wayfarer, civil engineer by training, transit map designer by trade. finding beauty in what’s otherwise unnoticed. Eng/ไทย. Seattle/Bothell, นนทบุรี/Bangkok, Santa Barbara.
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I didn’t know dot matrix printers were still widely available. Useful for those who use multi-part carbon copy forms… this Epson LQ-310 costs 9,350 THB (289 USD). Dot matrix is known for durability and low operating cost with replacement 10-meter ink ribbons at 230 THB ($7.11) each. Iconic sound.
The HL-1110 is the cheapest model of Brother laser printer that we had for years before donating it and getting a Brother multifunction laser. For 1,990 THB (61 USD) tax included you get a basic printer that works for occasional use. The replacement toner cartridge is 2/3 the cost of the printer.
Garage cafes (and other neighborhood businesses) like this were recently legalized in Bothell, Washington!
School gate cats
Not officially confirmed but Nelvana, one of Canada's most storied animation studios, appears to have quietly closed down on Friday, yet another casualty of Corus Entertainment's struggle to survive.
I've kept this a secret until now, but I love stairs. 今まで内緒にしてきましたが階段大好きですっ☆
New EMV-only fare gates in the MRT Blue Line. I like the convenience of using a card I already have but I hate how slow it is to process at the gate* and how slow account settlement is**. * compared to Japan’s IC cards where you basically breeze through and the gates stay open ** hard to track cost
I love the ISO 216 paper sizes that are used everywhere except North America. If the A series doesn’t meet your needs, then you have the slightly larger B series. All have the same aspect ratio of square root 2 so no matter how you scale them they will fit exactly to the next size.
Yes. The label for it was missing in places but it's fixed now.
My Eastside Transit Map has been updated with new routes connecting to the 2 Line and other service changes that took effect on Saturday, August 30. Updates to the companion bike & bus map coming soon!
Frankly, Pheu Thai alienated themselves and now it's looking like payback time for the 1st and 3rd largest parties, both of which have felt betrayed by Pheu Thai for one reason or another. (Great insightful analysis from @kenlmathis.bsky.social as always). www.coffeeparliament.com/p/pheu-thai-...
Nippon Haku Bangkok 2025
This illustration does a good job of showing you how the building code limits family-sized apartments and condos in America We talk about the two required staircases, but the real culprit is the hallway you have to build between those staircases!
ΣΠΑΠ – Peloponnese Netzgrafik 1962 Something I’d never seen before and I didn’t expect to see. ⚪️ Standard trains 🔴 Fast trains 🟢 Local and steam trains 🔵 Car-ferries A really inclusive timetable, aiming for the passenger’s information Source: gwrarchive.org/site/sitel2p...
A lot of countries in Asia are linking up their real-time payment systems so if you have a bank account in say China you can pay in Thailand just like you do at home by scanning a QR code. I paid for a drink from a vending machine in Japan using my Thai bank app.
I love Thailand’s PromptPay instant bank transfer service. It’s replaced most cash-only transactions here for me. I also love the cardless cash withdrawal service. I wish Zelle in the US was truly instant and more universal with better UX. And Co-Op ATMs with app-based auth to stop card skimming.
My wife’s friends’ stall is called Doomed Lesbian.
Lily Fest 6 (Girls Love Only event) collecting comics, novels and GL goods from indie creators and publishers at JJ Mall
The version I used to ride most often (Brickyard P&R-Kirkland-Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel) ceased to exist in 2020.
Trans-Canada Highway 1 sighted in Bangkok
Fitting send off for both the 255 and 257, the two routes I relied on most during my UW and downtown intern era. 255 was coverage. I could leave town just after midnight and be home before one. 257 was speed and convenience. The right seat on the high floor D60s was essentially extra time in bed.
It ain't like Ung Ing is an angel. She was Prime Minister bc she's the daughter of Thailand's Donald Trump and leading a party that conspired to keep the actual winners of the election from government But like, this is the fifth elected leader removed by a court on dubious grounds in 17 years
I love high rise shopping centers (or at least I’m nostalgic for them).
MRT Pink Line monorail and the high rises of Muang Thong Thani from Central Chaengwattana
Chuffed to get hold of this magnificent history of #Berlin public transport #graphicdesign. A mega 400 page tome which hugely deserves an English language translation. Design guru Erik Spiekermann is joint author. Didn’t realise EastBerlin experimented with #GillSans #typeface. Superb book.
