Oran V @oranv Twitter profile

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Oran V

4 years

I’m well. I just blocked Twitter completely for the whole month of June and am making changes. When in doubt check my personal website.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

A scene that would look alien to people who moved to Seattle after March 23, 2019 and were not aware that the downtown transit tunnel was originally built for buses.

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Oran V

@oranv

2 years

Costco should sell ADU/cottage house kits under the Kirkland Signature brand.

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Oran V

@oranv

12 days

You know it’s a transit line opening in 2024 when… Link #2Line

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

Transport for London, an agency that serves 8.9 million people, will have no transit service on December 25 due to Christmas. No Tube, no DLR, no Overground, no buses, no National rail.

Hayden Clarkin

@the_transit_guy

6 months

The Utah Transit Authority, an agency that serves 2.2 million people, will have no transit service tomorrow due to Thanksgiving. I am at a genuine loss of words what is going on in Utah?!

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Oran V

@oranv

6 years

Sound Transit Escalators - a webcomic in the style of Alex Norris

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Oran V

@oranv

11 months

Not often you get to meet a Twitter Character of the Day in person. The shade thrown on this was incredible.

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Oran V

@oranv

16 days

Hey @SoundTransit if you don’t want people taking pictures from your station plazas then rope them off. Otherwise tell to ur security to shut up.

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Oran V

@oranv

7 months

Urbanist and environmentalist flyers pointing people to: Climate Town Strong Towns The War on Cars Oh the Urbanity

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

3-story building with 4 living units and ground level corner retail and bus stop in front and parking in back

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Oran V

@oranv

2 years

Trolley bus extension to directly serve subway station entrance taking shape.

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Oran V

@oranv

10 months

This is the 1 Line

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

emulating long abandoned software to recreate a retro transit diagram editing environment

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

Metro even held a farewell party for the last tunnel buses and brought out the original Breda dual-mode buses for one last dance underground.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

City skylines are best enjoyed from an elevated train

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Oran V

@oranv

9 months

Apple Maps Transit beats Google Maps Transit again, Montreal REM edition

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

4-car elevated train and double decker bus at Northgate #Link21

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Oran V

@oranv

5 months

Simple boxes can be beautiful without needing architectural gimmicks. More economical, too.

Spokane Rising

@spokanerising

5 months

Another cool thing about housing in Spokane is that we don’t require façade articulation and seven different types of material. That means new buildings in our city can utilize more classic, timeless design.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

You jest but the actual 2006 Amtrak Cascades Long Range Plan planned for 13 hourly SEA-PDX (2h 30m) and 4 SEA-YVR (2h 37m) daily round trip trains by *2023*

The Urbanist

@UrbanistOrg

1 year

NEW: @Amtrak_Cascades announces an increase of service. 16 daily roundtrips will operate between Seattle and Portland starting May 1st offering hourly service between 6am and 10pm seven days a week. 🚆

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Oran V

@oranv

7 months

This is Rapid Transit

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

Dig these retro-modern(?) abstract graphics for the @MBTA user guides. Could be framed as art.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

Don’t sell one huge city owned lot to one huge developer. Instead, subdivide it into smaller lots, hold a design contest for many small developers and celebrate creativity and variety .

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Oran V

@oranv

1 month

🇨🇦 by this metric

TomOyn 🚉🏗️

@AussieWirraway

1 month

the answer for the record is Australia by the way

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Oran V

@oranv

12 days

And we’re on the first 2 Line train at South Bellevue!

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Oran V

@oranv

16 days

@Ryan12185096 @SoundTransit Typcial idiotic security theater

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

The 1925 Comprehensive Rapid Transit Plan for the City and County of Los Angeles would’ve transformed the PE into a rapid transit system with grade separation, through running, expanded streetcar and bus lines, with integrated management and fares but leaders balked at the cost.

JR Urbane Network

@JRUrbaneNetwork

1 year

LA: "Has the world's largest electric railway network." Cities in 🇯🇵 over the next 50 years: *takes notes* "hold my biru." LA looking over the pond at 🇯🇵 50 years later: "Oh you are supposed to keep and upgrade those things. Whoops."

