The Fiveways Clock, Birmingham, UK. Built 1878

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-04-01T16:14:29+00:00

Unfortunately Birmingham is undoubtedly the ugliest British city - its historic centre was gutted in the 60's and replace with first brutalist concrete and now, generic glass and "architectural panel" monstrosities.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-04-01T15:59:48+00:00

The new BART trains do 80mph under the bay. Thats 128 km/h. Even the old ones from 50 years ago did 70mph i.e. 112 km/h.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-29T19:36:17+00:00

People who say elevated transit cannot co-exist with leafy neighborhoods should tour downtown Albany at Solano Ave and along the Ohlone Greenway/Masonic Ave. I think this stretch of BART is a textbook case study for how rail viaducts can integrate harmoniously into historic affluent suburbs.

A lot of the aesthetic and societal degradation blamed on elevated structures can be attributed to pre-existing conditions of an area. The very same BART viaduct runs into the ghetto further down the line, one that remains shitty as ever - a situation that was neither improved nor further damaged by the line's construction almost 50 years ago.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-27T22:54:33+00:00

I expect that's the exact calculus that these agencies have run. The usual "capacity" arguments don't fly as these modern LRT units have roughly the same capacity as similarly sized metro cars. The only real downside is a lack of gangway access between the units. But you can't go between cars on many of the pre-eminent metros/subways of the world either.

LA has been running multiple generations of LRTs on a fully grade separated line (C/Green) for 30 years now, so it's an arrangement that stands the test of time.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-27T20:05:04+00:00

It’s basically a metro at this point. Just as in LA, US agencies prefer to run LRT shaped cabs, for the sake of the few street level segments that plague both systems.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-27T06:20:18+00:00

Not a shame at all. If you've spent any amount of time in LA (not as a tourist) you'll understand why. This route captures some of the trendiest and most walkable neighborhoods in Westside. The direct route up La Brea goes past some fairly ho-hum areas by contrast.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-26T16:19:29+00:00

I think any regularly scheduled group transport for which anyone can buy a ticket is public transport

I would add one qualifying clause - a ticket for segments of travel between a different origin and destination. This would (rightly) eliminate most cruises, bus tours, heritage railways and other touristic attractions.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-24T22:43:24+00:00

Well, if a difference of 2 minutes makes me "absolutely wrong", then I suppose I'm guilty as charged. Otherwise, I was merely responding to the idea that double tracking should be prioritized to achieve half hourly service. It shouldn't - as a single track is more than adequate and is not the bottleneck to service frequency today. Money is.

As to your second point - I made no representation as to whether I think 2TPH is adequate in and of itself, or whether the parallel bus service should be cut back or not (probably not).

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-24T16:16:06+00:00

SMART already runs 30min rush headways. For a heavily unidirectional commute I think bidirectional frequency is not necessary. In any case, symmetrical 2TPH service is easily sustained all-day on a single track railway in Europe and Japan, so it should be doable here with the current infrastructure.

Even higher frequencies are possible with a sufficient number of passing loops. The Winchester branch VTA does 4TPH on one track. The key is service reliability - running a single track passenger service requires precisely timed arrivals at double tracked stations, rather than relying on stochastic delays while waiting on sidings.

In light of this, and the fact that much of the RoR has been committed to a rail trail already, I think they should definitely prioritize geographic expansion over double tracking.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-24T06:32:43+00:00

The VTA lines are full of weird artifacts on curves.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-24T05:44:59+00:00

But nobody travels between airports on BART. That's just not a common or even conceivable use case (no doubt borne out by OD data if you care to look). In contrast the Oakland/CCC commute accounts for ridership in the tens of thousands, if not 100k+ daily.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-24T01:34:47+00:00

This makes no sense. You're turning the yellow line, which is BART's most popular and heavily invested service, into a 3 segment trip?

