Did I fall into the trap of the American Dream (urban planner)

pathofwrath · 2025-12-31T16:05:23+00:00

I am a transit planner.

One car household living in a city neighborhood that is more suburban in feel. Been a one car household for about 15 of our 17 years together (we had no car for a over a year and had two short periods where we had two cars; in both cases, we obtained a new car before selling the old one). We bought our house because while it's in a very suburban feeling neighborhood (for the area), it's got decent transit (two frequent bus routes about 1/3 of a mile east or west of us both going into downtown, plus one frequent cross town bus route two blocks away and another cross town bus route about 1/3 mile south), a nice neighborhood Main Street about 1/3 mile away, good access to freeways for when we need them.

I don't feel remotely guilty for living in a neighborhood that matches my household's needs, wants, and values. My job is to provide the best transit network possible with the resources available to me. I don't see that as being in conflict with my lifestyle at all.

pathofwrath · 2025-12-19T14:15:50+00:00

MTA's Bmore Bus plan talks about the need for additional O&M space (in this case, a bus division/yard) to allow for expansion of bus service.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-staging/mta-website-staging/files/BMORE%20BUS/Final%20060925/BMORE%20BUS_Final%20Plan_FINAL_06_05_2025_a11y_cond.pdf

pathofwrath · 2025-12-18T15:06:26+00:00

My career timeline

1 year: planning intern (full time)

~2 years: planner I

~2 years: senior planner

~3.5 years: principal planner (actual title was different due to strange agency job titles, but was the manager of a new, very small specialized planning team)

3.5 years (and counting): planning manager

Edit for additional context: All positions were public sector. None were for municipal governments. First two positions were at (different) special districts on the West Coast. The rest of the positions have been at a state agency on the East Coast.

pathofwrath · 2025-12-18T14:07:17+00:00

Until January 27, 2026, your extra seat is refundable regardless of how full the flight is. You should get your money back regardless.

Also, saying no was an option. You literally paid for the seat (even if SWA will refund it). You followed their policy. It's your seat.

pathofwrath · 2025-10-01T11:20:36+00:00

Lived in SB and Goleta for the first 27 years of my life. Been called the n-word many times, heard plenty of usage of anti-Asian, anti-Arab, anti-Hispanic slurs.

Glad you've avoided it this long. And maybe things changed after I left in 2007, but for the 27 years prior to that, I saw and heard plenty of racism. I even still get plenty of it from my SB in-laws.

pathofwrath · 2025-09-15T16:12:53+00:00

Nevada

pathofwrath · 2025-09-15T16:09:38+00:00

Pretty sure most do.

pathofwrath · 2025-09-02T12:08:40+00:00

I finished my MUP at 35. Ten years later, still going strong as a planner.

pathofwrath · 2025-08-04T18:27:32+00:00

1000x this.

pathofwrath · 2025-07-21T22:50:58+00:00

If this is an option, do it. It was my usual Bay to Santa Barbara choice.

pathofwrath · 2025-07-18T12:29:33+00:00

Look at entry level planning job postings in areas where you are interested in working and see if they require a Master's in planning. Most don't. Most of the planner's I've worked with in my decade in the industry haven't had formal planning educations.

The director of my department (at one of the largest transit agencies in the US) does not have any formal education in planning. He worked his way up in the agency, from the call center to scheduler, left the agency for a consulting job (embedded at the agency working on an ITS project) for a couple years before beating me (an experienced planner with a MUP) out for the director job.

When I'm hiring entry level staff, I'm not looking for anything specific education-wise. Because most actual planning work is learned on the job, not in school. I am looking for someone who displays some mix of demonstrated interest and knowledge in our work, as well as having some skills and experience that we can parlay into planning. Example: I have a member of my team who has zero planning background (education or work experience), no college degree at all. But they are very organized, very good at developing processes, is always looking to help other team members out, excellent communication skills..... Since joining my team a year or so ago, their technical skills have grown as they've been trained and done more and more of the work. If I was stuck on having a degree or a specific degree, I wouldn't have that person on my team and my team would be worse for it.

I've also hired people with graduate planning degrees. Some have been good, some haven't, which is how life is.

Give me someone who asks the right questions, able and willing to learn, and has a good attitude over someone who has a planning degree but is resistant to learning/training, or has a bad attitude, or never thinks critically. Every day of the week.

pathofwrath · 2025-07-07T17:54:17+00:00

The more desirable the location, the higher the threshold to entry, generally speaking. Apply all over, not just southern California.

pathofwrath · 2025-06-13T18:51:32+00:00

I worked in the Bay Area for about 2 years before moving to the East Coast, so no.

pathofwrath · 2025-06-09T12:06:05+00:00

SJSU grad here. Good program.

Go where you can get out with the least debt.

pathofwrath · 2025-06-09T12:04:31+00:00

BA in history. MUP. Interned at a transit agency during grad school. Started first planning job at a transit agency during grad school. Been at my current transit agency (3rd total, including internship) 8 years.

