Will

What a shame, I guess I’ll just have to keep going back until I succeed

A very blurry and very quickly moving BART train arrives at the station

I also failed to get a not-blurry picture of a BART train on my second visit to the Bay Area

Milpitas BART station entrance in San Jose

A sign for “Rockridge” between two trees out front of the Rockridge BART station in Oakland

Back in the bay this week and using my free evenings to explore the region more. So far I’ve been to San Jose’s Japantown and Palo Alto, last night I ventured up the East Bay towards Oakland for the first time

Reposted my pictures of Muni Metro and BART trains from my thread the other day because I realised they were completely buried by posting the whole thread at once…

Blurry BART train pulling into Civic Center station. This one is operating on the Red Line going to Millbrae

Another blurry BART train. This one is arriving at Balboa Park station and operating on the Blue Line to Dublin/Pleasanton

Speaking of BART, here’s some blurry BART photos because wow does that thing move fast

A Muni Metro Siemens LRV for line L Taraval towards SF Zoo at Castro station

Another Siemens LRV on Muni Metro’s K Ingleside line at West Portal station towards Embarcadero

Here’s some Muni Metro photos from Castro and West Portal stations.

Sadly I forgot to get any pictures of the trolleybus on line 24 I rode a bunch

Taking off from SFO, control tower visible in the background

View of the peninsula while taking off

Until next time San Francisco!

Next time I visit the Bay Area I plan to check out Caltrain and the VTA light rail. Love that the Clipper Card covers everything!

I do wish the new BART fare gates were faster at reading my Clipper card. It felt like it was taking at least 10 seconds before it I got the “Travel OK” and the gates opened. My partner’s Clipper card on iPhone seemed to be a bit faster. Not sure if this was a problem with the old ones

Overall a pretty fast system (for all but one trip to the airport where it felt like we crawled the whole way south of Daly City), comfortable, and clean

Two things surprised me most about BART:
1. The tunnels are extremely loud!
2. The trains I rode were mostly standing room. Especially compared to WMATA rolling stock on a narrower gauge, there were very few seats on these trains. I guess they’re a lot busier during rush hour?

Blurry BART train pulling into Civic Center station. This one is operating on the Red Line going to Millbrae

Another blurry BART train. This one is arriving at Balboa Park station and operating on the Blue Line to Dublin/Pleasanton

Speaking of BART, here’s some blurry BART photos because wow does that thing move fast

One afternoon I did a big pointless circle where I went from Castro to Balboa Park on the K, took BART to Powell, then the N back to Haight. The whole ride on the K was pretty cool. West Portal neighbourhood seems like a neat spot I’d like to explore more some day

I actually quite liked the LRVs, and the automated operations in the tunnels seemed to flow pretty well. The things I’ve heard about Muni Metro not being able to stick to a schedule proved to be quite true. Just about every time I checked almost all of the trains were running late or early

A Muni Metro Siemens LRV for line L Taraval towards SF Zoo at Castro station

Another Siemens LRV on Muni Metro’s K Ingleside line at West Portal station towards Embarcadero

Here’s some Muni Metro photos from Castro and West Portal stations.

Sadly I forgot to get any pictures of the trolleybus on line 24 I rode a bunch

Highlights of the trip: strolling through the Panhalde to Golden Gate Park, walking from Haight to Castro for a burrito, really good ramen, and stunning views of the city, parks, and neighbourhoods everywhere I went.

The best part: being able to see all of it by local transit

For a first time visit to San Francisco, I was super impressed by the city. Great sights! Friendly people! Awesome food! Even when the last couple days were rainy, it was still pleasant weather every day.

Delta A220-300 (N320DU)

Good morning from Austin! Today I’m flying on a Delta A220-300, one of my favourite narrowbody aircraft. I’m always excited for a chance to fly this type. Not only is it a 2-3 layout but the seats in the back are an inch wider than your standard 737. Off to SFO!

A four panel cartoon of a small bird on a branch; the original images are from falseknees.com Panel 1: "mov rax, rbx" Panel 2: "add rax, rcx" Another speech bubble appears, covering that one that says: "HELLO IT'S ME THE KEYBOARD" Panel 3: A corvid appears next to the small bird; the new speech bubbles belong to it. It says "I HAVE AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE" Panel 4: A closeup of the small bird with a frustrated look on its face. The corvid's speech bubble behind it reads, simply, "E".

Saw this on Mastodon, never don't repost.

Hilarious timing that one of my complaints about the new fare system (that it still didn’t have tap payment by debit/credit cards) had a solution announced like a day or two after I posted this. CapMetro accepts tap payments by card (on busses only right now) as of Feb 1

CapMetro's two different farecards, the current "Reloadable Fare Card" from Umo, and the former AMP card for the old Siemens system

I'm working on a blog post about CapMetro's two different fare cards that have launched since I moved here four years ago, a summary of why this happened, and how the user experience of the new card feels like a step backwards. Here's the two cards side by side, with the new one on the left

I’m really relieved to see actual federal support for this project, though. Particularly since they made a big deal about cancelling Amtrak trying to keep the Texas Central HSR project going

With as much work is going on for the airport expansion I think they really should have pushed to do the airport extension from the proposed Yellow Jacket station now. A transit link from the airport to downtown would be a major boost for the city’s tourism push (esp. with the conv center expansion)

Austin's light-rail plans get environmental clearance from Trump administration Federal transit officials approve the environmental review for Austin's light-rail plans. But the question of federal funding remains unanswered.

The EIS for Austin’s light rail got the sign off from the FTA a few days ago

www.kut.org/transportati...

A dam sits behind some trees on a lake. There’s a big “DANGER” sign that on the dam warning that it may suddenly release water without warning.

Afternoon kayaking around the lake (river) today. Finally got a chance to paddle to the dam at the upstream end. Another time I’ll have to go get a picture of the dam at the downstream end

A special edition Silver Line themed SmarTrip card

So it turns out that WMATA still has some old special edition SmarTrip cards from several years ago available on their web store. This one made for the opening of the Silver Line in 2014 is really cool. Looking forward to using it!

After learning I did *not* need to install an antenna on the roof to do so, I’ve set up an ADS-B receiver with a Raspberry Pi and USB SDR in the window behind my desk. I’m seriously impressed that it’s able to pick up planes over 60 miles away!

A small opossum sitting in the fork of an oak tree

Decided to actually make use of this account for once I guess. Enjoy this picture of an opossum I saw at dinner this week