know, you might be right. I might be more likely to ride the bus more often- Yeah … if I didn’t have, like, really, really good bike routes to get to work.
Well, I mean, it’s still, you know, it’s still actively sustainable transportation, so.
[00:27:49] Parker: Uh, well, speaking of, you know- Good biking and stuff and how good the Twin Cities is for biking, uh, when w- when are you, uh, coming to the Twin Cities next? We got a Green Line extension, our Green Line extension that’s opening up next year.
[00:28:05] Miles: It’s probably, it would probably be that next. Um, but I do love the Twin Cities, and I miss it. Um, I certainly, I certainly wanna come back. I, I– What I love most about the Twin Cities is, like, the experience of h- like, when you’re taking a bus through a, through one of, like, the old-school neighborhoods, what I really like is how all of the major intersections are these commercial nodes.
Um, and it feels like there’s just a lot of them, where it’s like you’ll just be going, and seemingly at every major arterial that you cross, you’ll see a couple restaurants or a movie theater or like a little parklet, um, all just kind of, you know. And they’re very concentrated. It reminds me of New England, uh, but even more frequent bouts of commercial.
Uh, and I just love the idea- Hmm … of being able to walk, you know, within a neighborhood, walk to just some restaurants nearby and just have these, these amenities very close to you. Um, yeah, big fan of the Twin Cities. Definitely can’t wait to come back. It would probably be for the Green Line extension.
[00:29:13] Ian: Um, speaking of the Green Line Extension, um, Bill Lindeke, who, uh, noted local, uh, urbanist blogger and one of the founders of, of Streets.mn, um, for a while, any time that he saw a news article about Boston’s Green Line Extension, he would post it on social media with, like, just a short sentence, you know, about like, “Hey, you know, Green Line Extension opening next year,” yada, yada, uh, without, uh, like, without the context that, like, this is, this article is actually about Boston, not about the Twin Cities.
And
it pissed people off so much.
[00:29:51] Parker: I kinda missed that. Was he doing that just
to piss people off? Fantastic.
[00:29:56] Ian: Oh, I’m sure he… Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and I was one of the pre- I was one of the people who would like reply to him being like, “Bill.”
Um, come on, man.
[00:30:06] Parker: I like how he made an assumption. Boston’s transit stuff is fantastic.
I can’t wait to go there someday and not just be going through the airport. Um-
[00:30:12] Miles: Oh, yeah. Have you transited through Boston before?
[00:30:15] Parker: Yes, but I- … my f- flying experience is unique. My, my fiance is a flight attendant. Um-
[00:30:22] Miles: Oh …
[00:30:23] Parker: so whenever I fly it feels like one of your more frantic videos because it’s like, “All right, let’s go to this airport and hope there’s room on this plane to, you know, hop out this way.”
[00:30:33] Miles: Right.
[00:30:34] Parker: Um- ‘
[00:30:35] Miles: Cause I was gonna say, yeah, Boston’s not a very common airport to, to transit through.
[00:30:38] Parker: No, but we were trying to get to Paris for an anniversary trip, and all the flights to there were busy out of Minneapolis, and we couldn’t get to Detroit to get out from there. So we went to Boston to try to make a connection, but that flight was full.
So the only flights that were available were Li- that for other things we could do were either Lisbon or Dublin, and it was raining in Lisbon, so we went to Dublin. Anyways, back to your, uh, your content. Um, questions. Another listener question was, um, what kind of insight has working for the T brought your perception of other transit systems you have come in contact with?
[00:31:15] Miles: That’s a great question. Um, c- because I, I think that, like, the T is really interesting because it, it has very, very strict guidelines, um, that sometimes the street network just, like, doesn’t, doesn’t allow for. Um, and that was what I was talking about earlier, like going to the Sunbelt and I’m like, “Wow, these bus stops are all perfect.”
But it’s just, you know, some of it’s just really not up to snuff, um, in terms of the service or just the pedestrian experience. Um, but yeah, I mean, I, I think that- I don’t know. I, I honestly feel like I learn more from visiting other systems, um, just because I think, like, I, I know the T so well, um, that it’s always really interesting to see how other systems will do something.
Um And, uh, you know, it’s, and it’s always just especially, especially going to places that are just… Like going, g- going to places that are, that are not here and just learning how people do things. Like I love talking to service planners in other cities. Um, and this, this is very, uh, th- this is super planny but, you know, I was talking to some service planners from Montreal recently and, like, they were talking about how they really like to interline their bus routes which is when you just have a bus, you know, it, it, it doesn’t stay on the same route all day.
