Talking Headways Podcast: The Most Exhilarating Transit Ride in America

This week’s guest is Matt Johnson, a bike planner for Montgomery County, Maryland and a writer at Greater Greater Washington. Instead of visiting every baseball park or trying out each city’s regional cuisine, Matt rides their rail systems. In fact, he’s ridden every American urban rail system open today (101 total), as shown in this handy spreadsheet.

Matt tells us about his favorite systems and what got him started on his journey to ride them all. We also get into the allure of long-distance Amtrak travel and how the annual #NerdTrain — a gathering of GGW contributors and friend aboard Amtrak — got started. And we of course get Matt’s take on several DC transit topics including the streetcar, the walkability problem with Tyson’s Corner, and how transit planners choose alignments for new routes.

So tune in and find out which city is home to “The Most Exhilarating Transit Ride in America.”