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I just signed off on the very, very last proofs of the book.  Island Press's copyeditor has advised me to expect books out by "about Dec 5 or so."

Have you read the introduction and table of contents?  If not, please have a look now.  I hope it will be clear that the book is unique in trying to make transit choices clear to the interested general reader, including elected officials, advocates, and professionals in related fields.

I will be based in Portland throughout Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, but also have trips planned in that range to Auckland NZ, eastern Australia, Washington DC, Seattle, and possibly South Florida.  Other trips are possible depending on honoraria etc.  I'm obviously keen for opportunities to do public lectures sponsored by reasonably prominent organizations or institutions.  If you know one, please let them know.

And if you've already decided you're looking forward to reading it, why not preorder?  It's also on Amazon, and quite possibly your favorite book website.

Sunday I sliced off the very tip of my right index finger while searching for a pair of scissors in the suitcase.  The doctor called it a "guillotine wound." 

As a touch typist, I've been contemplating topics that might be discussed without using the letters J, H, M, N, U, and Y, but the more likely outcome is a week or two of hiatus.  Send brilliant guest posts!

… but there are moments in the life of a consultant when project needs spill over and consume all of your time, even threatening sleep.  I may not post again until the weekend, but I am still here.  High-quality guest posts, or recommended cross-posts, are welcome!  

This morning, I found that this blog had logged 9999 valid comments.  (That's on 594 posts, in just over two years.)  So as I've been working today, I've been keeping an eye out for comment 10,000.

I thought, hey, maybe I should give the 10,000th commenter a prize.  An annual pass for their transit system.  Ten advance copies of my book.  A deluxe vacation for two to the Brisbane busway.

But it's been a couple of hours.  So I think I'll just write the 10,000th comment myself, and save a bundle on prize money!

Really, the great comment strings on this blog keep me going, so keep them coming!

The second birthday of this blog passed unnoticed, especially by me, about two weeks back.  I was jetlagged at the time, so confusion about dates was to be expected.

Things have been a little quiet here as I've moved through a series of location changes while focusing my spare time on the book.  But I'm encouraged by the stats. 

At the end of the first year, a year ago, I had written 242 posts, logged 3666 acceptable comments, and about 2000 pageviews per weekday.  Today, those numbers are 585 posts, 9807 acceptable comments, and still in the range of 2000-3000 pageviews per weekday, spiking unpredictably now and then but also crashing predictably every weekend.  So while readership is rather stable, engagement with the material (at least as measured by comments) is accelerating.

The two posts that have gathered the most attention, in links and other citations, are:

• Streetcars: an Inconvenient Truth.  This July 2009 post said something very narrow and factual about the North American streetcar revival movement. 
• Is Speed Obsolete?  The beginning of my debate with Prof. Patrick Condon about the merits of slower vs faster transit services.  Now that he and I are in the same city, we may get to do more of this in person …

Both of these are the opening of long conversations that extend through several linked posts.  Both also feature rich and interesting comment strings. 

I'm relieved to say that my book (out this northern fall) will steer firmly away from all the technology wars, though the question of transit's ideal speed, for both efficiency and urban form, does figure prominently.  The nucleus of some chapters is already here in my Basics series of posts. 

Per Google Analytics, the total traffic for the last year was:

752,705 pageviews
357,899 visits
116,143 unique visitors

And everyone loves lists of cities, so the top metro areas in readership for the second year were as follows.  The number is individual visits.

24910 Vancouver
18715 Seattle
13006 Portland
11983 Los Angeles
10305 San Francisco (Bay Area)
10229 Toronto
10171 Washington
9628 New York
8112 Sydney
7802 Melbourne
6312 Brisbane
6136 Chicago
4040 London
3434 Minneapolis-St. Paul
2895 Atlanta
2857 Canberra
2821 Auckland

On a per capita basis that's a pretty spectacular result from Canberra (metro area pop. 400,000).  Of course, Sydney, Canberra, and Vancouver are the three cities I've actually lived in during the past year. 

The same data broken down by country, for countries with at least 1% of the total:

212,868 USA
68,025 Canada
27,890 Australia
9,275 UK
4,573 New Zealand
3,776 Germany
3,072 France

… the rest mostly smaller European countries and a thin scattering elsewhere in the world.

Thanks to everyone who's been part of this great conversation so far!  This year will bring a number of changes for me, but I'll do my best to keep this going in some form.  And remember, good guest posts are welcome!

One of my goals for this year is to connect this blog much more to my professional work as a transit planning and policy consultant.  To that end, I've added a new page outlining my consulting services, aimed at cities worldwide but especially in North America, where I have the longest track record.  If you like what you've read here, and you think your transit agency should talk to me, send them the link!