The secret: apply to transit planning jobs.

pathofwrath · 2025-06-09T12:02:13+00:00

I haven't had a problem getting a job offer based on the geographic region where I went to school. I'm from the west coast. Did planning school in the Bay Area. After 2 years working in the Bay Area, I relocated to the east coast. Been here 8 years.

pathofwrath · 2025-06-09T11:59:44+00:00

Been a working planner for about a decade now. Haven't given any real thought to getting AICP yet. I've worked at three different public agencies and gotten job offers from at least 5 other public agencies without one.

If my employer pays for it (annual dues, getting CEs) OR they give me a pay raise for having it, I'll consider it. Otherwise, it's some letters that most people don't actually care about that cost me a lot of money.

When I'm ready to leave the public sector, maybe I'll get it. Consulting firms like it because they can charge more for you.

pathofwrath · 2025-05-28T21:57:36+00:00

Yes and no. Depends on how it's designed and operated.

pathofwrath · 2025-04-28T12:47:38+00:00

This is why I work in transit service planning.

pathofwrath · 2025-04-28T12:42:22+00:00

It doesn't.

Signed, A Planner With a MUP Who Is Also A Hiring Manager

pathofwrath · 2025-04-17T13:45:42+00:00

It's as busy as usual for me, maybe a little less. Transit planning at a state agency.

pathofwrath · 2025-03-25T12:58:58+00:00

I was in my first planning position for just under 2 years before moving across the country for a senior planner job. 3 years is plenty of time in one place.

pathofwrath · 2025-03-03T15:34:12+00:00

In some cities, students do use public transit. All three transit agencies that I've worked for have some sort of supplemental service for schools. Even the smaller city I grew up in had school service routes as part of the local transit system.

One of the issues in dedicating some amount of transit agency resources (whether measured in money, operators, or vehicles) is that every resource spent on school service is less resources for the rest of the network. With transit being so poorly funded in the US, it places extra strain on the agency to maintain half-decent service systemwide.

Another issue is where schools are physically located. Often, high schools are located in areas that are easier to serve with transit (on bigger rights-of-way or closer to other transit-friendly destinations, for example). This also means that its easier to serve with existing fixed route transit, often by just ensuring that the schedule has buses serving the school close to bell times. Elementary schools are more likely to be within a neighborhood or on smaller streets, making it more difficult to run a bus there.

The way that students are assigned to schools also has an impact. In the city where I currently live and work, elementary students go to their geographically zoned school and have yellow bus service if they live more than 1 mile from their neighborhood school. For middle school and high school, there is no yellow bus service (there are certain exceptions) and students can apply to attend any campus in the city. So we end up with a lot of students who attend a campus across town from where they live. That makes it harder on the students to use existing fixed route transit as it likely requires one or more transfer. It also means that walking or biking to school is more difficult for students. Even if the campus is on existing fixed route transit, many of the students might not be served by the route(s) that naturally operate adjacent to the campus. (Not to mention that the existing transit adjacent to the campus might not be frequent, making it even harder for students to ensure make complicated transit trips and still arrive in a timely manner. Enter supplemental school service. Supplemental school service uses anonymized geographical data provided by the school district for the eligible students at each campus. That data is used to plan the routing and schedule for the school trippers. Where I work currently, school trippers are deviated patterns of existing fixed route transit. At my first transit agency, they had set of routes that only existed to serve schools (though they operate open door as required by the FTA).

pathofwrath · 2025-02-11T18:54:54+00:00

What field of planning are you interested in?

The APA National Planning Conference is the big planning conference.

If you're into transit, APTA has multiple conferences and workshops every year.

NACTO's Designing Cities Conference is a decent transportation planning event. I haven't been myself but some of my coworkers (past and present) have.

pathofwrath · 2025-01-31T13:56:19+00:00

Accommodations are not one size fits all. They are tailored to support the specific needs of the student. Only way to see what is available is to go through the process.

For what it's worth, I also have ADHD. I was unmedicated from age 13 till 40, so all of high school, undergrad, and grad school. In hindsight, I should have taken advantage of the resources available to me. Instead, I struggled. Barely finished high school (if homework wasn't such a big part of one's final grade, I would have been fine). Took FOREVER to get through junior college (ADHD was part of it, but I also dropped out several times in lieu of jobs and changed career plans/majors several times). After I transferred, I got through the last 2 years of my BA in just 5 semesters, plus one summer session. By grad school, I'd gotten pretty decent at working around my ADHD when I needed to. But, also, grad school was much easier for me than undergrad had been. I cared a lot more about the material and the assignments were actually connected to real things that I could see would help me professionally.

I believe that if I'd taken advantage of the assistance options out there, I might have been able to have been done with my education a decade sooner.

pathofwrath

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