Explore Boston with this informative and colorful guidebook. Created for Rail~Volution 2009, this guide is full of beautiful photos, helpful maps and detailed information on the many forms of transportation available and the communities to which it will take you. Whether you travel by foot, bicycle, bus, train, commuter rail or ferry, you will experience the best public transit has to offer in Boston. Click here for a copy of the guidebook (26 pages/6.1mb).

Rail~Volution 2009 welcomed back artist James Rojas and his interactive public planning project. Designed with help from students at MIT, Boston in Your Hands: An Interactive Planning Installation encouraged participants to design a new public and civic amenities model for Boston out of recycled and recaptured materials. The three-day model building charrette was a chance for participants to transform the city from a blank slate to a vibrant metropolis. Blank white parcels that framed the street grid were eventually filled in with a medley of recycled materials, ranging from colored blocks and popsicle sticks.

This creative and collaborative exercise breaks down barriers participants may have about urban planning by using an interactive, creative medium to help them think through the planning process. Participants contemplate their planning goals in 3-dimensional, physical terms much like a parlor game. This shows participants the challenges and excitement of building through a multidisciplinary process involving multiple actors and interests.

Clarence Eckerson and Aaron Napastek brought the Livable Street Initiative to Rail~Volution this year to highlight how advocacy journalism and online community building are transforming transportation and urban environmental policy in many major cities including New York and San Francisco. Through an informative session and an entertaining movie night, these thought provoking speakers showed attendees how the internet can be used as a tool to make changes happen in their communities. Visit www.streetfilms.org to watch their engaging and enlightening videos, as well as take part in their blog network.

TransForm is an organization that works to create world-class public transportation and walkable communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond by building coalitions, influencing policy and developing innovative programs to improve the lives of all people and protect the environment. We were excited to have them join the conversation at Rail~Volution 2009. Click here to learn how new opportunities at the Federal Level will spur widespread transit-oriented development.