It’ll, like, change, uh, like change from one route to another and they just, like, they kind of let, let the computer go crazy and just, and just kind of have buses go all around the system. Uh, and I thought that was really interesting ’cause that’s kind of a different… I, I mean at the T it’s like different schedulers do it different ways but it, in general it’s a different paradigm from what I’m used to and I thought that was…
It’s just an interesting conversation. Or like I was talking to some Dutch planners and they were like, you know, “What’s the point of bus lanes? All you need is, is transit signal priority.” And I, I’m like well gosh, that must… I mean, ’cause I know they have like smart signals and, you know, probably less, less traffic overall.
That probably makes that more viable. But it’s, it’s, it, it’s just so interesting hearing those, those thoughts from other places. Mm-hmm. Um, they also– So one of them was a scheduler but he would, uh, drive the bus once a week. Um, and I thought that was so interesting because it, it… Yeah. ‘Cause, ’cause when you’re a scheduler you’re really kind of- That’s a good policy – you’re setting crew schedules up and, and you’re actually, you know, kind of affecting drivers’ lives. And so I think that if you drive the bus too, I think it gives you a lot of respect amongst other drivers and also, you know, it gives you the experience of like, you know, you, you’re seeing what the timeliness is like on a route first hand and experiencing what drivers have to go through.
I don’t know how it would work with, with unions here but I did think it was a really interesting, a really interesting concept.
[00:34:16] Parker: Is that, that calls– I forget who, I think it was with, uh, Patrick- Oh, sure … last, uh- … episode of this. Um, we were talking about it, the noteworthiness that the head of Metro Transit when she started a couple years ago made it a goal within her first year there to ride every, uh, bus route and every line that they have in the whole system.
[00:34:39] Miles: Oh, wow.
[00:34:39] Parker: Um, but yeah, no, like that kind of stuff probably goes a really long ways to not just like inform the person doing it but also kind of send a signal to, you know, all the other parts of I’m paying attention to the stuff that actually, you know, affects you rather than, you know, just making changes without the context of experiencing it.
[00:34:57] Miles: Yeah, and certainly I think being car-free helps with that. Like, I’m using the bus to get everywhere. Um, so it’s, it’s– I think that’s a good– it’s a, it’s a helpful kind of angle to come in from when you’re– when talking to drivers or even in public meetings, you know. I, I am using the service quite regularly.
Um, I think that’s just a helpful, a helpful place to come in from.
[00:35:27] Parker: Um, but no, that sounds like really interesting conversations that you’ve had with, like, other transit planners and, you know, conversations like that. But yeah, I’ve not seen you make, uh, or at least as far as I can tell, make videos about that.
Um, is there, you know, kinda content that you’d want to make that doesn’t quite– or topics you’d like to cover that don’t quite fit into, like, the video medium?
[00:35:55] Miles: Hmm. Yeah, well, I mean, I think, like, I, I think that I would like to, to– like, I honestly wish that I could talk more about service planning in general.
Um, I, I, I think it’s– and it’s mostly just a personal desire to keep, keep like video stuff out of work stuff and also just like I, I want the videos to be fun first and foremost. Um, but like I think some– I think there’s stuff that would work in a video just with someone with, with better, like, kind of graphics and editing skills than I have.
Um, like for example, I think one of the most fundamental pieces of p- of transit planning that I just wish, I just wish was communicated better in general, um, is the kind of, uh, it’s, it’s like I I don’t know what you call them, but in like, in like basic physics you have those like triangles where each thing affects each other thing.
Um, where it’s like, like force whatever acceleration- Hmm … I don’t know. I don’t even remember. But like there’s one for buses where it’s, it’s, um, cycle time, number of vehicles, headway, where they inform each other. So like the headway is the cycle time divided by the number of vehicles. So if you add more vehicles to a route, you get better frequency.
[00:37:16] Parker: Hmm.
[00:37:16] Miles: Um, but if your cycle time, which is the time it takes to do a round trip of the route, if that gets longer because of traffic because a city isn’t providing bus lanes for you, that makes the frequency worse. And you could, you could even add more vehicles, but if the cycle time’s going up too, you’re getting the same or worse service.
Um, I w-
[00:37:44] Ian: Right. I think the most salient way of, of communicating that that I’ve seen was like Metro Transit making the case for bus lanes by saying, the faster our buses go, the cheaper it is- Right … to provide this service.
[00:37:59] Miles: Right, right.
[00:37:59] Ian: Because they don’t need as many vehicles and drivers on each route.
