I’m Michael. I’ve logged 689,580+ miles across 748+ flights, ridden systems operated by 60+ transit agencies in more than 40 cities across 11 countries, and spent 16 years building a geotagged archive of 50,000+ photos documenting how cities move. I’m also an award-winning graphic designer with 25+ years of experience. Vector+Vista is where those two things finally live in the same place.
This didn’t start with a revelation. It started nearly 20 years ago, and if there’s a single moment that set the direction, it was a red-eye flight to JFK in 2007. My first time in New York, solo, arriving exhausted with a printed subway map and a friend who wasn’t answering his phone. I stood at the airport and made the call most first-timers wouldn’t: AirTrain to Howard Beach, A train to Jay Street, then transfer to the F at Carroll Street station. By the time I surfaced in Brooklyn, something had shifted. I was in New York City, actually in it, not watching it from a cab window. That night at dinner, my friend asked me to tell his friends how I got there. When I said, “AirTrain to the A, to the F,” they laughed and couldn’t believe it. I’ve been back to New York dozens of times since. Never taken a taxi once.
Cleveland came later, and it’s a good story too. A day trip from Chicago, a construction closure that killed my planned route, 6+ miles on foot through neighborhoods I never would have driven through. By then, I knew how to roll with it.
That’s the idea this site is built on. The gap between “I assume I need a car” and “I actually need a car” is where most of the interesting travel happens.
Vector+Vista covers transit-first travel across North America and beyond. Transit guides for major cities. Airport and airline coverage. Cultural access, food markets, active exploration, and the occasional deep dive into a system or route worth knowing about. The content is written for people who are curious about whether cities actually work without a car, and for people who already know they do and want more of it.
I’m not anti-car. Some places genuinely require one. But most cities worth visiting work beautifully without renting one, and that’s been true for me for the better part of two decades.
I’m based in Southern California. The Flight Stats and Train and Transit pages have the running tally if you want to see where the count stands. If you want to get in touch, the contact page is the right place.
Welcome to Vector+Vista. Around the corner and around the globe.
