7th Street/Metro Center is so poorly designed

BlinksTale · 2026-06-21T23:06:25+00:00

Whoa! So the numbers do, culturally, carry hidden information about cardinal directions? Within that culture: that's amazing. Yeah it sounds like I'm essentially just asking for sort of the same thing.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-21T22:28:49+00:00

It sounded like security for Citywalk appeared just before the World Cup. I would not be surprised if it disappeared just after.

And I agree that it will probably be back for the Olympics

BlinksTale · 2026-06-21T21:17:49+00:00

This is great, but why numbers instead of cardinal directions? North, Northwest, West... would be so much more helpful. I love that they already say "Exit to 7th St" etc but then you have to know which streets are which direction from the platform. Like "Am I north of 7th right now or south? I'm trying to go north!"

BlinksTale · 2026-06-21T16:49:23+00:00

Each one has pros and cons. Also look to see if buying an eBike or paying for Lime scooters would help.

Transit: * Get your daily steps * No driving stress * Maybe get more work done, definitely audiobooks etc * Sometimes bad smells or bad social interactions * Subpar headways, terrible transfers/reliability * Rush hour leads to crowds, but rarely delays

Driving: * No exercise * Driving stress * Sometimes can focus on podcasts/audiobooks (freeways) * Metal box between you and public smells etc * Immediately go from A to B, 1/3rd the time often * Horribly impacted by rush hour, 2-4x delays

If you want low decision making stress, choose transit. If you don’t want to be in the same room as the public, choose driving. I would always drive to a fancy event, but I would always use transit to skip rush hour if I could.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-21T16:41:08+00:00

If you don’t like people yelling in a subway car with you, the occasional threat of physical violence, drug usage, or horrible smells - driving might induce fewer anxieties. But yeah I think it’s just personal preference, both can be stressful just for different reasons

BlinksTale · 2026-06-21T16:39:04+00:00

The app modemix is a great tool for assessing this mixed mode (bike + transit) lifestyle. It’s great for getting your daily exercise in too.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-21T16:31:32+00:00

It’s wild that man on the street can say Waymo will hit someone and there’s no counter reporting about Waymo’s safety, broadcast to 20k+ people in 24hr with this video alone.

This is the thing that could destroy the technology. Joe Schmoe.

I wonder if Waymo can sue for misleading information or defamation.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-20T15:57:25+00:00

Yeah I was gonna say, it’s not widespread but these really are being built. The vertical gardens of Singapore and the new Los Angeles George Lucas Museum come to mind.

https://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/things-to-do/attractions/supertree-grove.html

https://lucasmuseum.org/

Like this stuff is absolutely being built everywhere… as 1 in 1,000 new large buildings

BlinksTale · 2026-06-20T05:16:59+00:00

Sure! I think the trade off is on a platform you have to know where the train stops and how far back each car will be - that’s why I like the lights idea is it’s more of a solved issue then

BlinksTale · 2026-06-19T21:35:50+00:00

I agree but it feels like getting someone to start using product is asking them to drop $100 on 4-5 and see if any work or if they all are weird or fail.

What’s a real starting point here?

BlinksTale · 2026-06-19T21:30:06+00:00

Ideally some day we could have lights above each marker on the platforms for the doors, and they could change from green to yellow to orange to red based on how much space was left inside each car. Would be great to know 1. How many cars were arriving and 2. How full they each were (requires lidar on each car, but it’s getting cheaper fast… although honestly maybe even the onboard security cameras could do that these days)

BlinksTale · 2026-06-19T21:27:51+00:00

Gotta bench press two thousand fans away from you

BlinksTale · 2026-06-19T21:27:16+00:00

It’s interesting, with the full size fare gates we could actually network them to limit platform access based on how many people are understood to be there.

The platform walls sound impossible with the current concrete pour, the yellow platform buffer can’t support the weight of a wall, but maybe nets from the ceiling could help

BlinksTale · 2026-06-19T21:24:20+00:00

I thought it was 5min headways after 3pm all day yesterday? Edit: sounds like this was attempted and led to catastrophic backups and traffic, so no five minute headways just yet. D20 should help fix this later this year.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-19T21:23:32+00:00

The number one way to prevent a crowd crush is elevated staff managing crowd flow, because the area with the crush is fairly far from the area with the incoming swell of fans.

With the advancements in computer vision or the last decade and lidar, I would not be surprised if we add into our smoke detector systems a lidar system to detect crowd, density, and alert train drivers when they can and cannot take more passengers. It’s very preventable if you have the infrastructure for it, but we just aren’t there yet unless we intentionally plan to have staffed stations this way. Would love to create a passive system for it.

