Rethinking How Birmingham Moves

In this episode of Connections, host Ebony Flake sits down with James Fowler, the City of Birmingham’s Chief of Public Infrastructure, to explore how a city long shaped by the automobile is beginning to think differently about movement. Birmingham is one of the most auto-dependent regions in the country — not because of a single decision, but because of decades of gradual planning choices that prioritized speed and drivability. James reflects on how those choices reshaped daily life, and why expanding transportation options can improve health, access, and overall quality of life. The conversation traces James’s own path — from growing up in the suburbs and spending time downtown as a child, to studying civil engineering and later discovering what transportation could be while working in Atlanta. That experience shaped his approach to planning in Birmingham: not as one system, but as a set of choices that must work together. Together, Ebony and James explore what building a more connected transportation system looks like in practice — strengthening walkable neighborhood centers, reclaiming comfort in historic urban villages like Woodlawn and North Birmingham, and designing places where people of all ages feel safe moving through their communities.   Connections is goBHM’s official podcast, produced in partnership with the Birmingham Department of Transportation (BDOT) and the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) as part of the Multimodal Transportation Plan. Produced, written, and hosted by: Ebony Flake Learn more about the goBHM Connectivity Project at www.letsgobhm.com