Kona

Transit app maker (@Pantograph) and service planning analyst (@MyCommTrans@twitter.com) • 🚌🚉☕️🌹🏳️‍🌈 • Mostly urbanism, left politics, local stuff • Opinions mine, etc.
#gtfs #trains #transit #bus

Public Key

npub1eudylvl69s97zeqxzq79d7w7pvtx44jzrczgxr9v5h5xj4szt2xq60nsnp

NIP-05 Address

kona_at_social.ridetrans.it@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsv7xj0k0azczlpvsrpq0zkl80qk9n26eppupyrpjk2t6rf2cp94rqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qtkpcx2

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1eudylvl69s97zeqxzq79d7w7pvtx44jzrczgxr9v5h5xj4szt2xq60nsnp

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Last Notes

2024-09-14 05:04:10

I have spent years, personally and professionally, thinking about tomorrow.
Big day!

2024-09-09 17:05:00

GOOD MORNANG, I AM TIM COOK, DID YOU KNOW APPLE DOES AI?

2024-08-30 17:55:21

Trains 👏 trains 👏 trains 👏 TRAINS 👏

2024-08-08 03:31:31

Absolutely delighted to see this long-awaited improvement to ST’s data feed: Pantograph is now displaying the lead car number and number of cars in the consist for all Link trains! 🎉
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/924/287/440/298/229/original/682d9dc3f0b5cf14.png
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/924/287/736/166/642/original/22052c3a2a84ad59.jpeg

2024-08-08 00:36:07

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@npub1qjk…h8wh Yes, I’ve been made aware but need to push a config change to make it happen, not even home yet but will get to it soon

2024-07-21 20:13:31

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That said, it’s been very weird seeing ST security all over the place all of a sudden

2024-07-21 01:33:18

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huh, not sure why that was converted to a gif...

2024-07-21 01:31:45

Timelapse of trains at Lynnwood today! 🚈
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/821/894/796/635/347/original/577f0cf3dabd5c3b.mp4

2024-07-20 20:47:38

Love love love seeing and hearing trains at Lynwood 🎉🙌

2024-06-20 17:34:25

Just ordered some coffee. The Square terminal said “Order 66, you’re all set” afterwards, which was…concerning…
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/650/148/892/489/077/original/84c960d26c86f5cb.mp4

2024-06-10 20:43:56

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deeeEEEEEeeeeaaaarrr JOOOOOOHHNNNNNNN (Ternus)

2024-06-10 20:36:44

never impressed by me acing your tests
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/594/242/702/264/053/original/b8b332b9f9b8be2d.png

2024-05-05 17:50:40

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@npub1qct…7yyw Did your scissors remember your aspect ratio setting?
(I am not behind on Mastodon)

2024-04-28 05:58:35

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@npub1gp0…7h0r Oh I’m well aware, it’s all weekend and in today’s agenda!

2024-04-27 18:50:40

I am very sad I don’t get to be at the 2 Line opening, but today I rode a train that comes every 2 minutes, so at least there’s that
(Photo of a different train bc for some reason I didn’t grab pics of the Victoria Line today)
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/344/683/712/336/623/original/5bb766676c2ea3fc.jpeg

2024-04-08 17:51:14

Spotted a train at South Bellevue Station yesterday. Probably the closest I’m going to get to seeing the 2 Line until mid May since I’ll be away 😭
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/236/866/512/235/835/original/402b0dfb5c82b628.jpeg

2024-04-04 20:57:31

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https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/214/949/770/359/829/original/403ceb624e056ea8.mp4

2024-04-04 20:55:56

Link 1 Line comes to Snohomish County at the end of August! 🎉🚆
https://www.soundtransit.org/get-to-know-us/news-events/news-releases/link-1-line-service-to-lynnwood-begins-august-30

2024-03-06 21:18:25

Google literally helped invent #GTFS, yet Google Maps seems to be the worst major consumer of GTFS feeds out there 🙄

2024-02-15 22:24:02

when Sound Transit announces the opening of a BRAND NEW LIGHT RAIL LINE for during your trip to Europe 😭

2024-01-18 23:54:12

I always find it amusing when news media uses the word “rhetoric” when they obviously mean “bullshit”
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/18/1224432298/rnc-wants-republicans-embrace-early-voting-trump-rhetoric-makes-it-tough

2023-12-04 06:11:30

Duolingo knows: cars are bad
(The paragraph says “You drive every day to go to work because there are no buses in your town, but you don’t like to drive.” The question asks what the problem is, and the correct answer is “you have to drive but you don’t like it.”)
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/520/663/894/260/798/original/a7d42ae432b52603.png

2023-11-24 19:35:58

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@npub1y5q…pcjy I'm not quite sure what you're thinking there, but yeah, the idea is to alleviate the burden of micromanagement.
Ultimately, the solution I've landed on is actually quite good, all I'm giving up on is per-feed customization of finer details like acronyms. At a certain point we have to just hold agencies to standards where they publish high-quality strings to begin with.