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

Even Japan, famous for shutting down its trains around midnight for maintenance, runs special extended service all night on New Year’s Eve into New Year’s Day for revelers and people making their first shrine visits of the new year.

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Oran V

@oranv

4 months

The Link 2 Line approach to downtown Seattle is gonna be a grand entrance

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Oran V

@oranv

2 years

. @SoundTransit did their homework. People with Low English Proficiency, the group that station pictograms were intended to assist, do not use, recognize, nor found them useful. They picked up on station coding and found them way more helpful.

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Oran V

@oranv

11 months

Bangkok’s newest rail transit expansion opened Saturday, the MRT Yellow Line.

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Oran V

@oranv

8 months

North American transit bus manufacturers spend zilch on the customer experience of limited window visibility, rough ride quality, awkward interiors, basic information displays — and the thing you end up remembering is the hourly bus is late again.

Jon Ostrower

@jonostrower

8 months

The industrial psychology of this is fascinating. Boeing and Airbus spend billions on the interior and customer experience of higher cabin altitude, bigger windows, greater humidity, mood lighting — and the thing you end up remembering is the food.

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Oran V

@oranv

15 days

@SoundTransit “Sound Transit does not tolerate harassment.” I don’t tolerate harassment from Sound Transit.

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Oran V

@oranv

5 years

Epic fan made bus map of greater Tokyo showing all operators

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Oran V

@oranv

10 months

@fb47z @tammarine_pk ตราไก่มาจากสหรัฐครับ คนทำเป็นเวียดนามอพยพแต่บริษัทและโรงงานผลิตตั้งในแคลิฟอร์เนีย ใช้พริกที่ปลูกในสหรัฐกับเม็กซิโก

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

The Metro Red (B) Line was bored under Cahuenga Pass and trains zoom through at 70 mph. All the monorail options are slower and two skips UCLA. Monorail ride quality is worse, too. The Sepulveda Pass deserves the superior option.

E/Expo Line Ledger

@expolineledger

6 months

“An underground rail would carry nearly twice as many riders as two of the monorail options, mostly because two of the three monorail options would not include stations at @UCLA , a prime destination that is projected to be the busiest station.”

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

I’m not joking. There is no public transport other than taxis, bike share, intercity coaches, and dial-a-ride running on Christmas Day in Greater London.

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Oran V

@oranv

10 months

I don’t often do (unsolicited) promotional pieces like this but the name and concept was too good to pass back in 2017. Nice to see that six years later the @ClallamTransit Strait Shot service is still running. Sounds like it is a success!

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

A tragedy in two acts.

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Oran V

@oranv

2 years

Someone walked up to me and asked what “2, 20” meant. Me: “The next train is in 2 minutes then the one after that in 20 minutes.” Him: “Ooohhhhh”

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Oran V

@oranv

4 years

I requested election materials in Thai and I was impressed. They translated everything, from the statements, impact analysis, to the legal text. You won’t find this level of detail in Thailand, assuming you get to vote on such matters.

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Oran V

@oranv

10 months

#CityLine buses have ramps at the center and rear doors! Roll yourself or your wheels on easily. The raised platform allows shorter ramps and smaller gaps for near level boarding.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

If Spud Fish & Chips in Green Lake can transition from standalone to mixed use, then the U District Burgermaster can, too.

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Oran V

@oranv

10 months

Brampton looks like typical North American suburbia and is home to 656,000 people but it has higher bus ridership than Houston or Portland, OR or Baltimore.

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Oran V

@oranv

10 months

It looks epic from the sky, too.

Metro Los Angeles

@metrolosangeles

10 months

For lunch today: fresh pics of LAX/Metro Transit Center construction. This is the station where riders will transfer btwn Metro trains & buses and the LAX people mover serving 🛫 terminals.

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Oran V

@oranv

2 years

Always nice to check your work in print (that seam between pages worried me).

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Oran V

@oranv

4 years

If I’m gonna cover my face might as well be on brand with a transit diagram

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

Try a Bus Bike Rack! Practice loading and unloading your bike on the bus without pressure with this demo bike rack at the Kirkland Transit Center.

