UC Berkeley hosted the inaugural Martin Wachs Distinguished Lecture--presented by Bent Flyvbjerg, professor of planning at Aalborg University, Denmark and a former Wachs doctoral student. Flybjerg discussed the tendency of megaprojects to go over budget, with nine out of 10 estimated to incur cost overruns. Demand for particular megaprojects are also significantly overestimated, while their budgets greatly exceed initial estimates, creating a costly, underutilized project. How should this overoptimism and overcomplexity be addressed through policy?

The 2nd annual Wachs Lecture, and the first held at UCLA, was delivered by Anthony May, professor at Leeds University. In his lecture, May explored the history and future of efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of transportation systems and increase their contributions to the sustainability and livability of cities, drawing on his decades of research in the United Kingdom. His lecture was followed by a commentary by Gail Goldberg, then planning director of the City of Los Angeles.