Pedestrian Observations: Corridor Zoning is not Transit-Oriented Development https://pedestrianobservations.com/2026/07/14/corridor-zoning-is-not-transit-oriented-development/
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Alon
@Alon@mastodon.social
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I write about public transport and do research for NYU's Marron Institute. I've previously lived in Tel Aviv, Singapore, the Riviera, New York, Providence, Vancouver, Stockholm, Paris.
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Joined December 02, 2016
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alon@pedestrianobservations.com
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Very soon, incoming MIT students will want to study computational biology. #sorry
What are some examples of national anthems that for historic reasons are not in the state's main language? There's Majulah Singapura and Jana Gana Mana - anything else?
(Inspired by both understanding why and being mildly annoyed that Ode to Joy is in German and it's hard to find instrumental versions.)
Half of the 15 million people who immigrated to Spain in 2002-2024 have since left the country. Funcas has just released a study on Spain's long-term aging and demographic crisis. https://www.funcas.es/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Estudios-de-la-fundacion-113.pdf
Live now, streaming the game Social Democracy and talking about the history (some rail retro-crayon may be included, no promises). https://www.twitch.tv/alon_levy
Cid is pushing me to stream my playing Social Democracy today (at 19:00) while commentating the game and its politics. A recording will be available of course. @autumn@trilobite.space
The German mentality toward neo-Nazis is, if they're 7% of the public then they're too insignificant to ban for anti-constitutional activities, and if they're 27% then they're too popular to ban for same.
Fun facts I discover while looking for Polish city sizes in the 1930s: 20% of the population of the Warsaw Ghetto died of starvation even before the Final Solution deportations to the extermination camps. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw
TIL new Hungarian minister of transport Dávid Vitézy is a Fidesz nepo baby (his late mother was a Fidesz MEP).
I'm sure he'll do great with Budapest urban rail expansion (which he backs), the lack-of-ETCS scandal on the Budapest-Serbia line, etc.
🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺
There will be a Palestinian state. I don't know when, but late 2020s-early 2030s is likely.
And Israel should make the day the agreement is signed a national holiday. For the Palestinians, it's liberation, but for Israelis too it's the start of something new and better.
About 2.5 years too late, Israel is saying it will finally allow the ICRC to visit its prisons. (Meetings with individual inmates will still be banned.) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-security/2026-05-08/ty-article/.premium/israel-to-let-red-cross-visit-security-prisons-in-first-since-oct-7-attack/0000019e-06cf-d914-ab9e-deeff3110000
I don't know how to even keep the government in Popular Front :(. And people say it's easier than Social Democracy?
How many of my followers a) live in or near Berlin and b) are interested in local and national rail issues?
in addition to my post two days ago, there's Liam Blank explaining why the RPA piece about Penn Station capacity is wrong. https://liamblank.com/rpa-penn-station-through-running/
Prompt: AI has automated quite a lot of (but not all) math research, but at the same time AI jobs require more advanced math, increasing the demand for math B.Sc.s and B.A.s. How does this change math academia?
Broke: Abitur is the equivalent of an American bachelor's degree
Woke: a master's degree at a German university is the equivalent of an American bachelor's degree
(Brought to you by my looking at some math lecture notes and course plans for Berlin universities)
Replying to
@shriramk@mastodon.social
@shriramk @jack Evidently, they were different enough for Hórthy to pass Nürnberg-style laws on his own accord.
And Hungary was plenty imperialist on its own, it was just on land and not by sea as with Portugal and Spain. In Portugal, as it is, there wasn't much racial diversity until very recently - the black population was by modern standards very low (10% in Lisbon in 1500, much lower elsewhere) and assimilated with the generations after manumission, and immigration went the other way.
Replying to
@shriramk@mastodon.social
@shriramk I mean, Hungary was 5% Jewish before WW2. Like elsewhere in Europe, it's not that Hungary was never diverse so much as that it became monocultural through genocide and ethnic cleansings that happened within living memory.
Pedestrian Observations: Why High Speed 2 and Other European Lines Make Fewer Stops than the Shinkansen https://pedestrianobservations.com/2026/04/06/why-high-speed-2-and-other-european-lines-make-fewer-stops-than-the-shinkansen/
Scandinavian road and rail infrastructure projects this century have on average been on-budget. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786325001127#cebibl1
Replying to
@RustyFreewheel@aus.social
@RustyFreewheel Both are correct. Hezbollah fired on Israel and chose to enter the Iran war on the Iranian regime's side. It is not an unprovoked invasion the way the Russian invasion of Ukraine is.
Pedestrian Observations: Why Building Metros is Necessary for the Green Transition Away from Cars https://pedestrianobservations.com/2026/03/10/why-building-metros-is-necessary-for-the-green-transition-away-from-cars/
Replying to
@klaremitte@troet.cafe
@klaremitte Ich verstehe nicht - warum hat Merz eine Kippa im Bild?
Replying to
@impactology@mastodon.social
@impactology@mastodon.social Ilhan Omar smartly gave away her ticket to the family of one of the Israeli hostages. Unbelievably, some of the photos Bibi has taken of himself on the plane to the US show him with a pin of the yellow ribbon, as if he is a hostage release activist rather than the prime minister who, when Hamas finally relented earlier this month and agreed to Israel's previous terms, changed the terms to avoid ending the war.
Replying to
@TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
@TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz Hey, welcome to Mathstodon, and I'm glad you're staying on the Fediverse instead of going back to Birdsite or moving to Bluesky :).
Replying to
@jon@gruene.social
@jon@gruene.social I literally just saw this article. Wasn't even looking for this, just tried and failed to find air-rail modal splits. But here is the Green Party's transport expert opposing high-speed rail with the usual NIMBY appeal to Switzerland, a country with more greenfield high-speed rail tunneling per capita than Germany even without taking the base tunnels into account. https://www.dw.com/en/unfair-competition-the-battle-between-high-speed-rail-and-low-cost-airlines/a-41716660
Occasionally SPD says the right things but I'll believe it when they extend U8 to Märkisches Viertel.
Replying to
@jon@gruene.social
@jon@gruene.social Yeah, exactly. Technically literate activism here is mostly a bunch of NIMBYs who say Elektronik vor Beton and ignore how Zurich has two S-Bahn tunnels, more than any other German-speaking city.
Replying to
@jon@gruene.social
@jon@gruene.social Wire all of them, India and China are about to hit 100% and are already ahead of Germany and nearly anywhere else in Europe.
Replying to
@jon@gruene.social
@jon@gruene.social Did DB ever try to plan infrastructure in conjunction with the timetable? In other words, did it ever try figuring out where extra capacity would be needed based on the timetable it's trying to run to Zurich, and invest there? Asking because DB doesn't seem to be using its infrastructure as efficiently as SBB is and I don't think it engages in infra-rolling stock-timetable triangle planning.