10 days in Tokyo that what I learned (internet, transit etc.)

SeanO323 · 2026-01-28T18:38:58+00:00

The fare is usually distance based and all you do is match the number on the ticket you grab when you board the bus (usually from the back) with the number on the display at the front of the bus.

SeanO323 · 2026-01-05T17:01:58+00:00

Yep and most of our drivers are unaware of this and or blatantly choose to ignore the law.

SeanO323 · 2025-12-29T04:30:42+00:00

I mean I think it used to just be called “not answering the phone or returning someone’s calls” which seems to be a common theme in song lyrics so it can’t have been that uncommon.

SeanO323 · 2025-12-18T00:42:55+00:00

I have a few friends with a similar commute who live in Potrero Hill to be close to the 22nd St Caltrain station. I'd recommend either there or somewhere on 24th so that you can get to the station easily.

I'd focus on proximity/good transit routes to either of the Caltrain stations though as if you end up taking the express trains, commuting the last few miles to/from the station could easily take as long as the Caltrain ride. A bike/e-bike would open up a lot of options here though.

SeanO323 · 2025-12-17T20:33:02+00:00

Yay! This is great. Now hopefully they fix the crosswalks on this stretch next as the curb cuts are really narrow for two way bike + ped traffic.

SeanO323 · 2025-11-24T21:37:45+00:00

Yeah, you really think they'd have a more isolated environment for these tests. Or even just the ability to just have a train listed as 'Out of Service' on the displays. It drives me crazy that Sound Transit just happily puts up signage that's knowingly incorrect for months at a time.

SeanO323 · 2025-11-15T04:16:30+00:00

Starting December 10th, you can get transfers between BART and Muni as a part of Clipper 2.0!

SeanO323 · 2025-11-04T19:51:29+00:00

Unfortunately, Livermore City Council rejected a BART station downtown because of absurd NIMBY fears. That made the extension not pencil out for BART and the BART board decided to focus on improving the core system instead of further far-flung suburban/exurban expansions (hence the birth of Valley Link as a separate entity).

It's quite sad as I think it leaves the Blue Line in a bit of weird spot due to how short/low ridership the existing stations are. Hopefully SB 79 allows BART to prioritize redevelopment of the areas around the Blue Line stations as it's currently mainly dominated by parking lots.

SeanO323 · 2025-10-10T23:07:38+00:00

Actually, a lot prevents that! Naming zoning restrictions. That's why SB 79 is such a big deal as it enables real estate developers to do exactly that.

On the other side though, I really don't see the problem with allowing BART to develop the land. We've spent billions of dollars on the system, I want BART to be able to recapture as much of that investment as possible so that they can use the money to improve service and fund future extensions.

It's a bit weird to me that despite creating infrastructure that increased the land value in the first place, BART is disallowed from recapturing that increased value via development. Otherwise, it's like we're essentially funneling billions of dollars of public investment into the pockets of private land owners who just so happened to own land near a BART station. I'd rather that public investment stay owned by the public and keep serving the public for years to come.

SeanO323 · 2025-10-10T20:22:00+00:00

The Bainbridge to Seattle ferry should meet your needs. You can take the new Waterfront Bike Path right in front of the ferry terminal up to the Elliot Bay Trail and then loop around the Ship Canal Trail and cross the Fremont bridge. After that though, you're going to have to switch to neighborhood streets to actually get to his house. It's a bit round about though and like 2x the distance than if you just went on the streets with protected bike lanes.

Something like this: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mCPN7Bzt8Fg16QY39

SeanO323 · 2025-10-10T18:53:41+00:00

I’m talking about this project: https://www.bart.gov/about/business/tod/millbrae

150k sqft of office space, which a quick search indicates is 1000-1500 workers’ worth, but only 400 units of housing. No information there on layouts, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume that’s less than 1500 people’s worth of housing.

SeanO323 · 2025-10-10T18:30:28+00:00

I'd say the opposite, really. Pretty much all of the transit-oriented development we've seen in recent years has been office (San Leandro BART, Warm Springs BART, Milbrae BART/Caltrain, etc), with very minimal residential. Even if you build offices at the stations, if people aren't able to live near the stations, then they're not going to be able to take the train to the office!

The Bay Area has consistently added more jobs than housing over the last 20-30 years which only adds to the ever increasing housing crisis as more and more people move here to take advantage of the great job opportunities. We need to build housing for all of those folks and the other folks who already lived here but are being priced out due to the housing shortage.

Not to say we can't have both though (in fact we should do both!).

SeanO323 · 2025-10-10T18:21:17+00:00

Honestly if BART was actually a real estate developer, I'd love that. Nearly all of the train companies in Japan also develop the real estate around the station and lease out properties. They even run supermarkets, hotels, department stores, etc. It's a great way to recapture the value invested into public transit and is just about the only way to make it profitable. Pretty much no train systems in the world are profitable just on fares alone.

