iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Can someone explain to me how anyone is supposed to walk to this "BRT station"? Compared to this, the train stations in the middle of the interstate in Chicago & Fairfax County VA are the height of urbanism.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Truly a classic bit of nimbyism: I moved to near the Red Line to get away from the Purple Line. So you can't build new apartments near the Red Line!

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Here's Redfin for what I see out my window. The 1-family houses valued around $1 million were built in the 1930s & will be teardowns when sold. The replacements built over the last 20 years go for around $2 million The condos in the ~15-yr-old 9-story building across the street go for 200k to 600k.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The strength of the @the-downballot.com analysis of primary turnout is that it's a two-parameter model. The parameters are the slope & intercept of the line on this graph. The model fits the data exceptionally well - both raw data & its time derivative.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

On the academic side of this, look at this word cloud of US sociology dissertation titles created in 2024. Not mine, but I circled the topics related to class.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My result is interesting. My mother was from Boston, I grew up in New York, lived 14 years in Boston & since then DC. It gave me exactly equal percents for NY & Boston, even though I consciously chose "rotary" & "soda" over "traffic circle" & "tonic" when I'd say the latter if I was in Boston.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The map of Massachusettts Senate primary results is a study in class & ethnicity. Moulton was the candidate of wealthy Yankees (i.e. white Protestants). He carried only Wellesley, Dover, and the ritziest North Shore suburbs. Went over 60% just in Marblehead. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I've never seen a highway agency tell drivers who park at the curb across the street from their destination to walk to the intersection to cross. Either drivers have magic protection when they cross mid-block, or the agencies put drivers' convenience ahead of safety even in their "safety campaigns."

Pedestrians: Stay Safe, Cross at Crosswalks.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

MoCo housing stock now growing faster close to Metro and in inner, more urban areas than in its outer suburbs. Nice dataset, based on post office address counts rather than construction data. This measures net increase, accounting for teardowns. montgomeryperspective.com/2026/08/20/n...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Also, this is the registration information for saguarosignal.com.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I am constantly told that it's anti-Zionism, not antisemitism, when Jewish people get canceled due to their opinions about Israel. But now we're told that it's Islamophobic when Muslim people get canceled due to their opinions about Israel. www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/08/13/r...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Looks to me like the average size of new 1-family homes rose until 2015, then started to decline slowly, then declined more sharply since 2021. Also looks like the growth of detached houses was bigger than of all houses 1990-2008. And the post-2021 decline may be entirely due to more townhouses.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Voting the name is nothing new. I actually worked on a Massachusetts State Senate campaign in which the candidates were Mike LoPresti Jr, Gus Serra, George DiLorenzo, Mike Amato, Filippa Pizzi, Pasquale Buonopane & William P Foley. (Foley had changed his name from Intraversato 17 years earlier.)

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Trump rally attenders are largely a lost cause. Trump voters are not. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-08-04...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Meanwhile, with 16% of the vote in, Wesley Bell is crushing Cori Bush by 4 to 1.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Here's Victor Hugo in Notre Dame de Paris describing how the grandeur of Gothic Paris has been defaced by the second-rate architecture of the Invalides and the Pantheon.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I am forced to re-up this classic quote from Babcock's The Zoning Game.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

To be clear, in my opinion highway lobby political pull was just one factor -- but it was a sizable factor. I'm home & have my Tennyson letters. All this is from the Pittsburgh one: "General Motors had the state constitution amended in 1947 to forbid use of highway funds for Public Transportation."

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This is the way to do it. Replace 60-year-old 2-story office building with 5-story apartment building. 1/3 mile from light rail station. Expedited approval process. bethesdamagazine.com/2026/07/29/r...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Those of us in DSOC who opposed the merger predicted that something like this would happen. This is from our circular letter after the 1981 DSOC convention that approved the merger.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Not good for getting a pro-transit president. Six car-brained states, with only the partial exception of Northern Virginia.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

He's running for the Democratic Party and not against it. Notice the poster on the wall right behind him.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I just counted 10 vehicles (3 trucks, 7 cars) parked in one block of bus lane. Southbound Wisconsin Ave between South Park Ave & Willard Ave.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Double standard at work. How can this guy say it's Islamophobic to question El-Sayed's positive comment about Khameini, when he insists that even strident antizionism is not antisemitic? bsky.app/profile/mero...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The number of miles driven in Maryland, divided by the state's population, closely tracked the US average until the pandemic. Since then it has been significantly below the US average. (This may differ from the number of miles driven by Maryland residents.) Source: frontiergroup.org/resources/wh...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Maryland State Highway Administration has a "Safety Initiative" called "Serious About Safety." An implied admission that most of the traffic engineering profession's constant talk about safety hasn't really been serious.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

