Author: Jeff Wood

Jeff Wood

Jeff Wood

Jeff Wood is an urban planner focused on transportation and land use issues living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jeff's news archives can be found at The Overhead Wire and he tweets @theoverheadwire. You can also listen to his Talking Headways podcast episodes at Streetsblog USA

A dashboard view of I-94, with a Waymo vehicle in the next lane.
I-94 today at Prior Avenue in St. Paul. A Waymo semi-autonomous vehicle is shown. These will respond to similar incentives as human-driven vehicles in the future.

National Links: A Parking Enforcement Legend

• April 29, 2026

Waymo, a parking enforcement legend, and city vibrations

Looking upward at a long set of three escalators in an underground metro station.
Escalators at Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro station. Photo: Mike Maguire, licensed under Creative Commons.

National Links: Why Japan Railways Rock

• April 20, 2026

World’s longest urban escalator, Japanese railways, and the missing rung of housing

Looking east into the 29th Street corridor with two railroad tracks curing into the "tunnel" of bridges.
Looking east from Humbolt Avenue into the 29th Street railroad corridor, 1980s-1990s. Hennepin County Library.

National Links: Chrono-Urbanism

• March 19, 2026

Lack of vision-accessible transportation infrastructure, US rail lines not keeping up, articulated buses, and urban housing politics.

An Amtrak train winds its way through the forests of Vermont on the Ethan Allen Express. The northern terminus is Vermont's small capital, Burlington, serviced with one round trip daily. Credit: Ludus56 on Wikimedia Commons.

National Links: Greener Machines

• March 6, 2026

FRA proposes splitting up Amtrak, Zurich green roof mandate, and truck pollution has health impacts in Australia

Rendering of a new building in Northeast Minneapolis that will provide affordable housing.
A new development in Northeast Minneapolis that chose to pay a fee toward affordable housing. Photo: Minneapolis Department of Community Planning and Economic Development.

National Links: A Demographic Time Bomb

• January 22, 2026

Every day, The Overhead Wire collects national and international news about cities and sends the links to their email list. At the end of the week they post some of the most popular stories to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to Streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the D.C. region. Switching to red lights: A […]