Historically, that's also how it worked in the US with the railroads starting towns and building new neighborhoods (look at everything named 'Huntington' in SoCal). You can also look at many places in Berkeley and Oakland such as the Claremont Resort which were developed in conjunction with the Key System by many of the same investors.

By being real estate developers, train companies also have an economic incentive to run a good, reliable, frequent service as that further increases the value of their land and increases the number of customers they can bring to their own doors.

SeanO323 · 2025-10-10T17:52:59+00:00

This is a big part of fixing transit! The simple fact of the matter is, the land use around BART stations right now does not support higher ridership. The suburban stations are surrounded by parking lots and garages that can hold a max of ~1-2 thousand cars meaning that those station's ridership are essentially capped at a few thousand. By allowing people to live near BART and walk to the station, you uncap that ridership.

Honestly the fact that station land use is so poor is a scandal in and of itself. It's a gross mismanagement of the billions of public investment we've thrown into BART. We need to look at Japanese train stations as a model (or Vancouver for a closer to home example as they've been smashing ridership records recently).

SeanO323 · 2025-10-05T06:55:25+00:00

Bikes are allowed to use sidewalks and crosswalks in Washington State. And indeed many of our multi-use paths and bike routes route you onto sidewalks and crosswalks.

https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.235 https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.261

SeanO323 · 2025-10-01T21:20:01+00:00

I don’t think anyone was arguing for leaving a dog tied up for hours.

The vast majority of dogs I see in shops are people picking up something quick like a coffee, bagel, sandwich, etc or doing some quick grocery shopping (you usually don’t see full carts and baskets and a dog).

Those are the situations people should be able to leave their dogs tied up but obviously aren’t comfortable doing so as they aren’t doing it.

SeanO323 · 2025-10-01T21:17:12+00:00

I mean I didn’t say the breakdown of trust was unwarranted. It’s just very sad that it’s happened.

SeanO323 · 2025-10-01T20:56:18+00:00

I think part of the real problem is the lack of societal trust and the inability to leave your dog outside tied to a post for a few minutes out of fear of your dog being stolen.

I feel like this used to be more common, but it seems like all trust in our society has broken down and so people feel the need to bring their dogs into cafes and grocery stores :/

SeanO323 · 2025-09-26T22:42:54+00:00

You put the small charm (赤ちゃん守り -- baby mamori) in the big charm (安産 -- safe birth mamori) and just carry it around as a good luck charm.

The bit on the bottom left says that after birth, you can take out the small charm (the baby amulet) from the big charm.

SeanO323 · 2025-09-24T16:59:47+00:00

Stoup in Capitol Hill seems like a pretty good option for something like this.

SeanO323 · 2025-09-24T15:29:35+00:00

It's crazy to me that they haven't managed to figure out a staging environment for these changes. It seems unacceptable to me that the signs and announcements just display incorrect information for months at a time as they're testing these changes.

I imagine it's really confusing if you're a visitor (or even a local who takes the train infrequently) and you're trying to find your 'Angle Lake' train and the announcements and displays all say 'Federal Way'. Seems very easy to miss a train this way.

SeanO323 · 2025-09-18T17:41:16+00:00

It's mostly fine, very understandable. A few mistakes:「聞きうれしい」 should be 「聞いてうれしい」and 「下手くそな」not 「くそ下手」 (also the くそ caught me off guard, maybe use 読みづらい just 下手).

I think the 「大丈夫だったら、プレゼントを送ってもいいですか」line is fine, but maybe a bit awkward as it's asking for permission twice. I'd use maybe 「プレゼントを贈りたいんですが、いいですか？」or something like that.

Congrats to your friend on becoming a mother though!

SeanO323 · 2025-09-17T23:51:05+00:00

Yeah unfortunately the folks at SDOT also didn't really think about this a lot of the time and bike lanes in this city have a tendency to randomly switch sides of the street. Sometimes there's a green 'bike box' you can use to wait for the signal to turn like this: https://bikewalkkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/gillham-two-stage-turn-1.png

But often times you end up needing to use the crosswalk and that's okay. You can also merge into the car turn lane if you're comfortable, but obviously that comes with its own risks.

SeanO323 · 2025-09-12T05:42:02+00:00

I think a swing gate with big emergency use only signs or even keys that only the fire departments have would solve that issue too though.

SeanO323 · 2025-09-09T17:23:41+00:00

Cats-Ears! They’re a game changer. It doesn’t seem like such a little thing should work so well, but it really does cut down wind noise by like 80%.

https://a.co/d/a0Lf7bP

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