Three Weeks in Europe

BART > United Airlines > Heathrow Express > London Undergound > First Capital Connect > EasyJet > Metro de Madrid > AVE > Metro de Barcelona > Eurolines Bus > TGV > Paris Metro > Eurostar > London Undergound > United Airlines > Tragically, a ride by car home, as my backpack containing my Translink card (and several much more expensive things) was stolen in Barcelona.

Europe was for reals, and as soon as I'm slightly less jet-lagged I'll do a decent writeup.

One random point about being without my Translink card for a few days: I got to use the new Muni ticket machines at Civic Center station today.  The machines are the product of Clipper maker Cubix, which also runs London's OysterCard system.  For a brief moment this morning, until the faregates closed behind me, it honestly seemed like I could have been in a Tube station.

Don't Be That Guy

Okay, one last gem before I leave:

Via bitchycomments.com Curbed SF, this former Angleno's guide to driving in San Francisco.  I'm not condoning auto use but, today at least, I'm not hating on it.  We all have friends who drive, and yet we still love them.  These ten points are solid pieces of advice to help the overly auto-dependent coexist peacefully with the rest of us:

Park in the street, and it’s totally legal here for anyone waking by to bash your windshield in with a bat. Really, it is. We’re very progressive and don’t have a lot of outlets [for] our stockpiles of rage. Do not tempt us.

Oh, he knows me so well.

Epic Slowness

Just outside Beijing there's a highway that's experiencing a bit of traffic.  In fact, the traffic jam just hit its ninth day.  Nine days of traffic - and you thought your commute was bad.

Speaking of slowness, I know I haven't posted in a while.  You hear it on blogs all the time, but I've been super busy at work.  And after this week I'm off to a much needed vacation in Europe.  I hope to see some shining examples of transit and urban infrastructure while I'm there - and I might have a chance to post some of it here while I'm over there.  But fair warning, I'm k-k-kinda busy.

Sunday Streets Announces "Central City" Route

Again via the Sunday Streets Facebook page, we have word of October's Sunday Streets route, from Civic Center through the Tenderloin!  From Civic Center Plaza up Polk Street to Ellis and O'Farrell, then down Leavenworth and Jones, this route opens up a tight cluster of street spaces in San Francisco's densest residential neighborhood.  For many this will be a great chance to see the TL for the first time, and for the thousands of people who live nearby, it will be a welcome respite from the traffic sewers that burden this neighborhood.

Click through the image above for a closer look - I'll see you all there!

This. Is. Too. CUTE.

Via SF Appeal, a kid named Sam got a BART cake for his 4th birthday.  This would be evidence of reincarnation, except that I'm not dead yet.

The Pulse of the City

The incomparable Eric Fischer has made his move into video, showing us the movement of every Muni bus in June all lumped together into one imaginary day:

Watch the video on Eric Fischer's Flickr page

Eric's work is at the forefront of public analysis of transit agency data.  By opening up its bus GPS data, the SFMTA has created a unique environment where smart and creative people like Mr. Fischer have the tools to do what it can't be expected to do itself.  That is to show us our Muni in novel ways that give us unexpected insight into its workings.

What a simple thing to do - to show us a video of where every bus goes in a day - and yet its effect is like the first time Google published a satellite view on its maps.  We now have a whole new perspective from which to view Muni.  Many perspectives, in fact, as Eric continues to come up with new ways to crunch and mash up the raw data to show us something that was never visible before.

Sunday Streets Western Addition Route Announced

It's not up on their website yet, but the Sunday Streets Facebook page has posted a map of September 19th's Western Addition route.  Winding through a dense residential neighborhood and along part of the Fillmore commercial corridor, this event promises to be much more like the popular Mission District route than the next event in line, a Great Highway route scheduled for August 22nd.

The Western Addition route is a first for Sunday Streets, and will be followed in October by another new route - through the Tenderloin.

Rise Above It

Commenter Gary snapped this great panoramic shot of New York City's High Line park back in July.  Click through to Flickr to see the larger size.  The development/planning-minded person will recognize the potential infill site where that ugly parking lot is, and indeed the High Line is part of an impressive redevelopment of its surrounding area.

But this image also beautifully shows a woman enjoying the peace of the park, with great views of Manhattan, oblivious to the blight below.  You can get a feel for her perspective by watching around 1:48 of Pedestrianism Vol. 6.  Well done, Gary!

Walk Across America

With the weekend close enough to taste, here's a video my coworker sent me to pass the minutes until quitting time:



It's more like other Pixilation-style videos than my Pedestrianism series, and must have taken an incredible amount of work. The effect is totally amazing!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Last Train to Sparseville

Welcome to San Francisco, Jarrett Walker.

Anyone not familiar with Mr. Walker should definitely take the time to read through all the gold at Humantransit.org

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