Aaron

Aaron

@aaronznj.bsky.social

Official home of the dork who decided to use my Urban Planning Master's Degree for the primary purpose of "make an alternate-history N Scale NJ Transit layout." All opinions are mine (and you can't have them!), and they’re all wrong or your money back!

466 followers309 following2.8K posts

Hugely applicable to understanding transportation systems in general. Most trips are short.

Christof Spieler@christofspieler.bsky.social

My favorite graphics in "Transportation and the Shape of Cities" #6: A typical transit route gets its ridership from lots of shorter trips that overlap each other, not from end-to-end trips. The more destinations along the way, the more of those trips it can serve, and the higher ridership is.

Aaron reposted

Since there’s an opening for press secretary, I know a great candidate who’s not only a lawyer, but a neurosurgeon, a Grammy-winning recording artist, and the inventor of the Post-It Note.

The bank agreed to give me $1 Million in cash. You know why? Because I said "you agree", that's why.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Q: You said Russia and Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire, but both sides said they have not agreed to that TRUMP: Well they agreed, you know why? Because I said 'you agree.' That's why.

More sports should allow ties. And it should be easier for games to end in a tie. It's the most friendly outcome, nobody loses, and people hate when their team loses.

Aaron reposted

Let your haters become your conveyors when you sit down at the water table of success.

Gateway Development Commission@gatewayprogram.bsky.social

Tunnel boring has started! After years of preparation, our first tunnel boring machine is getting to work, carving through the Palisades to build the first mile of the new rail tunnel’s northern tube. A second machine will start building the southern tunnel tube soon.

Eat shit Russ Vought.

Gateway Development Commission@gatewayprogram.bsky.social

Tunnel boring has started! After years of preparation, our first tunnel boring machine is getting to work, carving through the Palisades to build the first mile of the new rail tunnel’s northern tube. A second machine will start building the southern tunnel tube soon.

It’s funny that back in September or October of last year he started saying that “ended 8 wars” line but he’s never updated it since. So he I guess ended all these wars and then decided “nope, not solving any more wars just got in eight, that’s all!”

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

CLAY TRAVIS: Do you think there's a role for you to try to broker peace between baseball owners and players to make sure we don't have a prolonged work stoppage? TRUMP: I've settled eight wars. India-Pakistan. Lots of very good wars. I'm working on Russia-Ukraine.

In many respects I see this as the final form of New Urbanism. The aesthetics of traditional cities (closely-spaced buildings, gridded streets, etc.) but because the New Urbanists are content to build wherever rather than in proximity to, say, transit, they still need massive amounts of parking.

Stan Oklobdzija@stano.bsky.social

For those who are unfamiliar, the built environment in all of Southern California is absolutely atrocious. But Rancho Cucamonga is so bad that they actually talk about this place as "just like a walkable downtown."

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Here's a good example from the Glen. Sure, there's tree-lined streets, parallel parking as traffic calming, close house spacing, etc. etc.. But it's still in an area whose sole transit is a couple of hourly bus routes and a commuter rail line into downtown Chicago. The cars have to go somewhere!

These are suburbs in which one must drive to get anywhere, that are designed to be actively hostile to cars. They're a contradiction in terms. New Urbanist developments frequently hide parking out of shame and I appreciate OP's example in its honesty to what it is.

In many respects I see this as the final form of New Urbanism. The aesthetics of traditional cities (closely-spaced buildings, gridded streets, etc.) but because the New Urbanists are content to build wherever rather than in proximity to, say, transit, they still need massive amounts of parking.

Stan Oklobdzija@stano.bsky.social

For those who are unfamiliar, the built environment in all of Southern California is absolutely atrocious. But Rancho Cucamonga is so bad that they actually talk about this place as "just like a walkable downtown."

Lots of pretty famous New Urbanist developments - think Kentlands, Celebration, the Glen, etc. - all face this similar problem that while they take on the *appearance* of older suburban/urban environments, they are simply masking a car-dependent environment in often impractical ways.

Yeah ok sure another Republican that’s a barely-closeted Nazi whatever that’s basically a weekly thing now not news at this point. Wtf is on the “Tales from Rhodesia” playlist that has to be the most rancid playlist ever created by anyone ever.

Hunter Dunn@hunterisntdunn.bsky.social

Jon Husted’s staffer took part in “Nazi military exercises” & had a “Tales from Rhodesia” Spotify playlist. The fact that significant swathes of the media ignore the multiple major Republican campaign staffers outed as Neo-Nazis (to focus on Hasan Piker instead) is journalistic malpractice.

Gee I wonder why Gottheimer ate absolute shit in the Governor Primary last year. Had this absurdly large war chest that he rode all the way to finishing behind not only *both* progressives but also the replacement-level Dem from the District next-door to his (i.e. Sherrill).

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also apparently MacArthur was simultaneously a Corporal and Brigadier General while Patton was in the Red army because reasons.

Nick Turse@nickturse.bsky.social

He was eventually promoted from fake soldier to a fake four-star general. (If this AI slop he posted is to be believed.)

The only conceivable reason to do this is “we’re about to have a Majority in the House and probably Senate, so we need to figure out how we’ll ‘keep the lights on’ and get basic stuff like budgets passed.” But even then Kushner is not the guy to meet with cuz he’s a weird Shadow Secretary of State.

brent 🌹🗽@therealbrent.bsky.social

I really do not understand the purpose of this. No one is asking for this.

