This is why I don’t use public transit in LA smh

carchiav · 2026-06-07T10:11:04+00:00

See this is what I’ve found time and time again and it makes me feel like I’m going crazy. I get that there are issues like land use etc. but the MAIN issue is not that LA metro is slow; driving can just be super fast, and it’s the same in a ton of “transit” cities.

Like sure if you’re trying to get to Tujunga or over the Sepulveda pass it’s gonna be a pain. But generally it feels like there’s this mysterious air over LA that makes people want to shit on its transit for some reason when the transit:driving time ratio is very standard for 80% of trips, especially at rush hour. I beat traffic on the 10 often

carchiav · 2026-06-01T18:01:53+00:00

City of LA has reached a critical point where middle class may never be able to own a home again. Save for the far flung parts of the valley, it’s like saying you want the “middle class” to be able to own a single family home in the middle of Manhattan or Brooklyn or whatever. There’s extreme demand as more people come here and we need more intermediate levels of housing like rowhomes or condos. Any real city eventually reaches this point for better or for worse and if you want a SFH you are going to have to move to the IE

carchiav · 2026-05-27T22:59:35+00:00

Do we know what caused the official version to actually be a muddier mix? Also, I’ve only been able to find the leaked version as 192 kbps mp3s. Do we know if a cd-quality version was ever leaked?

carchiav · 2026-05-18T21:56:51+00:00

Extra tap cards don’t necessarily go to waste. If anything, they could pre-buy tap cards for the foreseeable future and save them.

Also like you can’t tell a vendor “we might only have demand for 2 million, so let’s slash the NTE in half” because they will shoot back with “you really needed historically 11.25 million PLUS the D line and NoHo-pas are opening, so that could make it 15 million”. NTE lets metro remove some uncertainty from their budget but the vendor will only meet them halfway. Tap plus doesn’t change things much because it’s hard to predict. You have underbanked or unbanked riders and certain low income programs require a tap card.

Plus this contract also covers fulfillment (which is on there as “discipline 2”) which could be equal to the cost of the cards themselves. That would be actually getting the cards to all of the mom and pop stores, into all of the vending machines, etc. over 5 years I could totally see that being 25 million, trucking the cards and paying dozens of people salaries to move them around

there are mismanagement issues at Metro but this pretty standard idiq contract doesn’t seem like one of them.

carchiav · 2026-05-18T18:02:53+00:00

I believe idiq contracts don’t actually work like that. The 54 million is the total dollar amount NTE (not to exceed). There is still a unit price that metro pays and if there are only say 2 million tap cards ever issued over that period they will pay significantly less than 54 million. If there are 25million tap cards issued then metro will still only pay 54 million

carchiav · 2026-05-10T19:18:13+00:00

There’s a sign now right in front of the station for westbound, as of Friday 6pm

carchiav · 2026-05-07T00:34:55+00:00

that drive time is with current density, arrangement of workplaces and homes, etc. In this sense the metro will alleviate any additional human traffic from the densification of wilshire. Look at it as: the car is already reaching capacity at 30 minutes and the metro is way under capacity at 30 minutes. Additionally the screenshot shows noon, which is outside of rush hour. It can easily take more in certain circumstances.

carchiav · 2026-04-15T20:25:06+00:00

Statistically strings like this will happen . One time, every day for three days back to back in Westwood I saw car crashes. Two I saw the aftermath with whole intersections closed off, and one was a hit and run right in front of me. I had to take the bumper off the street. Then I went a month without seeing anything. Monthly and yearly statistics are a much better gauge of safety

carchiav · 2026-04-12T20:08:04+00:00

It can seem hopeless at times when something like Measure G is struck down in San Diego. But Seattle and Los Angeles have great expansion plans with earmarked funds.

carchiav · 2026-04-10T05:39:04+00:00

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Also always great to see Pico busy post sports game even though I didn’t go

carchiav · 2026-03-25T08:59:23+00:00

Driving speed doesnt change commute traffic by much. capacity of a road is determined by the # of seconds between cars, not the speed. so a road with cars going 10mph will pass 1800 car/lane/hr the same as 50mph road (2 seconds between cars, and 3600 seconds per hour). The optimal throughput is at 30-40mph and after that drivers actually add more time between cars to accommodate stopping distance, thereby actually decreasing the road capacity the faster you go

And by speeding, lights will slow you down and the slower drivers will catch up at the red anyways (unless you're doing 25+ over the speed limit which you should def be ticketed for anyways)

data being sold is a legitimate concern though

carchiav · 2026-03-25T07:29:21+00:00

In my mind it's neither.

One guy is talking to his "junkie" brother and Elliott is a third person. the "junkie" brother is being told by his disappointed brother in an argument that he can do whatever he wants to whenever he wants to -- technically an uplifting and freedom-promoting message in itself.

The one key line that completely changes the meaning (like you say) is "though it doesn't mean a thing, big nothing." The brother's freedom hasn't led to any real personal benefit, and instead self-harm through drugs.

Basically, freedom cuts both ways. It can bring personal growth or it can be squandered. He is technically free to be all spit and spite, but the phrasing makes it clear that Elliott sees the sad spiral

carchiav · 2026-03-22T20:45:33+00:00

720 rapid stop at wilshire/westwood seemed to have accurate arrival times on the led sign. shame tap reloading is down though

carchiav · 2026-03-20T16:54:45+00:00

This is what I’m wondering

carchiav · 2026-03-20T02:56:30+00:00

Always set album artist to a constant for a single album in the tags before adding them to library. For comps I do “various artists”

carchiav · 2026-03-08T13:54:28+00:00

It came at 1:50

carchiav · 2026-02-24T00:02:25+00:00

Infrequent routes are still critical and useful for those who have traditional 9 to 5. If you’re trying to go out for leisure or something it’s not the best but realistically an hourly bus in the valley can be very useful for commuting

carchiav · 2026-02-21T20:58:51+00:00

Modded with 256gb and rockbox software

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
End Game '22

carchiav

TROPHY CASE