High-Speed Rail—Build it they will ride

Robert D. Yaro was Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design from 2002-2020.  His teaching and research focus on land use, urban development and infrastructure planning for megaregions and metropolitan areas. In 2004 he identified the emergence of 11 megaregions across the United States, and since then has led seminars and studios on planning for emerging megaregions in the US, Spain, the United Kingdom, China, Singapore and Morocco.

He is also President Emeritus of the Regional Plan Association. He led RPA from 1990 until his retirement as President and CEO in December 2014. Headquartered in Manhattan, RPA is America's oldest and most distinguished independent metropolitan research and advocacy group.

At RPA, Bob Yaro led the five-year effort to prepare RPA's Third Regional Plan, A Region at Risk, which he co-authored in 1996. And he also initiated work on the 4th Regional Plan, which was completed in 2018. These strategic plans are designed to shape metropolitan growth and development and policies and investments in transportation, environment and climate, housing and urban design across the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Metropolitan regionchael Neuman is Professor of Sustainable Urbanism at the University of Westminster and principal of the Michael Neuman Consultancy. He is the author of seven books and numerous articles, reports, and plans that have been translated into ten languages and recipients of numerous awards. His research and practice span urbanism, planning, design, engineering, sustainability, infrastructure, and governance. He has advised the mayors of Barcelona, San Francisco, Oakland, Sydney, and Wroclaw; the Regional Plan Association of New York, the Barcelona Metropolitan Plan, and other governments and private clients around the world. He holds a doctorate from UC Berkeley and a Master’s from the University of Pennsylvania, both in City and Regional Planning.