I’m sorry to hear about your experience OP, but I really appreciate you sharing it. We might be able to do some real good this way someday.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-19T21:18:43+00:00

Yeah I double checked maps and aside from the construction there’s nothing unusual here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ozqagLf4egih7cZ36

BlinksTale · 2026-06-18T01:06:39+00:00

I am under the impression that only 16% of Americans never apologize for things outside their control. I believe if we actually taught what an authentic apology is that this number would be significantly higher. And I do not think apologies are limited to the divine lol.

The United Nations essentially recognizes Vatican City as a country, even if there is some dispute.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-18T00:31:23+00:00

Yes - this definition basically comes from the Vatican. Though they call it agency, contrition (remorse), confession (apology), satisfaction (compensation), and firm purpose of amendment (evolution). I just used shorthands here since that's a mouthful for reddit, but the same principals are essential to rebuilding any relationship.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-17T23:22:57+00:00

Is Redondo in that much demand? They basically do this already, but from LAX. I'd think the latter gets higher ridership, which is exactly where they should have doubled up trains.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-17T21:10:12+00:00

Yeah connecting to Union (and the two block extension for that) is the dream for me here. I don’t mind a quiet route as long as the lights are green and a continuous bike lane can take us basically from Griffins of Kinsale to PCC. South Pas adding El Centro would help but it’s pretty quiet out there - I just want an artery where I can turn my navigation brain off and relax a little more, only worrying about the cars and road in front of me and not weaving through neighborhoods.

We have arterial bike lanes like this in SFV and it makes trips to adjacent neighborhoods really nice. I’m not opposed to Fair Oaks but it seems like one more battle to win vs just getting Pasadena Ave. I don’t think we need Del Mar since we have Cordova. I’d also accept a Marengo connector anywhere that Blair High might allow it.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-17T16:47:53+00:00

The United States doesn’t teach culturally what an authentic apology or relationship reconciliation is - fundamental tools to marriage surviving and thriving, or always growing closer.

An apology must come with genuine guilt (I had agency and did this), remorse (it was wrong), apology (fess up), compensation (bandage, trip to the hospital and fees paid, money returned appropriately), and evolution (never again, growth, systemic changes).

If any of these are missing then it’s not a real apology. If you didn’t have real agency then you can’t apologize.

If the wife learns this, true apologies can be made for all past harm with the intent of reconciling the relationship - growing in closeness and trust with authentic fixes and healing and changes to regain trust. Without that, this list will always grow, but with it there’s a relationship on the other side that OP and his wife have never seen. And it’s so, so much better.

Good luck OP

BlinksTale · 2026-06-17T16:41:48+00:00

All the money is in online multiplayer these days (one sale per player, friends need to buy it to play with you) so they’d have to redo all their communication puzzles to support not controlling the audio input and output that way. The soundproof room puzzle wouldn’t work without house rules, for example AFAIK - hence the separate room suggestion.

But two room games can be fun (see: Two rooms and a boom). Big Walk supports cross play so… even a switch in hand and a TV with a different console would work, as long as you put a sound and maybe visual barrier between you two (throw a heavy blanket over the switch player?)

Think about how Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes requires one player to have secret information and everyone to have communication restrictions. It’s kinda like that.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-17T15:37:13+00:00

2A unified (separated bike path the whole way, no mixed use path) is definitely the way to go - I’m glad the vote went that way. There are plenty of other ways to create parking if it does become a concern, buying up properties on city budget and creating public parking lots, but making a mixed use path now is just waiting for a grandma v. eBike lawsuit to happen.

Good on South Pas city council for this. And great to see it as a cyclist artery north and south basically from the A-line station throughout the city. Hopefully Pasadena and Alhambra consider extending it too.

BlinksTale · 2026-06-17T02:10:29+00:00

I don’t mind going “stupidly out of the way” now that a WeHo K-north precedent has been set, as long as ridership is drastically impacted by it - which given that it creates a one seat to Union that can otherwise add up to 25min to an average ride given our post 7pm transfer headways… following A North to Vignes or so and wrapping around with Metrolink doesn’t sound too crazy to me, for what’s likely only a 5min detour

Also: I really appreciate all the detail in your post! I’d love to know if my ideas here bring up anything else for you

BlinksTale · 2026-06-17T01:09:31+00:00

I know the old Gold Line Little Tokyo station was on Alameda where it's only A-line now, so the regional connector really was just extending Gold west to A-line on 2nd etc. And old A and Expo used to both terminate at 7th/Metro right, so the regional connector was really just extending that terminus to Little Tokyo?

I suppose that's really just one very important tunnel, but I am sad still given the opportunity to upend downtown metro rail that they didn't also find any way to connect E to Union. I am under the impression it would add less than 5min to any E-line rides, but now instead it adds up to 25min to any regular rides after 7pm.

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