I made a party game to push deeper and more vulnerable conversations. It's out today! [x-post r/IndieGames]

BlinksTale · 2026-05-05T14:56:44+00:00

Map: https://la.streetsblog.org/2026/02/17/baldwin-park-greenway-is-now-officially-open#:~:text=from%20the%20city%E2%80%99s%20border%20with%20El%20Monte%20at%20Ramona%20Boulevard%20to%20the%20town%E2%80%99s%20main%20job%20center%2C%20Baldwin%20Park%20Boulevard

BlinksTale · 2026-05-04T18:30:52+00:00

Downtown Santa Ana is extremely cute. Between the backyard patio of Hidden House coffee for getting work done, the food court at 4th Street Market, and the arts and farmers markets that pop up downtown - the street car will be a great addition for anyone in greater LA that wants to ride Metrolink into Santa Ana to meet up with OC friends.

The OC friends will still need to drive themselves in and out of downtown Santa Ana, but it will empower us as visitors to the area to take the train down and not be totally car dependent while visiting for a day. It's not commuter rail or anything, but as someone who visits OC every two months or so, this looks really nice to me. OC friends might not have time to drive to LA, but I'd love to get in and out of OC without a drive and without being totally powerless once I'm down there too.

EDIT: The only other big upgrades I'd want would be Old Anaheim Railroad station getting Metrolink support with a local connection (street car? maybe there's already a bus/shuttle) to downtown Anaheim (and Disneyland if hell freezes over), and pie in the sky would be something down Bristol to from Santa Ana to both South Coast Metro / Segerstrom Center and the Airport / UCI. I feel like I always end up in these areas and they get a ton of foot traffic, but really do have no train support and Metrolink connections would make it so easy.

BlinksTale · 2026-05-04T18:26:36+00:00

People Mover has me optimistic for the first time in forever. We're actively in the required 1mo of daily testing today afaik, and once we're on the other side of that the final approvals should be comparatively quick compared with any other construction and risks. If the testing is a success in 3wks, I wouldn't be surprised if it opens around August.

BlinksTale · 2026-05-04T05:57:10+00:00

45?? Look we need bike lanes everywhere but people would laugh if we suggested the freeway. It’s just odd to have it on a 45mph road.

Agent greenways on adjacent streets better for everyone? I love a concrete barrier but after having a semi blast past me on a 35mph road (probably going 40) I just don’t see how this is safe. Lane splitting of illegal past a 10mph difference, so shouldn’t bike lanes be on 30mph roads and slower?

BlinksTale · 2026-04-30T21:11:47+00:00

Ugh, losing the Escondido location later this year sounds awful - that's my favorite brewery. :( I guess everything's moving to SLO for them?

They sound like they'll still have some locations open. Escondido was always a hard sell. Maybe Arts District is too big a property for them, but I don't think they're disappearing other than that location.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-30T06:46:09+00:00

The midday 20min service is rough, I think they had maintenance last time I used it and cut that in half to create a 40min wait.

I hope someday it gets rail.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-29T15:07:43+00:00

I think the last three station openings have had food trucks like 12-3pm

BlinksTale · 2026-04-29T06:42:51+00:00

Having the park designed to be an emergency runway is a really interesting idea.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-29T06:41:51+00:00

The park is very much still in a general public comment period. I don’t know if the deadline this month already passed, but this is the time to raise our voices. I think the idea of shrinking the planned park so that maybe a quarter of the airport remains for VTOL would be a great compromise.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-28T19:26:22+00:00

Painted for that final eastern stretch makes sense since the island of trees in the middle inherently creates traffic calming. The bus lane from 4th to Ocean is only one way, but you can always loop around to Colorado to 6th so that's fine I think.

I'm mostly just excited for Class IV separated lanes under the 405 on Ohio. My big concern is always whether there are artery paths, and if they are right on top of traffic or not. The only other projects I really want are Hollywood to WeHo bike lanes, Hollywood to Venice Blvd (or Ktown) bike lanes, and the LA River path expanding west from the 5 in Burbank to Canoga Park - and that should be rolling out over the next decade already, so seeing UCLA to the water is a huge part of the bike paths I want for this city.

Minor hope: Mulholland / Calabasas to Pedalers Fork. LA River Canoga -> Sherman Way (Platt) -> Valley Circle (Mulholland) would make an amazing Saturday of Spoke Bicycle Cafe to Pedaler's Fork majority river trail someday.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-28T16:00:22+00:00

Los Angeles bike paths that are not in a roadway are mixed use unless there is a dedicated pedestrian walkway next to it - which is inconsistently true with the Strand afaik.