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Oran V

@oranv

12 days

Amazon should pay for the entirely of the segment they’re trying to un-democratically dictate, plus damages and delay compensation. Our reps sold us out.

Seattle Subway

@SeattleSubway

13 days

The @SoundTransit board already spent big on shifting the station a bit north at the insistence of Amazon with essentially no fanfare. That $500M is a compounded cost of deferring to corporate interests over transit riders/the public.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

How many know about, let alone understand, that the “spine” will be split? I was confused. There will no longer be a one-seat train ride from the airport/South Seattle/South County to UW/North Seattle/Snohomish County. That’s why we got to make that transfer the best one we can.

The Urbanist

@UrbanistOrg

1 year

Sound Transit’s Link light rail expansions come with a lot of confusion. Ray Dubicki breaks down some big misnomers that could doom the projects if not well understood. Story:

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Oran V

@oranv

4 years

I spent Saturday updating my Bangkok Transit Map project page. How I got to now. Where it's been. A 1st draft is better than none.

Bangkok Transit Map

Schematic multilingual map of Bangkok’s expanding mass rapid transit network (and more…)

sanjorn.com

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Oran V

@oranv

7 months

Why did they stage the battery bus photo on the Rizal Bridge under trolley wire and not like in West Seattle where there’s actually a view?

Dow Constantine

@kcexec

7 months

Welcome to the New Energy! This is the new design for every new @KingCountyMetro bus in our fleet as we reach our goal of a zero-emission fleet by 2035.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

1964 🚘 1990 🚍 2007 🚇 2016 ✨

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

Would be cool if this “brick tower” could be built on its own on a smaller lot.

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Oran V

@oranv

6 years

a 2-track subway with station platforms fits in a single tunnel that’s 5.4 m less in diameter than a 4-lane highway tunnel with no exits.

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Oran V

@oranv

11 months

wtf are Sound Transit staff, consultants, and Snohomish County board reps smoking? car fumes!? you have SO MUCH ROOM in public right of way! apparently it's politically easier to bulldoze people’s homes and businesses than to take lanes from cars smh

The Urbanist

@UrbanistOrg

11 months

Sound Transit has quietly put out a document on the Everett Link Extension options. It details hundreds of unnecessary property acquisitions, including leveling dozens of businesses and buildings in Downtown Everett.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 months

Link 2 Line, Pioneer Square Station (July 2004)

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Oran V

@oranv

17 days

Link 2 Line train arriving at Redmond Technology

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Oran V

@oranv

5 years

California: "California is overpopulated!" Tokyo: "Hold my ビール." Both have the same population. One does not have a housing shortage despite growth in an area the size of the LA metro area on an island with few natural resources.

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Oran V

@oranv

4 months

Hopefully this was the last street median light rail track Sound Transit ever built. This isn’t the 1990s anymore.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

The Puget Sound region should’ve approved this as the rapid transit plan in 1992 and build whatever it could afford until it was done. The Interstate Highway System wasn’t built or funded overnight but it had a grand network vision from the outset, not vague corridor studies.

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Oran V

@oranv

15 days

Anyway, complaint filed. I’m sick of this BS. Went through the same nonsense back in 2010 when Link first opened.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

Past, present, future transit hub

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

One minute on the car-free State Street Promenade, Santa Barbara, California

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

Wondering which reverse commutes (city center resident to suburban employment) had the highest non-driving mode share in the US? The busy 545 Seattle to Microsoft bus in its heyday came to mind.

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Oran V

@oranv

5 years

Nobody is suggesting we get rid of road maps and yet people think a trip planner can replace a system map. One answers specific questions, the other builds understanding of the city.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

As we’ve learned over the past 48 hours: mapping a transit network is not a trivial task you can just throw at a random graphic designer disinterested in the subject and expect an accurate and usable product.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

Cute little micro-van. Image search says this is a 1990s Daihatsu Mira walk through van. It’s classified as a kei-car in Japan. Looks like a baby version of the USPS’s new mail vehicle.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

Longest light rail lines: When Regional Connector joins Metro Blue & Gold lines in downtown LA in a few months, the combined A Line will be 49.5 miles. Montclair extension in 2026 makes it 58.8 mi. Link 1 Line, Lynnwood–Seattle–Tacoma, will be 51 mi. Lynnwood–Everett adds 16 mi.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

Downtown Los Angeles’s 7th St/Metro Center station has a better subway transfer experience than Downtown Seattle’s Westlake Station will ever have.