[00:38:02] Miles: Yeah. If you have examples of that communication, actually I’d love to see that. ‘Cause that’s, it’s, it’s, it’s something that I wish was, was sen- was communicated to the public better because I think, you know, people get upset when, when a route frequency goes down and I get that. But like sometimes it’s literally just like the published running times do not match reality and we have to make a route worse in frequency because otherwise it’ll just be really, you know, the bus will be half an hour late.
Uh, and that’s just a really hard thing to tell people ’cause it sucks. It really sucks.
[00:38:40] Ian: Yeah.
[00:38:40] Miles: It’s a good argument for bus lanes
[00:38:47] Ian: Have you all done- No … headway-based scheduling- We, we- … on any of your routes? There’s… Okay. I desperately wanna make an episode about that. We’ve, we’ve had, like, one or two routes here in the Twin Cities where they experimented with it, and, like, I wa- I need to s- sit down with the, uh- the transit planner who, who was in charge of that.
[00:39:02] Miles: Yeah, I’d be curious to hear how that goes
We definitely, we, we measure reliability by headway on our most frequent routes, but they still conform to a schedule in terms of the actual operations- Mm-hmm … of it. Um, so I’d be very curious as well- Mm-hmm … to hear, to hear how that went or still goes
[00:39:25] Ian: Yeah. I wanna ask a little bit about, since, since I, I haven’t actually watched any of your, of your videos, like, what i- what is your filming technique? Like, like, w- how, how many cameras do you have going at a time? Like, who’s holding the cameras? Is it just you out there? Oh, man. Like, what’s, what’s the vibe?
What, what do you-
[00:39:42] Miles: Just one, baby. Like Um, yeah, no, it’s just, uh, it’s just me. Um- All right I, uh
[00:39:52] Ian: How do you decide when to start filming and when you’re like, “Well, I’m just sitting on this bus-” Um- … or nothing of note going on
[00:39:59] Miles: if there’s something … anytime I have something I have to say or if I see something interesting out the window … Or if I, sometime- I mean, if I’m, if I’m doing well, then I’ll be looking on Google Maps and seeing if there’s something interesting coming up so I can prepare for it.
Otherwise, you just get shots th- this happens quite often, you get shots where it’s like, “Oh, crap, oh, look, there’s an interesting thing fading away in the distance.” Um, but no, it’s just me and my shoddy camera work that I, I get lots of comments about, but I refuse to change. Um, it’s just I, I, you know, I could, I think I just like get excited about stuff-
and I’m like, “Oh,” and I whip the camera around ’cause I see something interesting. Um, that’s just how it goes, man. That’s, that’s-
[00:40:33] Parker: No, it makes it very personable and- …
[00:40:34] Miles: that’s what my style is …
[00:40:34] Parker: in, in the sense of like- Yeah … I’m, it, for the viewer of I’m hanging out with you while you’re showing off a transit route, and like as the bus is going by- Yeah
you would go, you would point and go, “Hey, look at that,” and by the time I’d look over, gone. But, like, similar kind of experience there.
[00:40:49] Miles: Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:40:55] Ian: I, I imagine that’s why what you said about like, well, this… If I cut it at this exact frame, it would be so much funnier. Like, you know, that, that seems very important-
[00:41:04] Miles: Yeah …
[00:41:04] Ian: with this style of kind of chaotic-
[00:41:07] Miles: Yeah, yeah. And I think like- …
[00:41:08] Ian: chaotic good aligned Footage …
[00:41:10] Miles: you know, ’cause I, I, um- … I think I try to like have something going on in most shots.
Um, like certain other channels, and I think it’s a very, very fine style to have, um, just not one that fits with what I’m doing. But like a lot of channels will have sections where it’s like, you know, you have music playing, and you’re kinda like looking out at the scenery. Um, and like, yeah, that works, that works great for, for like more professional stuff, but I’m just…
I’m not. I’m not like… So I’m always just talking. I’m yapping.
[00:41:41] Parker: So for your style, um, or go- expanding outside of your style rather, um, if there was somebody else who was wanting to get started with making urbanism content on, on, in video form, do you have any lessons that you’d want to share, things that they should know ahead or know, should know getting into it that you think would be useful to know?
[00:42:05] Miles: I always, you know, it, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting because I feel like my style is so niche and it’s like kind of a… I feel like at least if you’re trying to like kind of do it like how I do it, I think the biggest thing is just like just enthusiasm for what you’re doing. Um, and I, I just like, I don’t know, I saw someone…
Ugh, I wish I could remember the channel name so I could, I could, um, shout them out. Let me see. Let’s just see if I can quickly, uh… Yeah, okay. Hang on. Um, so someone sent me a video. The channel is, uh, A-L-W-A-U-S, Alwaus. I’m, I’m not sure how you pronounce that, but, um, someone sent me a video just like, “Hey, this video was inspired by you.”
