iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by adasmith.bsky.social

Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

I'm cleaning up my camera roll, and I realize I have a lot of pictures of pavings, an obsession of mine. I will add them to this ongoing thread until I run out of them, I get bored or I forget. I will try to give some basic info for each of them and rate it. THE ULTIMATE PAVING THREAD

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Has anything been written about this topic? Apart from you and @a320lga.bsky.social? Especially historically. Can’t find much

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Was there ever such a thing historically as freight rail oriented industrial development policy?

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I think domestic contractors/construction industry would need to have the requisite expertise/scale in lower complexity infra first to build up the org capacity Syria can 100% do this with Turk support Places like Nigeria/Kenya that still use Chinese contractors for basic road works have issues.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

How down bad do you think forever developing countries that still do foreign turnkey for basic construction projects like highways and conventional rail lines are?

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Reposted by adasmith.bsky.social

Alon (they/them) @alonlevy.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

One like = one hot take on any subject (such as urbanism, the EU, Israel, RPGs, or trains).

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Where would you even put all these cars? How many of these apartment have underground parking? The main issue is lack of off street parking right?

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Makes sense. Even a viaduct would prob lead to exploding costs/nimbyism compared to just putting a tram up. But afaik a tram line can't really match the Tod, ridership, urbanism or modal share of conventional rail in new development/suburbs & future conversion is prob unlikely.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

(deleted the post with all the tags, did not think it would disappear the thread, still new to bluesky, oh well.)

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

My main gripe I guess is that why can't a Ubahn type system run partially overground, partially on viaducts with strategic over/underpasses etc if full length undergrounding is not viable right away? Like some stadbahns where ballasted tracks are right in the median or the many Japanese examples.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Anecdotally Ive read quite a few complaints about overcrowding and crush loading from the successful high riderships modern tramways. Reminds me of how riding a high ridership “true brt” system is a terrible experience.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

A modest high floor system with a segregated ROW, signalized intersections and provisions for long platforms can carry 2-4x the passengers at the least.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

More reliability, complexity and cost issues in rail track and bogies. Can’t handle capacity spikes well, can’t expand capacity meaningfully. In many cases they are slower than buses on a similar route.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

What is the point of limiting the potential of a nearly exclusive ROW with the many bottlenecks of a low floor tram by design? Narrow because of width constraints, slow especially in stations and pedestrian heavy zones due to high ROW permeability.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Many of the new Greenfield tramways in Europe run on wide open corridors, with nearly exclusive rights of way and only short mixed running sections.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Is there such a thing as a modern European “tram brain”? That is, the overuse of modern tramways in places where conventional rapid transit would be more appropriate? I’m not talking about legacy tram systems here.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

No problem. You might know this already but there a few videos on YouTube of classification yards in North America in operation. youtu.be/DvnRxsW0GzA?...

youtu.be

Rail Yard Humping Vs Flat-Track Switching: A Tale of Two Yards

YouTube video by NKY Railfan

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

*Tyler Dick Took me a little while to figure it out haha Thanks

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Fascinating thread, is your thesis public?

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

But of course, it's only natural I think for every developed country to have a serious Ameriboo faction, especially one with such a history with the US. Tbh I am more interested in what they have to say about their housing and transit typologies compared to its neighbour Japan.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

I wish I could read what Korean urbanists and transit nerds complained about. Would be fascinating.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

It’s seems like all architectural pavers, blocks and slabs have a dull greyscale to them no matter the colour. Where as in Europe it seems like the pigments are more vibrant? Idk I think it might be because the concrete mixes and technology is more primitive here and the market more monopolized.

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adasmith.bsky.social @adasmith.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Is there somewhere to learn more about this, specifically related to France? Especially interested in the technical education aspect.

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