1️⃣ In-house design and engineering 2️⃣ Standardized station designs 3️⃣ Smaller station boxes 4️⃣ Cut-and-cover construction 5️⃣ Zero betterments for jurisdictions 6️⃣ Utility relocation reform 7️⃣ Procurement reform
If the Sound Transit board doesn’t have a frank conversation about reining in its spending on contractors and consultants and bringing more design and engineering work in-house (like the world’s best-run agencies in Spain and Italy do), then they’re not seriously interested in resolving this crisis.
Looking like those metro-style system maps in Europe and Asia! 😅
Backyard jasmine
Brother laser printer
Put Stephen Miller in the Hague 2028 Dem Nominee Challenge
My job is to shave seconds off of transit travel times (it all adds up). Unforced errors like slow faregates, train doors, and deep subway stations (although I understand this is more complicated) eat minutes that *we don't think about as transit professionals*
Americans broadly hate all of this, and we all gotta remember that when it feels like things are spinning out of control
Laundromat cat
Santa Barbara is mentioned a lot in this video, where you have teenagers riding what are essentially motorcycles, doing tricks on downtown’s car-free promenade, going way faster than the cars that used to cruise the street. But most people including leaders see them as “e-bikes” or bicycles.
Thailand's postal services have also suspended parcel deliveries to the US for the same reasons.
Common sun skink, called จิ้งเหลน (jing!-lane?) in Thai
Push back and the bullies will crumble.
Juan Linz was right about presidential systems, send post
Bangkok bus terminal black cat
With the right design, even a state highway can have bike lanes where kids are truly safe (video of the Green Lake Outer Loop next to Aurora Avenue / Highway 99)
High transit ridership is diverse ridership -- diverse in every dimension: wealth, trip purpose, physical ability, gender, language, nationality, race ... Always push back on cultural stereotypes about "who rides public transit." Plan as though everyone counts.
We could have this incredibly useful bus network with: - the same number of service hours as today's network (with planned RapidRide additions) - no changes to any service not on this map Neither Metro nor SDOT has ever focused on the central city bus network. It's time to start. More to come. 🧵
Kessoku Tape
Yes. The engine would start turning again when the doors closed. You can also hear the low diesel mode kick in when the bus gets up to speed. docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy06ost...
and there's Darth Vader 🤣
So much hell breaking loose there's nothing left of it down there
Kessoku Band (Live on KEXP)
Kessoku Band × Yusuke Nakamura × Tom Bihn
ปี 2025 แล้วคนไทยส่วนหนึ่งก็ยังขาดความรู้เรื่องลิขสิทธิ์ เห็นคาเฟ่เป็นจิบลิก็กรี๊ดกันใหญ่ ส่วนน้อยถึงจะสงสัยว่าละเมิดลิขสิทธิ์มั้ย
And yuru camp got me from the first scenes where one of the lead characters rode her bike loaded with camping gear to solo camp by a lake with a view of Mount Fuji.
yuru camp ⛺️ did this (and me watching camp cooking with Daiso gear videos)
Went to a book fair focused on discounted English books but came home with Thai books.
“บตจิ เดอะ ร็อก!” เคยเห็นคนต่างชาติซื้อฉบับแปลไทยยกชุดที่อะนิเมท MBK แล้วยอดไม่พอที่จะจ่ายด้วยบัตร
There's specialized cartographic software like MAPublisher that integrates GIS data within Adobe illustrator with powerful styling and labeling. We used it back when we produced mostly geographic maps. Now we are mostly a schematic map house and make do with QGIS when it’s needed.
What gives away many of these GIS transit maps is the sloppy labelling.
Fascinating thread from Derek Guy as always
Happy anniversary! Mine's coming up in a few days.
Probably the most ridiculous gaming experience in my young life was discovering that you could press, like, control+shift+left click to do a sick three story lobby in sim tower
Yet another example of how Hong Kong has changed since Beijing imposed a national security law on it -- the same national security law that Carrie Lam and co tried to tell us would only impact a tiny minority of people/Hongkongers.
as I have pointed out before, this phenomenon is well-understood! heavy automation in commercial aircraft cockpits reduces pilot workload (and eliminated the navigator position) but then it got to the point where newer pilots were not confident hand flying, or in handling anomalous situations
Its rival company BTSC, who operates the 5-year older Skytrain, already upgraded its signals to CBTC in 2010 and lengthened its trains to 4-cars from 2012. Platform edge doors were added at select stations starting in 2015.
“Add more cars!” is a constant complaint from riders on the overcrowded MRT Blue Line in Bangkok. Operator BEM is pursuing more 3-car trains (bundled with its Orange Line order) instead of longer trains to delay the inevitable need to upgrade the 21-year old signal system and platform screen doors.