2023-11-19 00:57:26

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Realistically the strings aren’t going to change _that_ much—few feeds have this problem at all, and I'll still perform certain normalizations across the board—I just can't hold myself to a standard of near perfection anymore.

2023-11-19 00:55:12

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@npub16xq…x72u Fortunately—and part of my justification here—there are really quite few feeds with this glaring of a problem. And, as an employee of a transit agency, I’ve seen the horrors that can be on the backend of GTFS feeds, so I'm modestly sympathetic. But c’mon, it's 2023!

2023-11-19 00:51:42

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@npub1sdl…njfm Thought about it, but at least for now not worth the energy. Definitely would require moderation, and, if I'm setting up something like that, I’d want to focus on more important things like what you mention first—big difference IMO between agencies providing ugly strings vs providing zero vehicle info. I've got some "easy” ideas for this in the future, just limited by time.
The ability to do per-vehicle things in the current system is limited. Let's just say I'm working on that…

2023-11-18 23:48:39

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It kills me a little bit to do this—I’ve always seen this nitpicky detail as a point of pride—but the system I have in place for this is truly ridiculous at this point and the merciful thing to do is let it die.

2023-11-18 23:46:06

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Honestly, I’m probably going to scale back this behavior significantly. When I was dealing with 8 local agencies, it was easier, I’m now at over 100 from all over.
I’m thinking I’d keep some basic checks in place—a slightly simpler all-caps fix, removing route numbers from headsigns, maybe more—but I simply can’t track and maintain every single “this feed abbreviates ‘Center’ to ‘Ctr’ for some reason.”

2023-11-18 23:41:42

I have historically put a ton of time into perfecting string presentation in Pantograph. A lot of data feeds are quite messy—stop names and trip headsigns in all caps is a big one, as is weird and unnecessary abbreviations being used.
Every time I add a new feed, I take a close look at relevant objects and add a bunch of rules specific to that feed to make it look as nice as possible.
Problem is, this is very difficult to maintain, and often introduces errors, especially for non-English words.

2023-10-22 20:14:56

If you have to park your car like this, it’s not legal to park there
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/280/501/023/892/715/original/30a9ce72fba4c21f.jpeg

2023-10-18 03:14:15

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@npub1xpm…mapu I haven't found an RSS feed. This system also doesn't have support for RSS, at least not yet; it primarily supports the industry-standard GTFS-realtime format, which SFMTA does not produce
Re the example: Looks like the alert itself was backdated, so transit.alerts.social reflected the time it was given. It also doesn't specify the stop name in the alert so 🤷 (it's probably tagged on the alert, but consuming the full related GTFS dataset is out of scope for this project)

2023-10-17 23:59:32

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@npub1xpm…mapu Hmm, it should fetch alerts every ~5 minutes and post any that are new. It should also change anything dated in the future to the time of receipt.
What do you mean by batches up? It could be the agency only posts them in batches. The alerts feed comes via 511, which has undesirable effects at times.
Also, are you affiliated with Muni?

2023-10-14 16:38:17

Clouds were a problem, but in the moments they cleared, they made for a very moody view of the #SolarEclipse here in Everett #wawx
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/234/348/545/335/910/original/2c77d3533b9ce254.jpeg
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/234/349/162/328/879/original/93878f378cac1b69.jpeg
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/234/349/834/743/650/original/8d3f3d2ec6fa3f50.jpeg
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/234/350/611/480/850/original/8f13e192a6709637.jpeg

2023-10-09 02:48:45

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By “strong” I mean the rough equivalent of a door being slammed. Noticeable, a small rattle, but easily dismissed until I saw there was an earthquake

2023-10-09 02:35:25

I think this is the first time I’ve felt an #earthquake. Single, strong jolt at my apartment in Everett. #wawx
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/202/724/628/048/459/original/943f7a80607abf73.png

