Brianinja
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brianinja.bsky.social
Brianinja
@brianinja.bsky.social
Professional Chicagoland suburban transportation planner by day. Cargo ebike suburban dad by night. Enjoys birds and cute art. 🏳️‍🌈 He/him.
Pinned
Updated my stats to include a monthly summary which better illustrates how much an eBike has increased my bike riding habit. I was even surprised my riding remained so high during winter. Find what lets you do your thing more often!
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Great blue herons
#birds #herons #photography
January 5, 2026 at 1:42 AM
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If you can do so, riding a bike daily is a really good middle finger to the oil barons ruining the world.
January 4, 2026 at 10:14 PM
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Median bus lanes also can make TSP easier and less expensive to implement.
A textbook of bad street design:

✅ Curbside bus lanes, which never work

✅ Right turners can block bus lane

✅ Bikes and buses, which move at different speeds, share one lane

✅ Narrow sidewalk blocked by trees and posts.
I found this street diagram for a project in Las Vegas and damn its perfect for Aurora Avenue here in Seattle
January 4, 2026 at 10:10 PM
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Local man looks to move to The Netherlands after heartwarming encouragement from the internet "if you love bikes so much just move to Holland"
January 4, 2026 at 2:37 PM
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January 4, 2026 at 12:42 AM
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The mayor says something really important about something that's bugged me for a long time: that we force grieving families to relive their trauma over and over again as they lobby elected officials asking them to do the right thing. I am so glad to hear him say those days are over.
"I'm so sorry that we could not have done this earlier...to have saved the loved ones in your life. But I thank you fopr the work that you have done...to ensure that this pain not be felt by others who call this same city home." — Mayor Mamdani at McGuinness Blvd. presser youtube.com/shorts/uwAYI...
Mayor Mamdani commits to ending traffic violence across NYC on third day in office #safestreets
YouTube video by Streetsblog NYC
youtube.com
January 3, 2026 at 9:13 PM
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COMIC: Udders
January 3, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Wait, it's 3.5 hours? That's what I get for watching it at home! Had no idea this film clocked in that long.
I saw this for the first time in a cinema and it did NOT feel like 3.5 hours had passed
January 3, 2026 at 2:28 AM
It's a big one
moon alert Chicago
January 2, 2026 at 11:09 PM
Not a single fare collection.

For just this car, that's $500 not collected. There are at least 5 other cars on this run.
It's now Irving Park with a nearly completely full Metra UPNW train on the Friday after New Year's, people are alighting and departing, and I've still not seen a single conductor collecting fares.

Metra is proud of running 1950s stock because they're leaving cash on the table.
January 2, 2026 at 5:04 PM
It's now Irving Park with a nearly completely full Metra UPNW train on the Friday after New Year's, people are alighting and departing, and I've still not seen a single conductor collecting fares.

Metra is proud of running 1950s stock because they're leaving cash on the table.
January 2, 2026 at 4:53 PM
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There’s still a classist view on the bus in Chicago. Which is a shame because buses go to places where there are no trains
Cities become so much better when we make the bus suck less; there are still many, many ways we can make the bus suck less; and as a whole we should be trying to make the things we already know how to do suck less instead of waiting/wishing/hoping for vaporware tech to save the day.
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
January 2, 2026 at 3:07 PM
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Riffing on this: ridership data makes it clear that the CTA’s actual operating model is a high-frequency bus grid, supplemented by faster higher-capacity trains radiating out from downtown. CTA’s a bus operator that also happens to operate the ‘L’.
There’s still a classist view on the bus in Chicago. Which is a shame because buses go to places where there are no trains
Cities become so much better when we make the bus suck less; there are still many, many ways we can make the bus suck less; and as a whole we should be trying to make the things we already know how to do suck less instead of waiting/wishing/hoping for vaporware tech to save the day.
January 2, 2026 at 3:12 PM
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Mamdani setting up a permitting reform and land inventory task force is some real sickos yes stuff.
January 1, 2026 at 10:40 PM
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You love to see it
Holy shit it's real
January 2, 2026 at 12:07 AM
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I'd like to think that's the end of the headline and that they made a punctuation mistake
January 1, 2026 at 8:11 PM
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The only thing that loves multiculturalism and immigration more than my heart, is my stomach.
January 1, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Going to try and do one urban sketching watercolor per month. It's been nice to create this past year.
January 1, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Now that is a fun idea.
January 1, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Oh sure why not.
January 1, 2026 at 4:03 AM
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Some advice for you fancy folks going out on the town tonight:
This Weeks Editorial Cartoon: To Cirrhosis With Love
To Cirrhosis With Love
theonion.com
December 31, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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Kinda want to start a thread of "When to start watching a movie on New Years Eve to have a specific moment happen at midnight" as an alternative to New Years Eve Ball Drops.

According to Reddit, if you start the Return of the King Extended Edition at 8:24:18 PM, Sauron will explode at Midnight.
December 31, 2025 at 12:32 AM
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I wish this was an original idea but it was actually one that Pace dropped 15 years ago. Although their plans connected to no Metra stations focusing on connecting business parks more than actual transit hubs.

rtams.org/sites/defaul...
December 30, 2025 at 5:57 PM
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Things cars ruined #187

School start times.

Our district voted to end school bus programs and shift the burden to parents and private cars. An outcome of this is schools have staggered their start times to accommodate the high traffic when dropping off kids.

How it impacts non-car users 🧵
December 30, 2025 at 3:54 PM