I was recently informed that the panel proposal I submitted for this year’s Anthrocon has been accepted. Great! After the last two years, I am happy that the panel is going to be official this time and I can’t wait to see what the turnout is like.

On the subject of the panel, I have thoughts about what I want to talk about. As of June 1st, I am the only Pittsburgh resident on the panel. As such, I know a lot of operational things about the system and would be the best equipped to explain its usage. Aside from this, I am contemplating writing about some of Pittsburgh’s history to illustrate how transit evolved to its current form.

It definitely hasn’t escaped my mind that a lot of transit enthusiasts are prone to uninformed conjecture and speculation about transit proposals and general malaise about “the state of transit.” I think idealism and dreams are very valuable for inspiring people to pursue a course of action, but there is a point where you can be led astray by your ideals and create an enemy out of the good in pursuit of the perfect.

I want to somehow impart in my presentation that so many of the operational decisions a transit agency makes are a result of myriad circumstances coming together. “Replace this bus with a streetcar” and “extend the T to the airport now!” are good dreams, but I want people to ask themselves if the realization of a dream is worth the costs it has elsewhere. We all have to live in the world of optimizing finite resources because we aren’t Robert Moses and don’t have the level of power needed to enact our will directly into stone, so we should do our best to operate within it.

I will update my site with more information about my presentation in the coming weeks. I hope anyone who goes to Anthrocon stops by if they have any interest in walkable cities, cyclable cities, and vibrant urban spaces that afford their residents opportunity and the joy of being among people.

Excited to see you there :)