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Oran V

@oranv

11 days

Microsoft's Transit Screen inside the cafe at Redmond Tech

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Oran V

@oranv

4 months

The bus can take you all over LA but what’s missing even from the many frequent lines is speed & reliability. Give these buses priority, add more night & weekend service, and watch people hop on. $10 for 2 day passes beats paying $20+ for parking if the bus was time competitive.

Joe Cohen

@CohenSite

5 months

A lot of people think LA has limited transit, because they only think of trains In reality, @metrolosangeles buses are clean, safe, and convenient A big part of making LA less car dependent is just getting people to try riding buses

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Oran V

@oranv

12 days

What a teaser… 🧢

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@oranv

1 year

Los Angeles County (Southern California RTD, Long Beach Transit, Montebello Bus Lines) electric trolleybus plan from 1992. Total estimated cost $1.1 billion ($2.4 billion inflated). It couldn’t be funded.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

lolsobs in Culver City… “Bus-bike lanes are not high-comfort bicycle facilities, and are not a substitute for dedicated bikeways”. The Dutch, global leaders in bike infrastructure, do not do mixed bus-bike lanes.

Shared Bus-Bike Lane | National Association of City Transportation Officials

Buses and bicycles often compete for the same space near the curb. Although not a high-comfort bike facility, in appropriate conditions, bus-bike lanes are an option on streets where dedicated bus...

nacto.org

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

Buses can be hot, too.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

Sound Transit: we have to acquire and demolish a brand new apartment building to build an elevated station in West Seattle Chicago: ROFL

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Oran V

@oranv

9 months

Link’s ADA-compliant level boarding beats a lot of recently opened systems in other countries.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

Concrete arches for Henry Ford’s never realized electric railway

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Oran V

@oranv

10 days

Before (2021) & After (2024): Overlake Village Station Sign

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Oran V

@oranv

12 days

After 7 hours of what feels like running into so many of the Seattle urbanist community, it’s time for rest. What a wonderful celebration of our collective effort. Seeing so many people experience transit with smiles on their faces, kids who will grow up with this, brings me joy.

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Oran V

@oranv

1 year

Many don’t know this but trolleybus 🚎 is considered a Section 5307 fixed guideway mode (like light rail and subway) eligible for federal funding.

FTA Fiscal Year 2023 Apportionments, Allocations and Program Information

This notice provides priorities for programs in fiscal year (FY) 2023, announces the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and full-year apportionments and allocations for grant programs, provides...

www.federalregister.gov

The Urbanist

@UrbanistOrg

1 year

Electric trolleybuses are THE way to go. They should be a top tier network electrification strategy. 🚎

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Oran V

@oranv

9 months

Imagine a new subway station that bridges the barrier between the two, creating a gateway to both stadiums and ID while unifying local, regional and intercity transit right where the top of the red shaded part is… (Build 4th Avenue shallower station for ST3)

Ace The Architect

@andrew_ace_agh

9 months

Now that both TS and the All-Star Game have happened, let me explain a bit as to why the ID did not benefit from the events: The part I’ve shaded below is an urban psychological barrier, and a particularly strong one when you aren’t from here. 1/2

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

@Dan_in_BKK I hope the drivers and mechanics enjoy their well deserved break.

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

They can start saving by stopping new highways and expansions. Shrink existing highway footprints. Don’t sneak widening into safety replacements. Less pavement = less culverts.

David Kroman

@KromanDavid

6 months

New: A court mandated project to improve the state’s culverts for salmon is now likely to cost up to $4 billion more than expected, doubling original estimates and upending Washington’s transportation budget. W/ @mreicher

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Oran V

@oranv

13 days

“Another Train Coming” say the safety signs, which means… Link 2 Line trains meet on the viaduct between BelRed and Spring District. The “🟦 Redmond Tech” sign is sharp. Tracks fully gated at intersection (some arms need to be installed).

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Oran V

@oranv

4 months

What does red mean here, delayed? It really should be a different symbol. Red-green color blindness is not uncommon.

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Oran V

@oranv

6 months

We voted for Mass Transit Now! Twice! The dillydallying ST Board didn’t get the memo. We didn’t vote for Dow’s prison station or Harrell’s SCID kickback station or to protect Amazon & Vulcan’s interests.

Sandeep Kaushik

@skaushik100

6 months

@cruickshank I mean, this official timeline is an absurdist joke. NINE FUCKING YEARS of planning?!?!??!!! Followed by FOUR FUCKING YEARS of design, and then 12 FUCKING YEARS of construction?!?!??!!! To get to FUCKING BALLARD?!?!??!!! Like, what is wrong with us as a region?

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@oranv

4 years

I’ll never get tired of mentioning that the TTC subway runs big ass trains every 2-5 minutes from open to close every day and replacement buses every 3-15 mins overnight.

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@oranv

9 months

Kinkisharyo light rail vehicle high floor version (LA Metro) next to low floor version (Sound Transit). Interesting that ST’s is almost 2 meters longer and has 6 more seats.

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Oran V

@oranv

3 years

Electric Interurban railway

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Oran V

@oranv

2 years

When I moved to Southern California a decade ago, I had the stereotype of sprawl hell LA. That was pleasantly challenged when I started exploring by transit, going on group walks, and participating in open streets events. It has tremendous potential if it can move beyond cars.

Ray Delahanty | CityNerd

@Nerd4Cities

2 years

Anyway — as always, LA is like a cartoonishly exaggerated example of all the things that make the US great and maddeningly stupid at the same time. Here are my thoughts on the persistence of streetcar-era urban form and what it means.

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@oranv

12 days

Pour one out for the 4 Line (South Kirkland-Bellevue-Issaquah)… Its title of Puget Sound’s first suburb to suburb rail line snatched by the starter 2 Line seventeen years before it had a chance.

rose (REMOVE I-95)

@_spacepeanut_

12 days

congratulations to bellevue, washington on becoming the smallest city in america to have their own high capacity rail rapid transit system

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Oran V

@oranv

26 days

Yesterday was my twelve year work anniversary. It was my first time moving to live on my own, in a town I’ve never heard of, for a firm whose Spokane map caught my attention months earlier. Now I’ve worked with over two dozen clients, some still to this day.

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Oran V

@oranv

11 months

Woah, just realized you can now ride a single train between Sawtelle Japantown (Little Osaka) and Little Tokyo. Closest thing to a bullet train to get across town.

Randell of Troy

@USCSportsTalk

11 months

From West LA to Little Tokyo via @metrolosangeles E line #success

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@oranv

4 years

No mask, no ride on Seattle streetcar during 1918 Influenza pandemic. 120 local Red Cross workers made 260,000 masks in 3 days.

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@oranv

12 days

Here at South Bellevue for the 1st (or 2nd?) 2 Line train to Redmond Tech. I guess it’s being held until the ribbon is cut.

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@oranv

10 months

Mid-1990s Seattle! The one of my childhood. Gonna guess the “subway” portion was filmed at Sea-Tac.

cars.destroyed.our.cities

@CarsRuinedCity

10 months

Bill Nye on motor vehicles in 1995

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@oranv

22 days

Proven electric bus technology since 1940. Zero charging downtime or climatic range loss. 🚎

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@oranv

5 months

“Kemper’s Last Stand” In a few months, we will be celebrating and riding trains on the Eastside’s 2 Line.

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Oran V

@oranv

9 months

The people of the Netherlands fifty years ago did a lot of protesting and advocacy to change their car-ridden cities so people like NJB can enjoy it today. The lesson from his videos is “a better city is possible in our lifetimes if you fight for it”, not “just move to Europe”.

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Oran V

@oranv

12 days

A bit disappointed that the 2 Line map poster is smaller than the 1 Line’s Northgate Link poster. But if it meant twice as many people got one then it’s good.

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