This was not a crazy idea. Many 1930s-generation socialists were leaders of unions & other progressive organizations. Labor was vastly more influential than today; it & its allies saw European social democrats as partners. A striking (and little-known) example is the Harpsund Process of 1963-65 4/n

From Carew, American Labour's Cold War Abroad, p. 248.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

This 1973 NYT article will give you an idea of the culture of post-WW2 Bensonhurst. www.nytimes.com/1973/01/19/a...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Price charged by @mcdotnow.bsky.social to park on weekdays in two spaces on a street in Bethesda. On the left: 8 cents per day* On the right: $2.25 per hour *But only if you live in a single-family house in the neighborhood. Otherwise, you can't park there at all.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

1) Please ignore bots. (See responses to OP.) 2) For mainstream democratic socialists in Europe, Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism have been synonyms for a century and more. Here is Karl Kautsky in 1934. Today's DSA is a blot on the name of Democratic Socialism.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I learned of Higginson researching what's probably my favorite of all the footnotes I ever wrote. The Brook Farm transcendentalists, a "Miss Taylor" said in a 1903 book, "dove into the infinite, soared into the illimitable, and never paid cash." I had to quote this! But who was Miss Taylor??

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The reasons are historic & complicated, but not valid. Those of us who opposed the DSOC-NAM merger that created DSA pointed out this problem in 1981.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

I know of few sights as aggressively contemptuous of transit riders than the prison-like architecture of the Montgomery Mall transit center. (Seen from thedirection of the mall, the main destination it serves.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Yes, transportation played a big role in Amar Mukunda's big upset victory. Mukunda ran best: In areas of garden apts & townhouses - more bus riders & more immigrants. Near MARC commuter rail stations (red dots on map) - including 1-family-home Washington Grove. 1/2 www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Map of SD 39 vote with MARC stations added.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Big victory for transit in Maryland primary. Transit advocate & civil engineer Amar Mukunda defeats Nancy King, the car-brained State Senate majority leader. Senate has been blocking pro-transit bills passed by House. (Not yet called by media, but uncounted mail ballots won't overcome his 13% lead.)

Extend the Metro to Germantown.
We can't build infrastructure anymore. Our plan to make building greeat infrastructure possible again, lower commute times, and spur renewable energy and high tech investment.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Deep dive into how the high hoods and enlarged blind spots in new cars kill pedestrians. Finds that high hoods alone kill hundreds per year. Fantastic visualizations. [gift link] www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Worst in this is St Petersburg, Russia. At connecting stations, each line has a completely different station name.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

You made a general statement about "someone, anyone," not limited to senators. You've been caught with a double standard that treats a Jewish nation-state differently from a Chinese nation-state and you're dodging.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Just 10 minutes earlier you said anyone who supports the Israeli government (which you defined to include most supporters of Israeli opposition parties) is pro-genocide. Not limited to senators. Why won't you say the same about Hasan Piker & everyone else who supports the Chinese government?

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

You can see catenary installation close-up today at the Bethesda Purple Line station.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

We have one. From Crystal City to National Airport.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

A symbolic milestone! Purple Line test trains will run next month through Columbia Country Club and past the Town of Chevy Chase. The Club and the Town spent millions of dollars and pulled political strings, delaying the light rail 30 years but ultimately failing to stop it.

In June 2026, Purple Line crews will begin Live Wire testing of light rail tracks and systems with a Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) between the Lyttonsville Operations and Maintenance Facility and Bethesda Station

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Here's how it works: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/department-h... The ground floor units in this building, which advertised its market rate units as costing "from the several millions" when it was built, are in the program. www.koitzgroup.com/the-lauren-b...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Israeli ambassador to US says J Street & Bernie Sanders aren't Jewish. He is mirroring "neo-Bundism." Both impose a political test on Jewish peoplehood. In so doing, they reject a fundamental premise of the movement (Zionism, Bundism) they purport to continue. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

What I have to say would not fit into even a long thread. I believe @abesilbe.bsky.social is working on an academic article that discusses the merger opponents and our leader, Irving Howe. But here's a tidbit: our 1981 warning, written post-approval, about the post-merger future of the organization.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Dept. of useless medical insurance paperwork. This is the only non-zero item in the thick envelope I got today from my Medicare drug plan.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Hey @mcdotnow.bsky.social & @mdsha.bsky.social - Why did you build these two obstacle courses for people walking across Cordell Ave at Old Georgetown Road, when you could have built a raised crosswalk that would have made driving & walking both safer?

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Jortner, A Promised Land: The 1st Amendment "confirmed what the revolution created: a broad religious citizenship that did not belong to any church or tradition." The SC constitution the court cites was replaced in 1790 with a guarantee of religious liberty in the spirit of the new US constitution.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Iran media reports that Iran will stay away from negotiations until the US reduces its demands. A few minutes later, Trump extends his truce indefinitely. Pretty clear who's got the upper hand here.

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