Jarrett Walker

Jarrett Walker is an international consultant in public transit network design and policy, and the author of the popular public transit blog HumanTransit.org. He is the founder of Jarrett Walker + Associates (jarrettwalker.com) in North America and is also Principal Consultant with MRCagney Consultants in Australia and New Zealand. He is a frequent public speaker and media commentator on public transit issues. He has been a full-time consultant since 1991 and has led countless major planning projects in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. All of these studies have dealt with improving public transit and its role in fostering better communities. Born in 1962, he grew up in Portland, Oregon during the revolutionary 1970s, the era when Portland first made its decisive commitment to be a city for people rather than cars. Though always fascinated by transit, he went on to complete a Ph.D. in humanities and theatre arts at Stanford University before becoming a fulltime transit planner, and he retains a commitment to viewing transit and urban issues from both humanistic and technical perspectives. He has lived in San Francisco, Paris, Sydney, and Vancouver, and is now based in Portland, Oregon.