2023-10-04 18:19:47

Alright, it worked!
…two minutes early…
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/178/126/374/832/915/original/1f0e99741fbd03a5.png

2023-10-03 02:32:22

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@npub14sn…sd77 My working theory for the prefix is that it relates to unique trainsets, resetting each day but counting up from where it already was (i.e. unique combos of day + trainset). And maybe the suffix has something to do with when it went in service? 🤷

2023-09-30 20:36:44

Huh, realtime feeds are finally live again for Link...and ST is providing very weird vehicle IDs. They're two-digit and six-digit numbers joined by a period. The two-digit is always in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Previously they'd just have to 1-2 digit run number (1-14 for all days, 40s for AM peak, 50s for PM peak, some others). They show without the period in @npub13z2…ql88
No idea what these mean but I'm sure it's related to PIMS in one way or another.
If anyone cracks the code please let me know!
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/156/015/939/258/493/original/4c4cdc3e10f134a8.png

2023-09-15 12:18:31

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@npub1txf…4llt Mine worked at first but failed at the last step. And it deleted my “pre-pre-order” so I had to go back and reconfigure
Now I’m stuck at this, still

2023-09-11 23:55:05

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@npub1qjk…h8wh I'm aware of this and have brought it up to my contacts at ST and ET. They said they weren't aware of any changes and that they'd look into it, but they haven't responded to my follow-up emails since. 🤷‍♂️ I think it's more likely an ST/OBA issue than ET.
For now, I'm letting it be, as I'm getting conflicting reports on which set is better. If still no action soon I'll do something to filter down to only one set because it's definitely annoying.

2023-09-08 18:01:19

The number of times I've read GUTS as GTFS isn't very high, but it's higher than it should be.

2023-09-06 13:21:52

Pet peeve: It’s not “military time” it’s 24-hour time AKA literally-the-rest-of-the-world time

2023-09-02 00:44:42

ORCA reader spotted
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/992/783/936/923/834/original/15937e1bc49e2ae6.jpeg

2023-08-28 22:02:56

Hurricane satellite imagery is cool all by itself, but at just the right time of day, it's downright stunning
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/969/498/365/039/495/original/4c799a60d19e8e81.png

2023-08-27 20:03:26

a single comma missing in this JSON file from a third-party server has broken everything
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/963/366/428/958/348/original/1eba2e31179bea59.png

2023-08-25 00:09:38

Prisoner number P01135809

2023-08-18 21:11:38

Smoke season is beginning let's gooooo 😭
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/912/673/783/697/411/original/86bb77659b263c3f.png

2023-08-18 06:05:41

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(“Barely tropical in SoCal” being, if anything, an understatement, please follow guidance from local officials, etc..)
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/909/111/212/956/543/original/121c146434b45da6.png

2023-08-18 06:02:11

Pretty surreal to see a category 4 hurricane pointed at Southern California. Even though it’ll barely be tropical by the time it gets there, it’s still a pretty significant event #cawx
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/909/097/669/807/030/original/7b6cf195d9dec8cf.png

2023-08-14 23:45:44

dot net

2023-07-20 16:57:19

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@npub1jk7…69k2 :verified:

2023-07-18 03:38:03

This Xcode beta cycle has been horrible

2023-07-10 19:30:33

I think of a lot of things that warrant zero-fare service before a couple of baseball games but 🐸🍵

2023-07-08 20:15:07

when you go to buy a domain name for a project and are reminded you bought one for a different project ~7 months ago that never launched 😬

2023-07-07 17:40:05

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@npub1jk7…69k2 Having worked at a parks department, and as someone currently working at a transit agency, I am certain it would be both. Very strongly both, in all the best (and worst) ways...

2023-07-07 17:37:18

Parks and Rec, but for a transit agency

2023-07-05 05:16:20

Personally my favorite part about celebrating freedom is doing so right after the Supreme Court takes away our freedoms. Glad we’re making this a tradition!