Um, you being me. Um, it’s a very, very small channel, and I think it was their, their first video. But it’s just like three people just kind of riding the transit in Dallas. Um, and you can just like just, you can just feel how much fun they’re having. Um, the video is not particularly, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s not very organized.
It’s just total chaos. Um, but there’s like, it’s like profess- It, it’s well edited. There’s, there’s good cuts. There’s like fun things going on, and it just works really well. Um, and I think it’s carried a lot by just the enthusiasm of, of everyone in the video. Um, so I would say like, I mean, I think the passion is just so important and the, and, and the, the excitement and, you know.
They did a lot of irreverent stuff. They, they, they’re like singing, they’re like walking down the street singing like war songs at one point. It was And I, I was so engaged by it. It was just, ’cause like, I don’t know. It’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s just cool to see people out in the world having fun, and I think that’s the type of vibe that I’m going for.
Um, and, and I think it’s like, I don’t know. I think this might be a hot take, but I think that there’s like a decent saturation of, of channels that are, are sort of professional, you know, B-roll footage and like kind of talking over it, like very professionally. It’s like that stuff is still great, um, and like, you know, if you have great ideas to share, I think that’s a great format to take that will, uh, you know, probably be received a lot better, um, than the crazy stuff I’m doing.
But like I just, I, I, I like seeing, uh, I like seeing soul, and it’s fun to see people have fun. So I don’t know. Just have fun with it. I think, I think that’s a, that’s the biggest advice I can give.
[00:44:46] Ian: And now you know what it felt like in 2013, you know, the folks, the bloggers who you were inspired by and then, you know, when you turned 13 and you started, you know, posting your thoughts. Like, you know, they, they… I don’t know if you ever actually contacted them to say like, “Hey, I was inspired by you,” but, you know, now, now we’ve got- the next generation uh, coming up
[00:45:10] Miles: Yeah, I always-I always cited him and, uh-
[00:45:13] Ian: Was inspired by what you’ve been doing …
[00:45:14] Miles: he, he way back in the early days he, he did a post that like, just like mentioned like, “Oh, and I found this other blog of someone who’s doing something similar. That’s, that’s the more the merrier.” And I just remember I was like, “Oh, my God,” and I, I wrote this like long comment ’cause I was just, it was just, it was so, it was just so cool to, to like be acknowledged like that, um.
[00:45:36] Parker: Well, likewise for- Just, just
[00:45:37] Miles: that- …
[00:45:37] Parker: acknowledging, uh, ch- uh, other, you know, creators and stuff. Do you have any channels or blogs or other things you’d like to, uh, uh, give a shout-out to?
[00:45:48] Miles: Oh, man. Um, I, I should have come more prepared ’cause I, I don’t wanna like-
[00:45:53] Parker: If, if you want, we can also like- I
[00:45:55] Miles: don’t wanna
[00:45:55] Parker: give you s- put a list if you, if you send it in, in the show notes. You don’t have to say everything.
[00:46:00] Miles: Well, here, let me just… I don’t, I just don’t wanna give you someone generic. Um- S-
[00:46:05] Parker: little small barely known YouTuber called J- Not Just Bikes.
[00:46:10] Miles: Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, I, I think you almost said Jet Lag there, which is just like…
Jet Lag is so, so, so, um, just so perfect. They, they just, you know, they’re like, they’re probably one of the best things on YouTube, but all, everyone knows Jet Lag. Oh, man. Okay. Okay. Amazing video I watched recently was, um, this guy Simon Anderson who does trip reports in, uh, he’s based out of Denmark, but he does trip reports all over Europe.
Um, he just took the longest FlixBus trip in Europe, and he went from northern Finland to Portugal. Uh, it’s an hour video, and it is just so entertaining. Strongly recommend, and he, he’s a really funny guy. Like, he has this very I guess like Scandinavian sense of humor, like very kind of understated. Um, so like, I always look forward to his April Fools videos every year ’cause they’ll like ride like EasyJet and be like, “This is the future of transportation.”
Um- Yeah, his stuff is really excellent. Um, oh, and then, okay, um, there’s this guy Tanner in Japan who he does these videos. Basically, he just kind of finds cool, like, train things in Japan, and I mean, he’s really been– he always tries to, like, show not just the trains but also, like, the areas around them, which I, I really like that angle.
Um, but he, it, I mean, Japan is just like another world for, like, really cool, crazy transportation stuff. Um, and so my, my, one of my favorite of his is he went to the deepest station in Japan, and it’s just so wacky, and he just approaches everything he finds with, with so much passion. Hmm. And you can always tell that he’s, like, really genuinely excited by what he’s experiencing.
