ACT Book Club: Supercommunicators — A Conversation That Connects

We’re switching things up for our next ACT Book Club! Instead of diving into another TDM-focused read, we’re taking a step toward professional development with Charles Duhigg’s Supercommunicators — a timely and practical exploration of how we can all become better, more effective communicators in every area of our lives.

But here’s the real twist: while we won’t have the author with us this time, we’re thrilled to welcome Jeff Tumlin, a renowned voice in transportation and a master communicator in his own right. Jeff's deep understanding of human behavior and communication dynamics, especially in the context of city planning and transportation, will bring enormous value to our conversation. Honestly, who better to unpack the insights of this book than the best communicator in the TDM business?

Whether you're looking to sharpen your messaging, improve your collaboration skills, or simply better understand the science of meaningful connection, this book club will offer a fresh perspective that’s both personal and professionally relevant.

Join us for a thoughtful discussion and a refreshing change of pace. Let’s talk about how we talk — and how we can do it better!

Meet the moderator

Lauren Mattern is the founder of Journey, a TDM-centric mobility planning firm that also has transit and engagement practices. She has been in the mobility planning industry for 17 years, and cut her teeth on parking policy as a core leader of the SFpark pilots in San Francisco, implementing Donald Shoup’s pricing ideas using new technologies.

She’s a longtime consultant leading cutting edge TDM work in the industry, including at the most recent Major League soccer stadium. She just returned from doing TDM work at Transport for London before starting Journey.

Meet Jeff Tumlin

For over 30 years, Jeffrey Tumlin has helped governments and technology companies rethink transportation policy to promote local economies, cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce traffic violence, advance equity, and make streets more joyful. After two decades consulting around the world at Nelson\Nygaard, he helped create and lead the Oakland Department of Transportation, then led the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) through the most challenging period in its 110-year history.

At SFMTA, COVID-related work-from-home resulted in nearly a 30% loss in agency revenues. COVID itself had dire impacts on the agency’s nearly 6,000 staff, all of whom were considered “essential” or “disaster service” workers, and the majority of whom were required to come to work every day. These tragedies, however, created opportunities to change the culture of the agency, helping staff see the deep meaningfulness of their work, rediscover the joy of fixing broken things, and hone their strategic risk-taking skills knowing that management had their backs. Despite the financial situation, this culture-change work allowed staff to improve their productivity and delivery, resulting in:

• More than 70% reduction in subway delays.
• Dramatic improvement in speed and reliability on main bus corridors, including up to 30% reductions in delay.
• What is believed to be the greatest divergence in transit ridership in the world, with downtown rail stations still at 35% of 2019 ridership due to work-from-home, while high-frequency bus corridors are seeing 140% of 2019 ridership weekdays, and up to 200% weekends.
• Nearly 50 miles of new or improved transit-only lanes and transit-priority corridors, built in-house by staff.
• Over 30 miles of “Slow Streets” for safe walking and biking, all of which were adopted by local neighborhoods. These were built in-house and with community organizations, and they continue to be expanded and improved upon.
• The highest public approval rating for the agency since data was first collected in 2001.

His projects have won awards from the U.S. General Services Administration, Institute of Transportation Engineers, American Planning Association, American Society of Landscape Architects, Congress for the New Urbanism, and Urban Land Institute. He is the author of Sustainable Transportation: Tools for Creating Healthy, Vibrant and Resilient Communities (Wiley, 2012).