Andrew B. Koupal
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ab-koupal.bsky.social
Andrew B. Koupal
@ab-koupal.bsky.social
190 followers 490 following 410 posts
Sarcastic drummer; casual interest in responsible governance and expanding pedestrian and rail infrastructure.
He/him. SF Bay Area
Posts Replies Media Videos
ab-koupal.bsky.social
Uplanders Pipe Band is the combination of two youth programs from the United States to go over to Scotland for the European and World Youth Pipe Band Championships

The two programs are Upland High School from Upland, California and Lander Pipe Band from Lander Wyoming. Together, they form Uplanders
The logo for the Uplanders Pipe Band. There is a landscape of tan and brown bluffs, green trees in between a body of water and the bluffs. A stag stands at the front of the whole scene. Text reads "Uplanders Pipe Band" "Scotland 2025" and "USA".
July 15, 2025 at 9:42 PM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
Once flew on an excursion flight of the Collings Foundation's Nine-O-Nine.
A Boeing B-17G-85-DL Flying Fortress heavy bomber, built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1945. The body of the aircraft is olive drab in color with a red band on the vertical stabilizer.
April 17, 2025 at 4:04 AM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
Registration is open for the 2025 YEC Online Solo Competition.
Register by March 2nd and upload your video by March 31st: www.r2sports.com/website/even...
In the center, the logo for the Western United States Pipe Band Association's Youth Education Council: words WUSPBA's Youth Education Council encircled by three water-color thistles. Around the logo are four individuals, clockwise from the top left: Ian Whitelaw, Richard Parkes, MBE, Bob Worrall, and J. Reid Maxwell. Text at the bottom reads: 2025 YEC Online Competition judges Ian Whitelaw, Richard Parkes, Bob Worrall, J. Reid Maxwell.
February 1, 2025 at 5:17 PM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
Well, Trump's proposed EPA Administrator will be just peachy. I just love having leadership whose goals, practices, and policies are antithetical to the purposes of the departments they will be directing.
November 12, 2024 at 9:22 PM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
CEQA has been abused by disingenuous groups for years it is time to start evaluating ways to prevent these nonsensical lawsuits. I mean, we've known eucalyptus, literally an invasive species, to be extremely dangerous for decades and yet we can't get rid of it because of these frivolous CEQA claims.
@TribTowerViews on Twitter wrote "A few miles north a plan by UC Berkeley to selectively remove non-native eucalyptus trees to reduce fire risk was delayed for two years after CEQA lawsuits filed by two groups." They quote-Tweeted NBC Bay Area News who shared a clip of a grass and eucalyptus tree fire in the Oakland hills on October 17, 2024.
October 19, 2024 at 4:20 PM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
While public transit construction costs are astronomically high, so too are highway expansion costs and yet, few ever complain about the cost of making more space for personal vehicles.
@seungylee14 quote tweeted Dissent Magazine "Yeah there definitely is a billion-dollar boondoggle happening in the United States transportation world -- and it's not the damn trains, it's the freeways". They shared a blurb from Dissent Magazine's article reading: "Exaggeration of traffic growth is endemic to the highway engineering profession. Researcher Tony Dutzik reviewed two decades of predictions of automobile usage by state transportation departments, the Federal Highway Administration, and industry groups. In nearly every case, Dutzik found, actual traffic volumes grew substantially more slowly than forecasted. Predictions for individual highways ran even further off base. "In the decade since the Ohio and Kentucky highway departments began pushing to expand the Brent Spence Bridge connecting Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky, ostensibly to serve the future traffic increases predicted by the agencies' models, traffic level on the bridge have in fact gone down. Nonetheless they are proceeding with a $3.6 billion project to almost double the size of the bridge. "Again and again, critics such as traffic engineering consultant Norm Marchall find highway agencies ignoring real growth trends and capacity contraints to overstate projected traffic congestion. The predicted no-build congestion is exaggerated; the environmental damage from the added traffic that the wider road will attract is minimized. Building these unrealistic assumptions into traffic models serves the interests of highway builders. "But the rot goes deeper. Much evidence suggests that the practice of altering models results, as uncovered in Oregon and Maryland, is widespread. In an informal survey last summer, modelers from seven states told the advocacy group Transportation for America that their organizations alter outputs manually based on "engineering judgement" or "long-range trends" as part of their post-processing. Similar reports come from former employees of highway agencies elsewhere."
October 18, 2024 at 3:51 AM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
A cartoon depicting New York Governor Hochul shoving a person labeled Transit Riders off of a subway platform and into the path of an oncoming train.
June 11, 2024 at 4:30 PM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
Are you languishing waiting for the outdoor season to start?
Don't despair, enter the YEC Winter Online Solo Contest!
Entry is open to everyone regardless of age.
Register before 9 PM Pacific on February 11
Email your videos before 9 PM Pacific on February 19
www.r2sports.com/website/even...
The logo for the Western United States Pipe Band Association' Youth Education Council. Three water color representations of a thistle encircle the words WUSPBA Youth Education Council
January 21, 2024 at 6:41 PM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
Controversial opinion:
I think anytime the University of Toledo's football team makes it to a bowl, that bowl must be held at the Oakland Coliseum so that when they score the stadium's 'Holy Toledo' sign can be appropriately illuminated.
An illuminated sign at the Oakland Coliseum which reads Holy Toledo.
December 30, 2023 at 10:55 PM
ab-koupal.bsky.social
TribTowerViews said it well over on the old place, they are attempting to "save $200m on $20bn rail tunnels that precludes proven tech based on the assumption that two speculative technologies will mature and scale."

These 'savings' exclude the massive cost of fixing this error in the future.
TribTowerViews on Twitter posted: Value engineering to save $200m on $20bn rail tunnels that precludes proven tech based on the assumption that two speculative technologies will mature and scale.
December 27, 2023 at 5:23 AM