2023-06-24 01:44:32

Every time I go to Seattle I have this little crisis about the fact that I don’t live in a city

2023-06-22 05:01:20

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(This is just the "build for iPad" version, getting it running natively will take a bit of work I'm not going to invest in right now...but still very cool)

2023-06-22 04:57:26

Did someone say AR buses?
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/586/091/067/901/048/original/bebb878b85de241b.png

2023-06-05 18:40:53

Hi, Bob. #WWDC2023 #WWDC23

2023-06-05 17:42:34

Did not “section on PDFs" in my #WWDC23 bingo card #WWDC2023

2023-05-24 19:09:14

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@npub1qct…7yyw
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/425/233/682/542/183/original/ca545364b0f5ed26.mp4

2023-05-20 18:47:57

Who’s got a Bluesky invite? 👀

2023-05-17 12:28:07

I’m on base right around peak pull this morning for an AM bus test. Fun to watch the constant stream of drivers in and out of here!
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/384/019/618/414/607/original/27cf3999b7d9c3c1.jpeg
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/384/020/387/285/475/original/16d7f59bbfc4ddf0.jpeg

2023-05-15 17:55:58

I got some great aerial shots of Link construction at Lynnwood City Center Station and Mountlake Terrace Station this weekend.
Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHQLrLRaj5Q
Bonus pic:
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/373/984/952/303/051/original/49828b932ae8d906.jpeg

2023-05-07 18:45:26

Finally set up a *very basic* web interface for transit.alerts.social
Profiles: https://transit.alerts.social/u/kingcountymetro
Alert permalinks: https://transit.alerts.social/s/6457c29bb09d03f0df9821d6

2023-05-06 17:13:13

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@npub1kut…pq0m Lots of people like to follow a stream of transit alerts on social media. I’ve always felt like alerts clutter my timeline and very much prefer to view them in apps. My best guess would be that it’s a centralized source with all pertinent information in one place they already know how to navigate, so it’s approachable
This also covers way more than the subway: Most bus stops don’t have announcements or screens, in NY or anywhere else

2023-05-05 19:24:38

Completely obsessed today with The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities and Towns. It's exactly what it sounds like.
The WA album has 49 songs for 49 cities and towns:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/important-songs-about-washington-state-cities-because/1515149612

2023-05-03 03:43:17

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Photos taken by me *for strictly recreational purposes*

2023-05-03 03:42:47

Light rail construction at Lynnwood Transit Center as of Saturday…
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/302/681/179/093/218/original/acd0ce2daff74610.jpeg
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/302/680/588/253/659/original/435979eba320a7e8.jpeg
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/302/682/249/201/999/original/a20c0d82b839bb63.jpeg
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/302/681/702/188/808/original/a788f7763b574aab.jpeg

2023-04-29 21:03:22

🚊🔜
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/284/124/826/675/887/original/f0f057c68d49c060.jpeg

2023-04-28 16:39:28

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#[0] Check out #[1]
I should be able to add Metra in the next few days

2023-04-28 01:38:41

Looks like the New York MTA is no longer providing service alerts on Twitter.
Good thing I set up some feeds you can follow on Mastodon 👀
#[0]
#[1]
#[2]
#[3]

2023-04-21 04:19:29

Seems reasonable.
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/234/878/759/582/898/original/f16461132a387063.jpeg

2023-04-15 23:01:14

Somebody put a QR code at this bus shelter that leads to Never Gonna Give You Up 😂
CT stop #1303, SB Alderwood Mall Pkwy & 184th St SW
https://mastodon-usw-cache.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/110/205/315/953/833/593/original/de8bd29c67a6af14.jpeg

2023-04-15 20:28:04

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#[0] TransLink over here on the best coast was just added 😉 BC Transit agencies can/will be added soon, as with STM and surrounding exo agencies, as they have industry standard alert feeds (which I know from adding to #[1]). TTC doesn't use the industry standard so will require some development but should be possible for this.

2023-04-15 20:04:40

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This list has grown a lot! Notable additions include:
#[0]
#[1]
#[2]
#[3]
#[4]
#[5]
#[6]
#[7]
#[8]

2023-04-13 04:26:39

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. *squishes fruit*

2023-04-04 16:38:52

How do you think about timepoints when looking at a transit schedule? Either on an agency’s website, in apps, in printed material, or elsewhere
Bonus Q: how do you think about “other” stops differently from timepoints?

2023-02-17 00:49:02

I'm making an ActivityPub server for distributing transit alerts 🎉 The tool is completely open-source and fetches alerts from GTFS-realtime Service Alerts feeds
Official instance: https://transit.alerts.social
Currently works with:
#[0]
#[1]
#[2]
I expect to add a lot more agencies to the instance in the near-ish future—want to validate more before going wider
GitHub: https://github.com/kona314/transit-fedilerts
#[3] #[4] #[5] #[6] #[7]