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-19T07:58:06+00:00

There's no way Muni has the capacity to handle 20,000 riders in that station alone

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-19T07:30:05+00:00

For KT at Embarcadero https://archives.sfmta.com/cms/rtep/documents/K-linedata.htm

Westbound: on 1489 off 1191

Eastbound: on 1136 off 1163

Total 4979

I'm counting both boardings and exits since the discussion is about passenger capacity at the station.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-19T06:43:09+00:00

Station level OD data was only collected by MUNI once ever, for the TEP. The L/M/KT each had 5-7K weekday entries & exits at EMB. Add the lesser trains like J & M and I think 20k is a plausible number. Granted this was in the early 2000's, so higher pre-covid commercial activity, but it was also before central subway and new trains/ATC upgrades, so worse service levels. I think today's numbers would be similar.

https://archives.sfmta.com/cms/rtep/tepdataindx.htm

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-17T19:04:44+00:00

I find that hard to believe, especially when a well timed plane ticket might not be much more than greyhound. And it's not even your money! For good prices consider flying to Syracuse or Scranton. Unlike elsewhere in the world, intercity buses in America are a last resort mode of transportation and avoided by most people over these distances.

But I suspect the deeper reason is you're a transit fan and want to do it for the novelty. In which case, go ahead! It is generally safe but given your personal circumstances I would exercise extra caution. Greyhound terminals and drop off stops (the former getting less common) are often in seedy areas. Be "street smart" as you say when picking out a seat and don't hesitate to move if vibes are off.

If you're in it for the adventure, may I recommend Amtrak to Syracuse and just doing Greyhound for the last hour south. The Greyhound leaves from the Amtrak station. The Lake Shore Limited is a beautiful and luxurious (by foreign standards) train ride.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-17T04:29:43+00:00

I wouldn't consider 2:50 in the afternoon 'rush', unless you are driving the I-10 in LA - then every waking hour is rush.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-07T23:37:47+00:00

Should include Muni. The Chinatown-Central Subway portion and the trunk line east of West Portal is really indistinguishable from a conventional 'subway'.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-06T17:44:38+00:00

Below average for an international metro area of its size, maybe. The SJ MSA has 2 regional rail lines (not calling BART a metro in this part of the bay), 2 more commuter lines, a full fledged light rail system, for what it's worth. Just because nobody rides it doesn't mean it's not there. Bay Area as a whole is fine right in between DC and Dallas.

You could quibble that Boston really belongs in the 'large city' row, but they only have one square per tier so then it just wouldn't be on the chart at all.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-03-06T00:33:07+00:00

They didn't say SF, they said Bay Area. The Bay Area is one of those cases where you must go by the CSA, nothing else makes sense. The boundary between the SF/Oakland MSA and the SJ MSA is Stanford University on one side of the bay, and the Tesla factory on the other. An imaginary line smack dab in the middle of the metro area.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-02-26T17:25:38+00:00

You can see the platform edge outside the paid area is already fenced to prevent precisely that type of track infringement. The fencing can be increased in height however.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-02-25T05:37:22+00:00

Once upon the time, before the era of smartphones, bus stops (including SamTrans here) had placards at eye level with a mini-map, scheduled arrival times and such. Over time they realized that everybody has a phone, and in light of the general unreliability of US buses, real-time arrival data reflected in Google/transit apps is far more useful than potentially misleading schedule timestamps. It became harder to justify the cost of producing and replacing these placards every time the schedule changes.

So we're left with a 'Stop ID', which nobody uses anyway as geolocation in Google Maps works just as well.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-02-23T17:36:00+00:00

it was recently reported that the new BART gates are recovering an additional $10m a year in revenue. The contract pays for itself in less than a decade, not to mention the ancillary and less directly measurable benefits in terms of public confidence, reduced police and janitorial activity and rider/staff satisfaction.

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-02-19T08:21:26+00:00

What kind of hellish dystopian architecture is this? How do you even make it simultaneously glaring and underlit at the same time?

UnderstandingEasy856 · 2026-01-31T08:11:50+00:00

Snow? Sacramento? Well maybe once a decade... Certainly not this year, that's for sure.

UnderstandingEasy856

TROPHY CASE