The reality is he’s probably the only guy in the Trump admin who returned Jeffries’ calls. Everybody else in the Administration’s game plan for a Democratic House/Senate Majority is either Denial or Two Year Government Shutdown out of spite.

The thing about Brock Purdy is he’s really good but, has this same problem as Jared Goff where a couple times a year out of nowhere he’ll have a horrifying game where he throws 4 interceptions and one of those could just happen in a playoff game and then the season just ends.

So weird seeing an RVL train turning on Track A. Usually they either turn on 5 or in Hudson Yard but I guess maybe something was going on, who knows.

I’m just happy for Eric Adams he’s found a new hobby. Good for him.

Jessy Edwards@jessyedwards.bsky.social

A video taken Saturday shows former NYC Mayor Eric Adams in sales pitch mode in Wisconsin Rapids, as he's heckled by residents opposed to the data center he's trying to sell them on. "My name is Eric Adams," he begins, as the boos begin to rain down. "You belong in prison!" one attendee shouts.

Lmao the really funny part is Cornyn and Tillis weren’t against the slush fund due to any principles but because “jfc this is unbelievably toxic and we will be the sin eaters that put a stop to this rancid idea.” And Trump is no going “fuck you I want to get below 30% approval.”

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Lord

In fairness Trump looooves “Acting” underlings because it creates an explicit temporary nature to their positions that he can use to enforce loyalty and submission. The last thing he wants is minions who feel empowered to create independent power bases or that can do their jobs un-micromanaged.

Blanche nom pulled until Cornyn and Tillis leave the Senate. Gee I wonder who will replace them...

Come on there’s no way this isn’t some self-aware bit. He’s doing a bit. “Cut and run”? “Stay the course?” There’s history rhyming and then there is history airing a fucking re-run.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Kennedy: "I don't think we ought to just cut and run. If we can stand the pain of the rising cost of energy, we need to stay the course at least for a few more months."

Yet another poll where Trump's job rating is higher than on most single issues, literally implying there's people who think he's doing a bad job at everything but they still like how he's doing overall. "Yeah the economy, inflation, and pointless war all suck, but I just like the guy".

Sahil Kapur@sahilkapur.bsky.social

New Fox News national poll • Trump’s job rating: 39% approve, 61% disapprove • Trump’s issue approval is 33% on the economy, 27% on inflation, 34% on Iran, 42% on immigration • Approval ratings for Dems & GOP in Congress are identical at 30/69 each • Generic ballot: Dem+7

just to consider how clueless and absurd the situation is, this is technically a *DE-*escalation from Trump's previous position of "we're going to blow up the power plants and bridges because we can." It's just an angry grandpa who has no idea what he's doing trying to assert control.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: "From this point forward, any time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the US will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran."

Here's another crappy lazy American station where stupid Anglosphere planners disregarded every single international practice under the sun in order to appease their own laziness. This time with a before/after.

Look at these other lazy assholes and their partial stub terminal and good god this station has something like 20 tracks if you can believe it? And it's been expanded multiple times, how dare these lazy American planners demolish half a city block for a wasteful stub terminal!

I figured it out. You can kinda stop reading halfway through; the Kazmi Brothers' scam here is they know the walls are closing in on all their other scams so they're making a flattery play hoping that they can get some sort of financial/legal bailout on the back of personally appealing to Trump.

ok true story when I was growing up my siblings and I all just converged on "no really mint chip is our favorite ice cream flavor" pretty much specifically because our parents hate mint chip so we could evade the parent ice cream tax. It's fine, but it's barely cracking the top 5 for me tbh.

Mina Kimes@minakimes.bsky.social

In other news my toddler stole my phone and tried to order groceries

@thelirrtoday.com hey I was just combing through this "Service Optimization Study" that FRA just released and was wondering how does LIRR permanently being limited to 24 peak tph to make more room for NJT trains and commuter run-thru's (probably to the Hell Gate Line) make you feel?

For context: That is 3 fewer trains than LIRR was running in 2022 after COVID but before GCM opened. 24 is also like, a full 10tph (30% or so) reduction compared to the pre-COVID rush hour service.

Ok so, new ceasefire in like idk, five or six days? Every time he talks about the power plants he’s hoping the that empty threat will somehow scare Iran into giving him everything he wants.

Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social

More from interview with Trump: Says US will hit Iran again tomorrow night, says next week they’ll target power plants and bridges, and will ultimately hit energy targets

B-b-but I was told by reliable sources that Project 2025 wasn’t a threat to public transit!! (pedestrianobservations.com/2024/07/17/p...) I’ve been lied to, bamboozled, and swindled, it’s terrible!

Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com

The US House is considering a transportation bill that would cut transit funding massively. We estimate that it would cut transit funds by 23% compared to the current infrastructure law. Every state would lose millions of dollars in transit formula funding. Details: www.urban.org/urban-wire/h...

"We're...the biggest department store in history. Everybody wants to come in and take from us. They’re going to come in and they’re going to pay a price for taking our treasure, for taking our jobs, for doing all of these things. I own the store, and I set prices." - Donald Trump, 4/22/25.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump says he will send the communists into exile

Aaron reposted

Congressional GOP: please mr. Trump we want to try and help get your approval back above 40%. This is the easiest win ever we did this without you all you have to do is sign the bill in front of cameras you love that sort of thing. Trump: Fuck you.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

wow -- Trump is crashing out: "Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT"