Looking Back on 2025 Through 40 Conversations Advancing Transit

Stop Requested. Welcome to Stop Requested, the podcast where we discuss everything transit. I’m your co-host, Levi McCollum, Director of Operations at ETA Transit. And I’m your co-host, Christian Londono, Senior Customer Success Manager at ETA Transit.

Welcome back to Stop Requested. Christian, how are you doing? Hey, Levi. Uh, I’m doing great. How about yourself? I’m doing very well in this new year. Can’t believe 2026 is already upon us. You know, with this episode,

Christian, I, I want us to kind of go back and forth on some of the episodes and reflect on what 2025 was like for us doing this podcast, our first full year as podcast hosts. We started back in October of ’24 and we got a few episodes in at the end of the year, but this is a good opportunity for us to look back on the last 52 weeks, and I think we’ve had over 40 guests. Y- you know, those, those interviews that we’ve had, and then we’ve had some one-on-ones where we’ve had conversations about trade shows, uh, a- about bus stops and shelters. So, what do you think? I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a long, you know, year of, uh, working our podcast and, you know, speaking with folks from all walks of life in our industry. Uh, I look forward to this reflection. I’ve thought about a few questions, uh, to, you know, discuss with you today. Uh, the first one is, uh, you know, could you tell me which three episodes from all the

40-plus we rec- uh, recorded this year, uh, best capture what Stop Requested. became in 2025, and, and why those episodes? Ooh. That’s a, that’s a tough one because it’s hard to pick three. I know. 40-plus. There were so many good conversations. Yeah. Yeah. There were, there were a lot. And probably gonna suffer from some recency bias here, but, uh, Ricky from Jarrett Walker & Associates, Ricky Anguera, uh, that, that was a great conversation. Um, he gave us some insight into, you know, how, uh, he thinks about public transit.

and the community involvement. Of course, you know, Steve Anderson, uh, from Cincinnati, one of my favorite conversations that we’ve had. Joel Ray, who I’ve known for a long time, hearing all the stories. Those were really captivating.

I’ just got sucked into them. I don’t wanna leave anybody out though, ’cause there are so many, but those are some, some of the three. You know, Yash as well. I could keep going, Christian. You should probably take it. from here. What- what, what are your favorites? Yeah. Uh, it’s very hard to pick, and I’ feel, uh, the same way with you with the, kind of like the recent, um, bias, the, uh, most recent episodes. But I also like the fact that we had folks from all walks of life, right? Like, we had folks in the private sector, we had folks in the agency side, we had folks from operations, we had folks from planning, we got executive directors. So, each one of ’em was able to communicate a, a different story. Um, one of the things that I really like is, you know, because I, uh, dedicated a good time in my career, uh, with advancing zero emissions technologies, uh, was the episode, uh, about Artemis, uh, Technologies, uh, where we spoke with the CEO about, you know, zero emissions ferry boats and how it’s gonna change the game, uh, for the ferry boat, uh, mode, which in my experience working, you know, at a transit. agency, uh, you know, we never had that type of mode. So, it also highlighted how much you need to learn. But that was one, uh, 100%. And, and also tied to that, we had Nina Versoza recently as well that was telling us. about how she goes about planning, uh, the service, and actually went through a redesign of the schedules and the routes, uh, for, eh, New York City. So, that’s very interesting because, you know, was a lot of learning for me, and I hope for some of our audience, um, folks that, you know, they learn something. It’s like, “Oh, wow, you know, like, I plan fixed-route bus and this is some of my constraints and things that I have to consider. And, like, this is how, uh, those modes and those technologies apply that is, you know, something different from what I do.” Uh, and

I think the other episode, uh, would have to be, uh, the one with Mr., uh, David Rishel and diving into ADA, eh, and, you know, um, as you know, Levi, I started my career with paratransit. Uh, ADA is quite important for me, eh, for, uh, you know, every community in America is, is paramount.

And I’m having a conversation about that early introduc- introduction of the ADA and, you know, all the work that, uh, David, uh, did in, in influencing ADA, what ADA is today at transit agencies. I think that was very insightful. All right. I got a question for you, Christian.

How did your comfort level change? Well, once we started the podcast, in, as I mentioned, October 2024, you know, we were more talking to each other, trying to get insights based on what we know about the industry, what we’re hearing, uh, and then we started doing the interviews. I feel that, um, I, I’d gotten more and more comfortable, uh, with the podcast, and, you know, learning about podcasting and, and how can we better, uh, how can we be better, uh, co-hosts and, you know, just build episodes that are impactful, that are transmitting, uh, an impactful message to our listeners. Um, but I think that, uh, definitely more structured, um, you know, l- more confident in, you know, more focus in highlighting our guests and, you know, what they have to say to us and to our audience. Yeah, I would concur. I definitely am more comfortable. As an introvert, it’s not very comfortable for me to be speaking into a mic and other people listening, but, hm, I feel pretty good with it now. Yeah. It’s actually kind of fun. It’s fun. And it’s funny because, uh, a lot of the folks that, uh, were podcasting with us the first time, you know, they said, “Hey, I’ve never participated in a podcast.

This is my very first time.” They went through a lot of that anxiety as well, and like, “Am I doing it right? Are my answers, you know, are they gonna resonate with people? Am I going long winded?” And, and it’s funny because it’s, it’s all of us, but as we, you know, go through this the first time, we have very similar, uh, worries in our mind. But it’s by doing it that, that you get better at it. And, and I think our, uh, you know, guests, they figured that as well. Um,

I have another question for you, and it has to do with the themes, right? Like, you know, we talk about Everything Transit, and, you know, we had, again, people on the private side or the public side at all levels in the organizations. But I wanted to ask, like, what major themes kept resurfacing across episodes that you can think about? You know, we, we talk about different things. Uh, and which one surprised you? Like, you were not hoping to… or, or we were not necessarily planning to talk about that, and then it came up, and it was a great conversation. There are a few that rise to the surface for me. One, maybe more philosophical in the sense that… I think it was Shahram who mentioned that you really have to have patience, and that goes for the, the folks that are working on public transit in the actual public sector. You know, they’re working for their, uh, county department or they have their own, uh, transit authority. Uh, uh, but it also goes for those working in the private sector as well, the, the consultants, folks like us who are integrators and technologists. And, uh, those that don’t, uh, I think will get very burnt out and frustrated quickly. So, you have to learn, to have patience like I, I have- Mm-hmm. … because patience does not come natural to me. Uh, the other thing that I would mention that has resurfaced is the need to get community feedback. We have, I think, historically, been as an, as an industry, less reliant on the feedback. Uh, you know, we haven’t put it first necessarily and just done things the way that we, we as, you know, transit professionals thought they should be done. I think there’s a, a shift in the last, you know, decade or so where it’s much more rider-centric first, and then you figure out everything else later. Oh, and you also asked me about what surprised me. I think the one that surprised me the most was speaking with Sandy Brennan. That was a great conversation about mental health, especially for those frontline workers. We oftentimes, you know, think about the executives and, you know, who we wanna talk to o- on the show, uh, who are we building software for, and maybe those frontline workers are not put in the spotlight like they need to be. Uh, I think that was a good opportunity for us to, you know, be able to highlight just how difficult that job is and the ways to be able to reduce the stress on the frontline worker.

Yeah, that, that was definitely a great episode, and I’ve learned a lot, uh, uh, and, you know, seeing operations, particularly for fixed route, uh, first hand and speaking with bus operators and, and seeing their challenges,

I mean, they, they have a very difficult job. Um, and, you know, having the time to have a conversation about the impact to their mental health and the strategies that some agencies are putting in place, uh, to look after the bus operators, that, that was definitely, um, you know, one episode that surprised me, because I, we, we… I’ve never went that, uh, in depth into that topic. Um, I think also electrification, uh, came up a few times with some folks that we spoke with. Uh, we spoke, uh, with David Carr at CapMetro. They have a very robust, uh, electrification, uh, program. And you know, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I mean, uh, uh,

CapMetro in Austin is one of my favorite transit agencies- Mm-hmm. … uh, in the nation because of how innovative they are. The, the, you know, TODs, I mean, the- their, their net worth in multimodal, uh, is very impressive. And I think with the, um, major themes or themes that kept resurfacing as we spoke with folks, you know, of course, uh, system redesigns, a lot of transit agencies kind of reinventing themselves and their service and launching, you know, a new redesign, new routes. And with that, the- a lot of them are coupling with microtransit, so being able to increase frequency, uh, where there’s more chances for, you know, that ridership, but then also have that microtransit for coverage and connectivity for its last mile to the system, and, and some agencies even exploring other modes of service. So,

I like that, uh, conversation with different folks when they talk about that. Uh, definitely, um, the conversation with Jacob, uh, Lobotka at PSTA and their success with the BRT, uh, you know, another example of redesigning and kinda like injecting a new mode, uh, in their system and just having tons of success. So that, that was 100% a great, uh, conversation. Yeah, I completely agree,

Christian. Those were really good episodes with some great guests. Let me ask you which guest changed the way that you think about our industry? Well, Levi, I would say, uh, one of the episodes we completed, I don’t know, some weeks, ago with, uh, uh, Steven Kuban from Kuban Transit, uh, about the power of AI and how it can be applied, uh, to transform transit agencies in our transit industry.And we’ see it. I mean, a, a, a lot of vendors are starting to explore AI, inject that into their, uh, solutions. Transit agencies are looking at it and across industries, right? Like, that, that’s what’s happening right now, is, is the implementation of AI into industries and processes and how to make it better. But having that in-depth conversation about how, uh, he’s helping transit agencies rethink about, uh, how they handle, you know, their day-to-day business, the opportunities with AI, uh, I think? that that was very powerful. Y- I, I’ agree with that. Uh, for me, that’s one that probably is a recency bias but, uh, the conversation with Steven Cuban was excellent and, uh, I, I still think about it.

Like, every day, I have a little nugget of, a thought like, “Hmm. That… I hadn’t really thought about it like that before.” So I, I, I’m right there with you. I concur. Yeah, I think everybody has that present in their minds.

So Levi, uh, out of all the different people we interview and, their agencies they’re representing, uh, which one do you feel that we or you built a longterm relationship with, uh, through recording their episode?

First name that comes to mind for me is Megan Pereira, uh, from Mass Transit Magazine. I didn’t know, her before. Of course, you know, seen her name on. a lot of emails and communication coming from Mass Transit, but having the conversation with her was really enlightening, and it, it feels like there’s, uh, a comradery that we have now, that I think y- you know, you would probably say the same. And she’s also in LIT, uh, Latinos In Transit, so, uh, that would be my choice. Yeah, that, that was, uh, definitely a great episode, um, with her and just learning, you know, how she works and telling the stories, um, i- in our industry and how powerful that can be in so many aspects. Um, you know, for me, I’ll, I’ll share one, and I’ll just go back to, um, David Risho in terms of development of ADA, uh, and writing kinda like the first ADA plan for the state of New Jersey, if I did record correctly, uh, but also our episode with Lou Farry, and, you know, I’ve been a, uh, uh, uh, a friend with Lou for a long time, uh, but definitely a… I think that, you know, having… going through that episode and learning more about his, uh, current role at the, uh, Las Vegas

RTA where he is, uh, currently leading the biggest par transit contract in the nation and what that entails, uh, that was very insightful as well. Do you think over the course of a year, we’ve developed a signature, so to speak, something that really defines the podcast? I think so.

I think so. I think that, you know, uh, through each episode, we refine our t- um, structure for the conversations and, you know, for, um, the conversations that we’re having with the guests and, you know, first, we always start with a… and we make it kinda like a signature to learn about that how do you get into transit story from folks, uh, because it’s not d- so much agencies or companies, but it is more, um, transit professionals, like, those individuals that are making a difference. Uh, but also, um, at the end of our episodes, I think that th- it is also a signature of Stop Requested is, is highlight the key takeaways. Like, what are some of those learnings that we got from, uh, that transit professional’s experience?

So, uh, I think those two come to mind. Any that come to your mind? Anything else you wanna add? Yeah, nothing to add. I, I think the key takeaways are important because you need the information distilled in a way. The conversation is 30, 45 minutes long, and getting that recap for me and having to write it down while we’re having the conversation is a really important piece. Uh, I would say that that’s kind of our cornerstone. Yeah.

For sure. We’re definitely keeping that in our format for, uh, 2026. Um, so let me ask you this other question.

Um, based on the feedback, the downloads, like, the performance of the episodes, right? We started very slow, and, you know, episode after episode, it seems that we’re building our, um, listenership and more folks are hearing about Stop Requested, uh, but based on some of those stats that you might have, uh, taken a look at, uh, which episode resonate… seem to have resonate the most with our listeners? Yeah. In preparation for this recap episode, I took a look at the listenership. Uh, this is not something that I try to, uh, use as a driver for the conversations that we’re having, but, uh, you know, kind of forced my hand here to go back and review, uh, for the last year, and

Yasha’s episode was a big one, uh, Riki’s was another big one, Joel, Lou Farry, uh, Corentin at MARTA, all those were pretty high on the listenership. Not saying that, uh, you know, they were miles above any of the others, but, uh, y- you know, consi- uh, comparatively speaking, those were the, the ones that stood out. It seems also that some are more on the most recent side as the, uh, awareness about Stop Requested has grown. So, some of those folks on the earlier episodes, uh, they might not have the same stats of the… some of… uh, some of the most recent ones, but it also has to do with, you know, our podcast, uh, show growing and, you know, getting more folks, uh, kinda like keeping their finger on the pulse. Uh, so what topics do you think we should cover in 2026? What did we not get to in 2025, that’ y- you feel like are important? Uh, the… One of the things that’ I’ve learned through these conversations. and, and working on this podcast…… is how little we know about the industry, right? Like, you know, how much information is out there that, we don’t know, about. And so you know, we’ talk about all these different topics in 2025 and we learn a lot, you know, about, you know, modes that, you know, we might have not had. the experience working directly with. Uh, but I’ think some, of those things that, uh, potentially we could have in the podcast in 2026 is, uh, challenges with operating rail. Like, I would like to talk to, uh, some of those transit professionals that work in the rail operations or planning and tell us a little bit, you know, some of the cool projects and some of the challenges. Also, like, bus O- OEMs and shelter, bus shelter OEMs. Like, I wanna hear from them, you know, how do they think about building the very next best product for the industry. Like, what’s the key pain point today and what- is the very next innovation to get it re- um, ready to release? I don’t know if they will be able to share, you know, I don’t know, like, secrets, uh, that they have not shared with the industry yet. But any insights, uh, will be beneficial. And of course, you know, bike sharing and, and maybe some, all the other topics we haven’t touched on, uh, like federal funding. As, you know, the, current, uh, funding bill, federal bill is sunsetting this year so having a conversation around that, I think that will be, um, i- insightful for us and also for our listeners. A- and any other topic that you can think of, uh, Levi, that you might wanna discuss, uh, during this year? Yeah, you covered a lot. I think autonomous vehicles is one that I’d like to keep exploring. We’ve touched on it a few times. Uh, we could probably get

David Karr back on and I know that they’ve been doing a lot there in CapMetro. Uh, you know, perhaps there are some others around the country that we could reach out to and, and see if they could be on to talk about autonomous vehicles. So, this, this has been a great conversation, a reflection of 2025,

Stop Requested podcast. Uh, I want to, uh, end our, um, reflection with one last question to you Levi, and, uh, this is, what is your goal for the podcast in 2026? Like, if you could come up with a goal, what would it be? Ooh, putting me on the spot here. Let’s see.

I have two. Uh, I would like to do a new episode every single week. We did run a couple of replays here and there throughout 2025, uh, partly because of, you know, illness or, traveling, schedules just didn’t align, didn’t get a guest.

Um, but I would like to do a new episode and I would like that, those episodes to be all interviews. If we could get all interviews for 2026 that’d be great. Uh, maybe just like one other sub-goal if possible, do a podcast not just on the road but in a transit vehicle. I think that’d be kind of cool. Like maybe if it were on a bus or a train somewhere locally and, you know, perhaps it’s like Brightline to Orlando or something. Just throwing an idea out there. I don’t know. Um, I think that would be fairly interesting because we haven’t done anything like that even though we did go on the road and do a few episodes in Chicago, they weren’t actually on transit. What’s your goal? Yeah, I re- I remember those. I was gonna mention those. We did record some episodes from the, um, expo floor for the most part at a, uh, transit conference and, and that was quite an experience. And I think it turned out very well but, um, I agree. Uh, I really like your goals. I would say those are the same, uh, for me. You know, trying to, uh, release one new episode every week. We did a really good job in 2026 but, I mean 2025, but, uh, doing it and even better job in 2026, that will be great.

And, and I’ll, I’ll take your challenge. I think that we should definitely plan, uh, recording an episode right in transit. Uh, I’m down for that. All right. Let’s do it. And to our listeners, thank you so, much for listening to Stop Requested in 2025. Hope you’ve enjoyed this recap of what were mine and Christian’s favorite moments from 2025.

We’re really looking forward to a strong 2026 and hope that you can continue listening. If you have any feedback feel free to reach out to us and we’ll try to get guests on or introduce topics that maybe we haven’t even thought about.

So thank you so much. We’ll be back next Monday for another episode of Stop Requested.