The Akihabara TX stationmaster had to add a "00 seconds" decal to the closing time. Every sign has a story 🤣
See 120th Avenue NE through the Village at Totem Lake and how that made transit access overall worse because narrow lanes and poorly parallel parked cars means Metro would rather detour to the edge than risk scrapes. The on sidewalk bike lane is a joke, too.
Tokyo's Shimokitazawa feels in some ways like a neighborhood that time forgot. And that's a good thing. Here's how "Shimokita" has retained its distinctive character, and why it should be on your list of must-visit spots in the sprawling city. buff.ly/Ff1PtD2
I only just noticed Ryo’s face filling the wall in the background of the cover art for “That Band”
Animation Bocchi the Rock! the Exhibition! My hair today is Hitori’s dad’s.
Choose your fluff
The big ones just hanging from the ceiling (not embedded cassette) are really common in public and commercial spaces.
Yes, our house in Thailand has two of those. 25+ years old
By floor unit do you mean sitting on the floor or that form factor but mounted to the wall? I’ve seen the latter.
one thing I’d love to be able to copy from seattle is their express bus network. frequent, all day express service that uses exclusive lanes on freeways makes for a lot of transit trips that are competitive with driving en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_T...
Lots of Eastside changes! New routes, revised routes, removed routes. Farewell to old friends 252, 257, 311…
My mom sent me pics of Elections staff collecting ballots from her local drop box this morning. I wonder how long it takes from collection to counted.
JR East to raise fares on average 7.1% in March 2026. It is its first fare increase since 1987, excluding tax changes. Base fare will rise 10 yen to 160 yen with larger increases in the Tokyo area. The company cites rising costs and the need to invest in safety and service.
Once again, my fellow nerds, I am begging you to remember that giving into bullies only guarantees they'll be back. You've got to punch Biff Tannen in the face, McFly, or he'll rule over you forever.
“Oswald” typeface used by Metrolink (SoCal) and Odakyu (Tokyo)
The Cruiser Ride is a Fiesta tradition dating all the way back to 1979! www.independent.com/2016/08/02/w...
A Thai constitutional clause regulating how legislators can influence spending led to the Deputy Speaker being removed last week. This same clause could also lead to the removal of most of Thailand's parliamentarians: www.coffeeparliament.com/p/can-sectio...
Finally, new video out now on my YouTube channel! It discusses the origins of Nintendo's logos - specifically how the lettering in them evolved, and reveals the closest typeface to Nintendo's kanji logo. Seeing as I'm starting up videos again, sharing around much appreciated! youtu.be/Cm5bL1mmbS4
In 2019 I picked up a Bridgestone (yes, the tire company) bicycle catalogue. Many of their bikes are e-assist and belt drive.
I don’t usually see the Obern Trail this busy!
Sunday serendipitous smile: chose the scenic route and stumbled upon a cruiser bike party en route. Even the trail neighbors are in!
The Osaka Museum of Housing and Living, which is located on the top floor of the Osaka Municipal Housing Information Center and includes a life-sized reproduction of an Edo-era Osaka neighborhood.
I also heard that Metro's system doesn't actually register the trip as started until the driver opens the door at the first stop they make. Some systems account for the previous run's delay but it doesn't know of situations like the operator taking their guaranteed break.
I told myself that I was not collecting music in cassette format and I already have the CD but for 29¢ in this condition…
Trail cat crossing
Thrift store find: Dahon Mariner folding bike for $300
NHK Japanology Plus on the ever versatile and ubiquitous ‘mamachari’, Japan’s city bicycles. They make up 80% of all bicycles in a country where 1 in every 2 people own one. Originally designed for women, there are models that appeal to all kinds of people. YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_g5...
How many little kids right now meant to grow up to become scientists, academics, artists, may never get the same inspiration we did just by turning on TV for free, because we used to agreed as a society that was worthwhile to offer everyone
Pokemon! Sorry.
I was ready to commute by bike.
SBMTD transit strike averted for another 45 days.
People cook and sell Thai food from carts in the street so I think my kitchenette is sufficient. Would more space help? Sure. The biggest help would be a proper range hood.
seattle! for the first time in a long time - you can vote *for* someone who will lead on climate, on mobility, on housing: @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social
Looks like its 'express' status is based on skipping the stops at 95th St on Lake City Way, which currently have no service but still exist since the future Route 77 will use them once Pinehurst station opens.