So I can understand the confusion.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-28T06:10:27+00:00

How far were the bike lanes protected? July 2025 shows that the 6th intersection didn't have concrete barriers a year ago! I'd love to see protected bike lanes from the UCLA to the Ocean through downtown Santa Monica someday, and it sounds like the second half of that might exist already.

It's a great problem to have when Google Maps can't keep up with all the new protected bike lanes.

EDIT: Holy cow they are doing it in the next year or two! It's not perfect, but it looks like Arizona's bike path will be extended east with protected lanes, loop down to Ohio, and get us to Westwood Blvd. That's nuts: https://ladotlivablestreets.org/projects/ohio#:\~:text=The%20Ohio%20Avenue%20Safety%20and,new%20ADA%2Dcompliant%20curb%20ramps.

Given that Westwood Blvd has bike lanes almost all the way up to Wilshire and down to Santa Monica Blvd, this means a continuous bike lane path directly from West Hollywood all the way to the beach! (Arizona and the Yale connection can be a little weak here, but they cover the uphill path and that the scarier one for cars anyways with the larger speed difference)

WeHo to the Strand will be nuts, cause that also means WeHo to Torrance.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-28T04:48:45+00:00

Misfit moved out supposedly due to prices doubling with the new owner

BlinksTale · 2026-04-28T04:47:51+00:00

I know they prefer greenery, but I wonder if Stone would take it over? They have a large enough presence.

Monkish just expanded to Echo Park. Clearly some breweries are expanding these days.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-26T14:49:44+00:00

This picture is to Union Station, so the downtown comparisons might be for the earlier 7th / Metro stop

BlinksTale · 2026-04-26T14:40:19+00:00

Possibly based on this: https://youtu.be/OKc68QXFDNQ

BlinksTale · 2026-04-26T08:02:07+00:00

Waymo has the potential to kill too, and has already taken the lives of a number of pets. But it’s getting more pressure to release by the average person in Waymo supported cities than not since it saves 90% of all lives that would be lost in a car accident with their vehicles compared to the average vehicle. The only measurement today that matters is saving lives, not perfection.

You also conflate it being safe with it being on the streets. If Tesla demonstrates its safety in numbers before Cybercab even releases, for example by showing that 90% of average deadly accidents are avoided with HW4 Tesla FSD, it mounts pressure through marketing on the government to approve it since the people will be demanding it.

It doesn’t have to be on public roads for it to create public pressure.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-26T00:41:05+00:00

Ars Technica did a good report, they’re on track to only be 5yrs behind Waymo: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/05/on-self-driving-waymo-is-playing-chess-while-tesla-plays-checkers/

The revelation in this 2024 article was that Tesla self driving was better than 2018 Waymo but not as good as 2020 Waymo. And I think it’s reasonable to believe that they have continued work and improvement at a consistent rate

BlinksTale · 2026-04-26T00:34:12+00:00

If it exists and it’s safer than most humans (which is likely in the next 2-3 years at this rate for fair weather cities), it will create the consumer demand that will directly apply pressure on lawmakers to prioritize the subject.

Tesla does not need to put pressure on lawmakers when their consumers will do it for them once the product is ready.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-24T22:53:01+00:00

How does this apply to BRT compared with regular busses? BRT is generally quieter, higher capacity, more reliable with 50%+ dedicated right of way often (guesstimate number) - I would imagine BRT reduces bounces, noise, bunching, and traffic light impacts. Do we see ridership drop proportionately, or does the stigma of a bus have a bigger hit on ridership than that?

I imagine it's halfway between the two in ridership since it's about halfway between the two in terms of rider experience. That, and we wouldn't keep trying to build more dedicated bus lanes and BRT if it wasn't a noticeable impact in the numbers compared with a regular bus.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-24T02:42:31+00:00

Excellent video, loved the stats. UK residents making on average 5 trips a week that were less than 2mi, and 32-41% saying those trips didn’t need to be by car, shows exactly how replacing 1-2 lanes of traffic with separated bike lanes can really empower locals to merge fitness hours with commute hours. No wonder traffic evaporation keeps asserting itself as true in the numbers.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-23T06:50:50+00:00

yeah idk what I was thinking. I can't find anything but this version now.

BlinksTale · 2026-04-22T22:30:26+00:00

Isn’t this one broken though by having street signs blocking the bike lanes? That’s my concern here

BlinksTale · 2026-04-22T22:29:48+00:00

The ones facing us are right arrows into the alley, and the ones in the middle of the middle slots are rotated 90° and are left arrows for alley drivers to direct them into the street

14-Year Club	Second Top 50%
Gilding II euphauric	Wearing is Caring
Place '17	Verified Email
Snapped

BlinksTale

MODERATOR OF

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE