Recovering traffic engineer, LCI, former bike coop board member, and pied biker of SE WA. Drag stan. Here by the grace of squats, held together mostly by KT tape. #StopDeKindermoord #VikingBiking #CarryShitOlympics #BikeTooter
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2026-08-29T09:32:53Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I am eternally grateful to have survived a weekend in Spokane Valley. And wearing an ACLU "Trans Youth Belong" T-shirt no less! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/matt-shea-washington-state-lawmaker-who-engaged-in-domestic-terrorism-refuses-to-resign/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Why blame structural policy failures when you can blame the elderly. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 You should buy that bike and take it cyclocross racing, it has clearly been maltreated. Our teenager also uses one as a pack pony. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 did they forget the approach slabs? Or is it only for animals that can jump? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Porsche Cayenne is an Audi Q7 and a VW Touareg. I have the diesel VW version, it's a SUV with better tow capabilities than most small trucks. I get 15mpg towing my RV trailer. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I mean, I am not a data center fan, but also my company has a tremendous amount of growth in engineering and construction management jobs supporting their construction. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 $54m of public subsidy or $54m of private investment in hardware, construction and materials? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Welcome home! If you use Facebook, there's a group called TriCity Family Biking that you might enjoy. It's basically my friend getting people to ride bikes with kids. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Wait you are back in the mid-Columbia? I just assumed previous references to Hermiston were you visiting. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Spring was early, but summer is late. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Thanks! That's better than what weather underground says right now. Should be a fun ride. The kids (aged 6-10) made it the whole way last year and the whole way home less than 24 hours later too. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Ask them to say "six." npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Yeah, I haven't seen many 🚩🚩 it really holds up. I started watching it while also rewatching Dawson's Creek and I pretty much dropped that cus as woke as Dawson's Creek tried to be there were way too many 🚩🚩. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Weevil's character gets a little more complex and multi-dimensional as the series goes on. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 #VeronicaMars S2E22, aired May 9, 2006 npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Eh I don't think this is pro immigrant, I think it's pro rich farmer. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Last year at the science fair awards, I told a kid who placed about 6th that he was the highest placing kid who hadn't used AI. I got to judge his project again this year and said "I remember you from last year!" npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 It's easier to take the train to Paris than Edinburgh. Do a walking loop downtown or shared eBike, Westminster to St Paul's is easily doable in a day unless you want to visit museums. Imperial War Museum, Greenwich is good if you're geeky. If you like Ted Lasso then Richmond is fun plus there are Brompton kiosks at Twickenham station. I'd say go to an Arsenal or Tottenham or Chelsea football game and see if you can find the pub with a tree inside. Oh and theatre, go to the theatre. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Did The Academy not get the memo that there was a new Wicked movie in 2025? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Local science fairs are currently recruiting judges. Sign up and support student scientists and engineers. The best way to show kids they belong is to listen to them tell you about their independent ideas. These kids put hours into their projects and because of judging shortages sometimes they only get 3 judges. You don't need a PhD, you don't need decades of research experience. You just need a willingness to ask encouraging questions and be kind. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Insane it was cheaper to float it up there than put it in a landfill. At least they didn't just sink it onto the bed of Lake Washington. I'm sure some engineer came up with that idea first. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Are you saying our KPIs should just be PIs? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 You can find your local science fair here: https://findafair.societyforscience.org/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Anyway, your local science fair needs your help to recruit kids and support them to do projects. It's a great opportunity, and girls are getting turned away from STEM by the 3rd grade. We have gone significantly BACKWARDS over the course of my 25ish year career. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Also hung out with a 7th grader who almost got kicked out of the library yesterday for being disruptive. He was bored, had used up his 2-hours of computer time, and most likely didn't have the reading skills to be interested in books. He really did not want to be at home IYKWIM. The librarian gave him a challenge to build a 12" tall structure with paper straws, paper plates, and 15" of tape that would hold a weight for 10 sec. He spent half an hour learning from mistakes and not giving up. ❤️ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Talked to a 2nd grade girl who didn't want to come into our Science Fair drop-in help session today because when she did her first fair this year a boy laughed at her. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 There's an escape room in Richland?! npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Welcome home npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/702/064/927/281/242/original/70d0f17313c2b480.png npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Ooh that last pic is a great example for coordinate system metadata and location precision. Even with the date on the plaque, you can't be certain which horizontal and vertical datums are associated with those coordinates, but when you're talking radioactive material you probably are happy to use a +1000 ft buffer on that boundary, so the minor differences between datums isn't that big a deal. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Dunno where 4-year degrees cost $40,000 because in WA it's that much per year almost with living costs. Maybe living with parents and going to community college you can do it for $40k. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 That is the best alpaca photo I have ever seen. I feel like you need to put it on your wall inside and sell a farm calendar with it on April. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Looks like 1933 and the main span is 616 ft. Pity they are working on replacing it, it should last for ages if they keep painting it npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Well now I have to know when this steel arch truss bridge was built. The Sydney Harbour (1932, 1650 ft) and Bayonne (1931, 1673 ft) bridges were duking it out for longest and this one seems to have snuck in behind as a scaled down version. Sydney Harbour copied Hell Gate (1917, 1017 ft) -- both designed to carry rail vs Bayonne being cars only. This one looks like Bayonne before the Raise the Roadway project. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Also why Bellingham is so gosh darn expensive to live in. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Did grunge kill the saxophone or was it Kenny G? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 For example, my kids mostly travel between home and school or home and the grocery store, both 1 mile away. If they just miss a bus they can walk before the next one comes. So if they missed the bus and walked, are they transit users? This is pretty typical transit user behavior, especially if accessing by bike where it's easier to go further. You're constantly recalculating your route if you have options. 🙄 npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Today in Missing The Point, researchers from UT-Knoxville spent $113k on Identifying Research Priorities to Improve Safety for Pedestrians and Bicyclists Accessing Bus Stops. But, they have emphasized being able to isolate which pedestrians and cyclists are accessing transit instead of (a) making an assumption based on proximity to transit stops or (b) general pedestrian & cyclist safety. I'm guessing windshield bias. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 TIL the Nebraska DOT's pavement management system, which manages 10,000 lane miles of pavement valued at nearly $7bn (2022) uses Comic Sans as a heading font. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 wut? Which part of the lab? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 take a book npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 We got her results, 100% Lab!!!!!! npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I'm merely saying the movie isn't worth watching. The books are spectacular. Go with Labyrinth, Ghostbusters, ET, The Goonies, Neverending Story. Don't bother with HTTYD. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 The original cartoon How to Train Your Dragon was an awful hatchet job on a truly magnificent book series. Instead on making a live action movie based on the books, they remade the terrible movie. What a tragedy. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Their email addresses are right there. These things are more amusing to me because I know some of these people. Mike Landry very patiently answered my kids questions about gravitational waves and all things space when they were 11 & 7yo. LIGO is a very special part of our community and I really hope it stays funded. 😬😬 npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 The bee report is new since I posted the link. @npub1ucv…5a8g would enjoy it. https://alog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/aLOG/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Made for an interesting night shift at LIGO but it looks like they are back observing. https://alog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/aLOG/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Wow, they could be sisters. I ordered an Embark DNA test kit. It will blow my mind if she's pure lab as well because she will.not.retrieve. Well, occasionally indoors, but otherwise no. She has a lab friend who is a champ at retrieving; Bailey will run alongside her and sometimes use her nose to help her find things, but is not remotely interested in bringing things back. She is very anxious (we might start her on Prozac) and she has hypothyroidism. She does love water, though! npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Oh wow, I'd never heard of a Red Fox Lab, and I'm wondering now if Bailey is more than half lab! She definitely has the ears and the coloring of a Red Fox! https://myredfoxlabs.com/our-dogs/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I've always thought Bailey's coppery coloring was from her hound side. I'm used to yellow labs being yellower, so it's interesting to see the coloring could be from her lab side. The lighting isn't great but she's the same color as Summer, but her ears are longer, nose is hooked, she's 75 lb, potato shaped, and she has truly stupendous paws. We rescued her at age 3.5, so we don't know much about her parentage other than from conformation, size, and behavior. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Is she pure lab? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 What we sacrifice in the name of affordable housing because we won't give up our parking lots. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Okay but so is there gonna be a hurricane or no? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 My husband points out that it's a Bezosmobile. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 My bike is here. Well, the frame. It's almost the exact same color as my Beetle Blue Tern GSD. #NewBikeDay (It's a Surly Straggler, for those who are curious.) npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I'm feeling some kinda way about all these able-bodied white people happy to dump the "equity" component of our bike/ped data standards project to keep it moving forward. Grateful the consultant we chose maintains equity as a central focus of their work regardless of the project title and scope of work. Let's hope we can restart the project without having to revisit procurement. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Hanford High had a tennis game against Richland last Saturday and my kid reffed soccer in Pasco next to the interstate, which led us to speculate that the only place in the Tri-Cities that is at all sheltered from the wind is Chamna. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 When we first moved here in 2016 it was quite a sensory experience that hasn't been repeated lately--that explains why. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I don't often dream in pictures, but my dream about my brother and my husband physically fighting was as messy and short-lived as a 50-something dude and a 40-something dude with spinal arthritis would be. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 The good news is that according to NPR this morning, there's an asteroid that has a 1 in 40 shot of hitting the earth in 2032 that would be a "city destroying event." npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 All my reps are Republicans. I sent them a comment "Keep voter suppression out of Washington and add fire suppression to our ballot boxes!" npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 The Port of Benton will schedule tours by request! I've been inside, it's not made for tall people. https://portofbenton.com/our-properties-facilities/wine-tourism-agribusiness/uss-triton-sail-park/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 That's great. The only one we've been to is the one up behind the submarine, which is no longer there. Boo. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Did the one on the peninsula in Columbia Point South survive the 2021 fire? I had no idea there were so many geocaches around town! npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Chamna trails are pretty perfect for mountain biking right now. Guess I'll try to get out there another couple times before Friday. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 surface cooling or upwelling of colder water from below due to offshore winds? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 UGH at some point during the year I read an incredible long-form article in The Baffler and tipped $5 for it. That triggered ONE email asking for a donation on Giving Tuesday, so we subscribed since you know, independent news in these times, etc. etc. And since then I've gotten like AN EMAIL A DAY which is driving me insane, but today I woke up to TWO solicitation emails and a news email and OMFG WUT? Why are they punishing me for giving them more money? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 NPR reported the WA GOP called this "out of touch." I'm guessing they don't read the news. #EatTheRich npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 If you're a cop with a "tough on crime" DA, a cash bail system, and backed-up courts because of all the arrests, you can punish people to your heart's content. https://www.vera.org/news/how-the-criminal-legal-system-coerces-people-into-pleading-guilty npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Yeah, you can only jail someone for a credible threat, not venting. But you know, men like to punish women for having opinions and expressing them. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 20/20 The sooner cities accept that they are not beholden to easily-predicted scientific laws of vehicle traffic, but rather that they create vehicle traffic through their policies and codes, the sooner we will get transformation to safe and resilient systems of transportation. Cities that have eliminated parking mandates are on that journey. Cities like Paris that have closed roads are getting there much, much faster. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 19/? At the end of the day, it's pointless trying to apply more econometric rigor to concepts of parking rates and trip generation rates. You cannot easily or rigorously model complex choices people make. Movement is something humans do in response to unmeasurable inputs. We value our time in ways traffic engineers can't try to estimate. We change jobs in the face of return-to-work mandates. We carpool or change modes in the face of parking scarcity. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 18/? We could introduce more science (actually, econometrics) into how we plan for development traffic. We could recognize supply-and-demand relationships and try to factor in trip chaining. We could try to test scenarios involving parking scarcity (factoring in search time, walk time to destination, and converting parking cost into a measure of time). npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 17/? Cities add lanes and time signals to reduce the volume-to-capacity ratio and delay to vehicles. If there were science behind parking and trip generation rates, you'd then compare development trips to observed/forecast trips on the road outside. Maybe check the model's previous forecasts. Spoiler alert: Nope. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 16/? In the US, your Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) or Rural Planning Organization (RPO) is required by Federal law to develop and maintain a travel demand model. Either a developer or a local jurisdiction brings them a scenario (a development, or a comp plan) and the M/RPO staff tweak Step 1 of the 4-step model, turn the handles through Steps 2-4, and output trips moving through intersections and along roads. Active transport isn't modeled, and transit is rarely modeled. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 15/? Step 4 is pretty cool econometrics. It takes that matrix of how many people are moving between zones by which mode and it figures out what route they are taking, based on the principle that in a congested network, changing your route won't change how long it takes. The math is often based on Monte Carlo Simulation. What this means in practice is that smart people did the assignment model and traffic engineers only push "go" and "export results." npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 14/? Step 3 of the 4-step TDM process is Mode Split. In a unimodal model you can skip Step 3! Sometimes Steps 2&3 are flipped. Mode Split modeling basically used to come down to econometrics, and Elasticities of Demand, and a lot of doing what they did in Chicago in 1959 because hey it worked for Chicago. https://uta.pressbooks.pub/oertransportlanduse/chapter/chapter-12-mode-choice-models/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 13/? Step 2 of the 4-step TDM process is Trip Distribution. Step 1 says how many trips start/end in a zone, Step 2 says where they go/come from. It's based on an Origin-Destination Survey. We used to stop traffic and interview drivers, now we use anonymized cellphone data from private vendors. But for developing areas, we're guessing based on the comp plan and how people are currently moving. We have a good guess now of existing movements, but are still guessing future patterns. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 12/? While the US approach to Trip Generation is more complex, it isn't more scientific. Each zone produces and receives trips based on land use. How many depends on how much area. A built-out tract would be stable in terms of traffic production, and draw on household & employment data. Developing zones use Comprehensive Plan land uses, assume a rate of build-out, and you guessed it, those magic Trip Generation Rates from the ITE, with assumptions of land area to gross floor area conversion. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 11/? With Travel Demand Modeling (TDM), Steps 1-3 compute the Origin-Destination (OD) matrix of trips. That's where the junk science happens. Most of it is in Step 1: Trip Generation. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 10/? Travel demand modeling (TDM) takes a matrix of origin-destination trip volumes between zones and routes them through the nodes and links of the network to achieve equal travel times regardless of the path taken. While Cost-Benefit Analysis measures everything in money, TDM measures everything in time. For transit modeling, you assign time to inconvenience. With the National Rail Model we computed a time penalty for a crowded train to model behavior. (Some people wait for the next train.) npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 9/? Travel demand models (TDMs) break a region down into "zones" which could be census blocks or tracts (because this is how population and employment data is organized). The zones emit and receive trips. The road network is broken down into links, which are assigned a capacity, and nodes, which have capacities for each turning movement. Other attributes determine travel time along a path in the network. The model is validated based on existing conditions and real journey travel times. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 8/? So along with trip/parking generation rates, there's another immutable truth to traffic engineering that is junk science, and that is steps 1-3 in the four-step travel demand modeling process. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 7/? Traffic engineering isn't really engineering, it's econometrics. Engineering principles don't work, because you are not working with the immutable laws of physics. You are trying to predict and manage human behavior. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 6/? Engineers love empirical laws. And, for the majority of engineering applications, they work extremely well. Take open channel flow, for example. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 5/? So while engineers are pretty confident none of their peers will testify against a Manual published by their professional body, the ITE trip/parking generation rates are less rigorous than a middle school science fair project. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 4/? The fundamental assumption, or if you like, "science" behind this approach is that there is some implicit and finite number of privately-owned vehicles that will arrive, dwell, and depart a location based solely on a single variable (e.g., gross floor area, # of beds/seats), and land use. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 3/? Trip/Parking generation rates are based on: npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 2/? It has been two decades since I was in the game of applying trip generation rates to traffic engineering problems, but it doesn't look like the game has changed much. Fundamentally, trip generation rates are based on observations. You too can submit observations for consideration in generation rates: https://www.ite.org/ite-trip-generation-data-submission-portal/ npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 🧵 1/? Some half-composed thoughts on Trip Generation Rates and Parking Minima, after a very brief conversation with a retired transit planner last night. I was surprised to hear that he felt there was science behind the new Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual and Parking Generation Manuals. (See the manuals here: https://www.ite.org/technical-resources/topics/trip-and-parking-generation/) npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 My friend, via WhatsApp: "Sadly, no Black Friday sales on Zillow this morning." npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Laura? Heather? Jennifer? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 The 13yo will finish off his Trick-or-Treating career as a traffic cone. #SafetyFirst It was his request, but knowing that Halloween is the deadliest night of the year for kids because of a 3x spike in traffic violence, you bet your ass I broke my back making this thing. (Seriously, the sewing machine slouch is not good for your back.) npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I mean vote-by-mail is secure, but ballot box drop-off is now under attack in districts that are close. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/29/us/ballot-box-fires-what-we-know/index.html npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Is it bad that I am relieved that our Wenatchee soccer game on Saturday won't be wet? npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 It went from Cat 1 to Cat 4 in 7 hours?! npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 When I used to do hydraulic design for bridges, the standard was to allow one foot of clearance between the top of the 100-year flood water and the bottom ("low chord") of the bridge. When you see flood pics and that's how the bridge is, then it's a design storm and anything underwater is known to be in the flood plain. When you see no clearance (pressure flow) or overtopping, you know it's a >100 year storm, much bigger than the infrastructure was designed for. npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 Welcome home! npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 I was going to say you must not need them that much if you got all the way there because I had LASIK in 2015 and forgot how disposable contacts work. I hope you can get a trial set from an optometrist! npub1nlh7t89ux22rl4y2wphv576k42fa9xppml8xpehk7fq5zyvujg0s52h745 Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦 oh we aren't going into the station, a pair of reporters came to film us during class. I didn't catch their names, but they were also just giving us space.
