Category Archives: Transportation Careers

A behind the scenes look at the jobs that make transportation happen.

Beyond Portage & Main: Winnipeg Transit Connects to its Future

Tania Wegwitz July 12, 2016 Comments Off

There is no greater gift than having a deep connection to the work you do all day. And it’s exactly that kind of connection that I heard from Winnipeg Transit’s Manager of Service Development’s Björn Rådström when I asked him about his job recently: “I don’t believe in the importance of transit because I work at a transit system,” said… Read more »

Creating Beautiful Communities that Move Us: Thoughts on Ensuring Connection between Land Use Plans and Mobility

Tania Wegwitz April 25, 2016 No Comments

This article was published in Planning West magazine, Volume 58, Number 2 (Spring 2016), and is reprinted here with permission from the Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC), all rights reserved. Since Planning West is a professional planning publication, the article was written with that audience primarily in mind, one planner to another as it were. However, I still want… Read more »

Dear Kevin: Welcome. And Good Luck.

Tania Wegwitz February 15, 2016 No Comments

I was interested to see TransLink’s announcement last week that the organization has hired a new CEO, Kevin Desmond. Currently the General Manager for Seattle’s King County Metro Transit, Kevin is set to take on the Vancouver area’s top transportation job on March 21, 2016. The announcement of Kevin’s hiring got me thinking about what I would tell him if… Read more »

Why the Odds are Usually Stacked Against Transit Schedulers (and Why They Deserve our Thanks More Often)

Tania Wegwitz September 6, 2015 No Comments

As I write this, over this past week, transit systems across North America have been gearing up for the big show: the Tuesday after Labour Day when schools and colleges again crank into full swing and travel patterns hit reset after the summer. Trains and buses will get crowded, new and revised services will roll, and many, many transit operators… Read more »

So You Want to be a Transit Planner (Pt. 2): How to become one

Tania Wegwitz June 13, 2015 No Comments

Okay, so you read the description of what the job of a transit planner entails, and you’re keen to become one. Now what? I can’t speak for every transportation manager out there, but in general when new employees come to the planning team I work with, they come from one of two streams: Land Use Planners: Usually these folks will… Read more »

So You Want to be a Transit Planner? (Pt. 1): What the job is like

Tania Wegwitz May 27, 2015 3 Comments

I’ve recently had the pleasure of connecting with the students of UVic’s Urban Development Club (UDC). A key mission of the UDC is to connect students with practising professionals in fields related to shaping cities. Some of the most frequent questions I’m asked when I meet with students is about my job as a transit planner: what exactly I do… Read more »