Um, and he’s like, he’s kind of developing his own, uh, he’s developing his own, uh, s- like, oeuvre of, of inside jokes. Like, he got attacked by a pheasant once, and he always talks about, he always talks about birds. Um, it’s very funny. Um, and, and, and he, like, he always starts each video with like, “I hope you’re having a blank day” and he always changes the adjective there.
Um, for one last one, uh, DJ Petesake- Hmm … in California, his stuff is so unique. It, it’s basically like he will– he, he always does these, like, transit ventures, but it’s often, like, there’s always bikes involved. There’ll be, like, camping involved. He does all these kind of, there’s this different angle to it, and he’s s- this, he’s this multi-talented, like, surfer dude type, you know, DJ.
He’s in his name, so he writes all the music that he uses for the background of his videos, and he’ll, like, knit these buses together. Like, he’ll be like, “Oh, I have a squashy bus,” and he’ll make a bus for the agency that he’s riding. Um, so yeah, his stuff is really excellent. So those are, those are three, um, kinda smaller channels that I, I would strongly recommend.
Um, and I’m, I’m sure I’m forgetting other fantastic ones, but, uh, those are the three that I’ve kinda seen most recently.
[00:49:27] Parker: Last question I have for you, Miles, is what are you doing to spark joy right now? Please, I need this.
[00:49:37] Miles: Right this moment?
[00:49:38] Parker: I mean, in general.
[00:49:41] Miles: Um, I, uh, I’m- Hmm. Well, I… Okay, this is like a stunt I did this weekend, if that counts. Yeah. Um, my, uh, my friend and I crossed- Yeah … Massachusetts by local transit, and we were just like, the whole time we were like, “I can’t believe this is possible.” And it’s only, you can only do it eight days a year, uh- What?
because it’s in, in, in a day. Oh, okay. You can do it, you can do it, like, you can do it in general, like, you know, any, any weekday. But, um, in terms of doing it in one day, you can only do it eight days a year, uh, because of some really weird scheduling quirks, uh, on, uh, for the Cape Cod bus system. And so, uh, I, I can’t spoil what did or didn’t happen- Mm
but, like, we felt very accomplished. And it was just like, oh my gosh, this is like just… And, like, we, we’re both very… My friend, so my friend walked across Massachusetts, so he felt, he, he was like, “I have to join you for this.” Um, and both of us are v- Yes, yes. We’re both very- The east west way, I assume … like Massachusetts jingoistic, so it’s just like, oh my God.
Like, there’s just, like, like these mountains, and these towns, and these, and, and these stone walls, and these colonial houses. Um, I’m very excited put, to put that video together, hopefully, hopefully sometime soon.
[00:51:07] Parker: Well, wonderful. That sounds like a great time.
[00:51:10] Miles: Hopefully that was joyful.
[00:51:12] Parker: I mean, if it was joyful for you, that absolutely answers the question.
[00:51:15] Miles: Yeah.
[00:51:16] Parker: It sounds a little bit similar. Ian and I and some friends did a, uh, ride- … a big bike ride thing in, um, Rochester, Minnesota recently, and we were, like, going th- on an old, uh, rail-to-trail kinda conversion thing, and going by, like, a little bluff with, like, an old farmhouse, and a bunch of p- beautiful stuff.
And Ian’s going, “That’s bucolic as shit.”
[00:51:38] Miles: Yes. Oh my God, I love that word. I was calling things bucolic as well.
[00:51:47] Ian: I had to teach like five different people- Such a good word … the word bucolic during that weekend.
[00:51:51] Parker: I was one of those people. Well, Miles, thank you so much for making time to talk with us today. It’s been an absolute joy.
[00:52:00] Miles: Of course. Thank you. This sparks joy.
[00:52:02] Parker: Aw, that’s sweet.
[00:52:05] Ian: And thank you for joining us for this episode of the Streets.mn podcast. The show is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, non-derivative license.
So feel free to republish the episode as long as you are not altering it and you are not profiting from it. The music in this episode is by Eric Brandt and the Urban Hillbilly Quartet. This episode was produced by Parker Seaman, AKA Strongthany, edited and transcribed by Stina Neel, and was hosted by me, Ian R. Buck. We’re always looking to feature new voices on the Streets.mn podcast, so if you have ideas for future episodes, drop us a line at [[email protected]]. Streets.mn is a community publication and relies on contributions from audience members like you. If you can make a one-time or recurring donation, you can find more information about doing so at [https://streets.mn/donate].
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