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Everyone I encounter on the street is saying we must Board of Equalization-ize the Insurance Commissioner.

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Metro Los Angeles @metrolosangeles.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

D LINE: From Friday, Oct 23 through Sunday, Nov 1, Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega stations will be closed due to electrical infrastructure maintenance work. Trains will operate only between Union Station and Wilshire/Western Station.

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CAHSR's Strongest Soldier @emoscientist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

My count is: Barger - GOP Spiegel - GOP Trembley - GOP McCallon - GOP Marquez - GOP Nguyen - GOP (?) Berkson - ? Solis - Dem Sandoval - Dem Chaffee - Dem So good question as to why a blue region lets Republicans run our regional transit system.

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Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The number of parameters that Portland TriMet's trip planner is willing to optimize is pretty amazing.

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Henry Fung @henryfung.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is so embarrassing for the Metrolink board that I couldn’t see a single member that wants to face the public in Los Angeles. Every single one of them that I could see is going to phone it in from their home or their local city hall.

METROLINK
metrolinktrains.com/meeting
Chair Chaffee will participate via teleconference from County Administration North
Building, 400 W. Civic Center Drive, 6'h Floor, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Director Go and Director Tettemer will participate via teleconference from San Clemente
City Hall, Ist Floor Conference Room, 910 Calle Negocio, San Clemente, CA 92673
Vice-Chair Berkson will participate via teleconference from Jurupa Valley City Hall,
8930 Limonite Ave, Jurupa Valley, CA 92509
Director Spiegel will participate via teleconference from 1800 S. Main Street, Corona,
CA 92882
Director Vargas will participate via teleconference from Perris City Hall, Mayor's Office,
101 N. D St, Perris, CA 92570
Director Molina will participate via teleconference from 566 Ronda Ct., Calimesa, CA
92320
Second Vice-Chair Trembley and Director Engler will participate via teleconference from Camarillo City Hall, 601 Carmen Drive, Camarillo, CA 93010
Director Sandoval will participate via teleconference from 297 Lincoln Ave., Pomona,
CA 91767
Director Allen will participate via teleconference from Rio Hondo College, Administration of Justice Building, Room 208, 3600 Workman Mill Road, Whittier,
CA 90601
Director O'Connor will participate via teleconference from 2526 18th Street,
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Director Camacho will participate via teleconference from Pico Rivera City Hall,
6615 Passons Boulevard, Pico Rivera, CA 90660
Director McCallon will participate via teleconference from Highland City Hall
27215 Base Line, Highland, CA 92346
Director Marquez will participate via teleconference from Portola Hotel & Spa,
Two Portola Plaza, Monterey, CA 93940
Director Simonoff will participate via teleconference from 1474 Forestview Dr., Brea,
CA 92821
Director Novotny will participate via teleconference from Caltrans District 7,
100 S. Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Traffic signal poles do not generally have breakaway bases.

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crzwdjk.bsky.social @crzwdjk.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Nobody at all looks at the big picture. One of the pitfalls of government by lawsuit.

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YIMBYonese Liberation Army @dingbattitude.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Steel bollards for terrorist attacks that almost never happen, plastic posts for bicyclists who get hit every day.

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Idothethinking @idothethinking.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Reframing my q. Im aware of the modernist revolt against towers etc. What id like to see more sources on is why Americans even in cities became (and remain) so hostile to medium and high density housing in a way over comparable nations didn't. Much of California revolted over 3 story apartments.

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The wording in these is more dramatic than the grand jury report lol

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My father-in-law is a GIS professional, "we can't, we don't know how to do it", etc.

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Alfred Twu @alfredtwu.com · 16/09/2026

basically the size of a set of plans! Some of the urban blocks of Sanborn maps get really detailed. See this one from San Francisco for example library.sfgenealogy.org/sanborn/1899...

library.sfgenealogy.org

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Happens with private developments too! But agree on the latter point, unbridled populist anger at SCE and PG&E meanwhile it's just wonks on the wonk site and Twitter Developers for LADWP

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 14/09/2026

Their next idea is going to be to have random celebrities act as sidewalk sheds and too-closely-spaced bollards

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Yeah I noticed the fare readers are pretty unobtrusive throughout the rail system, and admittedly later on in the trip I saw a decent amount of fare evasion... but 1 fare check in a week is considerably more than the 1 fare check in years of regularly riding I've had on LA Metro

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Sure, but it's about the same with any other project. I just don't see a reason to expect this to be outsized in scale. It should be comparable to any long-term lane closure, maybe getting some angry op-eds and news coverage but nothing that matters (like "Carmageddon" on the 405 pass a decade ago)

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

In practice I'd be very surprised if the GRN were at max much larger than HOV + maybe the #1 GP lane, I can't imagine the eligible volumes would be large enough to need much more

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I doubt it will be much more than any other highly visible policy change or project personally... Of course LA was somewhat smaller in 1984 but as the article says people just changed their travel behavior then; I don't feel it will be so different in 28.

