Takin’ it to the Streets: Streetsblog USA’s Kea Wilson Chats With The Planning Commission Podcast

How does a storyteller and a fiction writer become one of the leading transportation scribes in the United States? It starts with a personal drive to create a less car-dependent world.

It then turns into a nationwide transportation beat exposing the false promises of autonomous vehicles and uncovering the ways deeply entrenched highway agencies balk at making “fix it first” and safety their top spending priorities.

That’s Kea Wilson’s story in a nutshell. “I’m a storyteller first, an advocate second,” she tells The Planning Commission Podcast. “I’m interested in making all this wonky stuff—like back-in angled parking—feel as emotional and urgent and as big of a deal as it is for the present and future of our planet.”

That’s what makes her a perfect fit for Streetsblog USA, which is an advocacy journalism outlet covering the movement to end car dependence in the United States.

Wilson lives her life within a 7-mile bicycling radius of her home in St. Louis and, like most of us planning wonks, her vacation photos chronicle innovative and quirky transportation conditions in other countries. “My friends stopped me and said, ‘We are going to a bar!’” Wilson recalls. “No, we are taking a photo of this intersection that gives pedestrians 65 seconds to cross. Meanwhile, I have a five-lane road by my house that gives you all of 17 seconds.”

On the podcast, she shares strong opinions on the new infrastructure bill, why autonomous and electric vehicles are not necessary to address climate change, and her strong opinions about pizza styles across the Midwest.

The Planning Commission Podcast is a spirited debate by planners, for planners. This independent outlet for all things planning explores the serious and lighter sides of the profession, poses probing and creative questions to guests, and always pairs the episode guest and topic with a choice libation. Listen to the podcast for a special offer from Planetizen.