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Shoup's class always had as one of the project options doing surveys of placard fraud by observing ADA spots and just seeing who's in the cars, which of course is a real problem! but I have to imagine a good number of the MURPs doing this had Thoughts about....

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Every European before/after lol

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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I wasn't even watching this last night because I was so sure it would be going to the Governor's desk. @gavinnewsom.bsky.social call a special session to force a concurrence vote!

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A unit of volume equal to 1 acre * 1 foot, used for water typically

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

See my reply to Stephen... this is true but it's also true everywhere else in the world (except countries that are fine doing overhead TS comms/power), you can still trench or bore/jack conduit... maybe in NYC conflicting utilites aren't well documented but usually wouldn't be that shallow

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Man I mean to some extent yeah... but this is what 311 does, vibes + EM can usually find them. looking at streetview actually is the issue that NYCDOT just splices wires in the pole and not use pull boxes? Ordinarily you could just intercept conduit and put a pull box in. This just seems annoying!

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Still absurd/overscoped to replace the whole corner for this, maybe this is standar dpractice in NYC but you really only need to dig holes for the pole foundations in a retrofit condition

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Seattle drivers immediately stopped for me at an unmarked uncontrolled crossing... transportation mecca man, I didn't even remember this was a thing that can happen at first

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The former; looking online apparently they mostly just give out warnings but that's more than we do

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

If you sync them locally the normal way of granting folder access would I imagine work

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

First ride on Sound transit and there's actually fare enforcement... a cruel attack on my LA Metro traditional folkways

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 21/08/2026

Despite being absolutely crawling with station ambassadors, fare evasion is still rampant. As I was exiting at Pershing Square, a guy was telling some tourists who had their credit cards out to tap, “no no no you don’t need to tap it,” then ushered them through the gate that opened for me.

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

These are fairly common with "directional" ramps. Legally speaking DWS only indicate somewhere without a detectable curb; practically speaking the reason we don't do this is because it's an ineffective orientation cue pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

- in some cases (not here) US signal equipment is much beefier and more expensive than its European counterparts, driving up costs - obviously to some extent varying in time and space there is also the idea of vehicle delay being anathema. again this in particular isn't relevant to midblock signals

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Extra-regulatorily... - signals can actually be installed without meeting these criteria, even historically but especially after recent revisions to the regulations; but as a matter of engineering culture this isn't done much. part liability or specters of liability, part inertia

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Mainly just historical/empirical heavily vehicle-focused heuristics of where signals would be beneficial *to vehicles*. Ped crossings have absurdly high bars to reach because there hasn't historically been such a culture of safety, then midblock crossings like this aren't well covered

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Nick Andert @nickandert.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

So when Bass, with an almost unimaginable tone-deafness, bragged tonight that Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn members have her cell number, I must point out that we have evidence direct from her mouth on how these calls influence her. In January, while public comment was ongoing in the metro board-

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Maybe a bit... but the electric hookup isn't a huge cost when you're already putting in signal poles etc. I don't think I've seen any solar ones here in LA before. I guess rural locations without an easy connection would be good candidates for solar.

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

PHBs (these things) are basically a regulatory workaround because there are limits on when signals can be installed. A good amount of cities do have legacy installations like this though

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

And LA historically has had quite a few midblock signals! Not that they're inherently better for ped delay, being still coordinated in most locations afaik. There's an NCUTCD proposal to make the use of midblock signals with PHB warrants more unambiguously allowed, but idk the FHWA view on it

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Human factors for motorists but not for peds, lovely.

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

In this case you can see its use in the Dutch strategy of handling lefts for minor driveways/intersections, with enough space for a car to wait in it, allowing a safer two stage turn

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John Lansing @pipedreaming.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The sidewalks in Barcelona are so wide that utilities are usually buried under them rather than in the street. As a result, it’s incredibly rare for a street or sidewalk to be completely closed due to construction.

Photo of a construction vehicle straddling over a trench in the sidewalk with utilities underneath it

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alex davis @alexdavistransit.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I got interviewed for this story, and it's a great read. As Kavish Harjai clearly lays out, free fares on Metro are a dead end gimmick policy that Metro already thoroughly examined and discarded. We don't have to stand by and let Karen Bass rehash this whole thing for campaign purposes.

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Re:casting conventional curbs instead, unfortunately that drives costs way up so best to just learn from experiences like this for the many cast-on-ex-asphalt bike curbs we'll hopefully have in the future

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olong @olong.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Yeah interesting failure mode, the dowel is exactly where you'd expect from the picture. Probably good to add another dowel 3" off the end of the nose in the future - or add horizontal reinforcement now that they're not using the slipforming machine anymore iirc?

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Shane Phillips @shanedphillips.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Having lived in Ktown for a few years, it's a real problem. The most mind-boggling thing for me is that if my gf stayed overnight, she had to find street parking because *no one rents parking off-street overnight*! It seems like some private garages in the area could make a killing, but nah.

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Urban Futurist Democrat @urbfuturistdem.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The Legislature recognizes that ADUs are broadly a Good Thing and loves to promote them, even at the expense of city cash grabs. We need to inculcate that mindset in them for all housing

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