Kurt Raschke
@kurtraschke.com
they/them
Transit and technology, mostly. Prone to ranting.
Reposts and favorites are not endorsements. Posts are solely my own.
ABATE NOXIOUS STIMULI.
Transit and technology, mostly. Prone to ranting.
Reposts and favorites are not endorsements. Posts are solely my own.
ABATE NOXIOUS STIMULI.
Reposted by Kurt Raschke
I've remastered my old SelTrac meme, based on the (false) assertion that the trains "talk to each other," as is oft repeated in public statements about CBTC
January 7, 2026 at 11:07 PM
I've remastered my old SelTrac meme, based on the (false) assertion that the trains "talk to each other," as is oft repeated in public statements about CBTC
I remember when this was a Bureau en Gros! (Still strange although maybe slightly less so?)
January 6, 2026 at 11:58 PM
I remember when this was a Bureau en Gros! (Still strange although maybe slightly less so?)
there is consensus in the group chat on this point: "a contraption can scare a horse"
January 4, 2026 at 12:05 AM
there is consensus in the group chat on this point: "a contraption can scare a horse"
Ahem, we prefer "foamer".
January 3, 2026 at 11:59 PM
Ahem, we prefer "foamer".
meanwhile @jeremyzorek.bsky.social just asked me to clarify the distinctions between "dingus", "doohickey", and "contraption", to which I replied:
A doohickey is smaller than a dingus, and a contraption is bigger and more complex than a dingus.
A doohickey is smaller than a dingus, and a contraption is bigger and more complex than a dingus.
January 3, 2026 at 11:58 PM
meanwhile @jeremyzorek.bsky.social just asked me to clarify the distinctions between "dingus", "doohickey", and "contraption", to which I replied:
A doohickey is smaller than a dingus, and a contraption is bigger and more complex than a dingus.
A doohickey is smaller than a dingus, and a contraption is bigger and more complex than a dingus.
the Sliger rails require screwing these little square dinguses into the rack, which are like a worse version of cage nuts that doesn’t actually have anything keeping them attached to the rack while you’re trying to screw the bracket to them
January 3, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Kurt Raschke
Earlier this fall, I noticed something odd going on with rail service on Los Angeles's C line. So, I wrote about it, because I could not have asked for a more perfect encapsulation of how schedule design can drive service outcomes.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
A Study in Schedule Design
From time to time, I enjoy browsing the LA Metro subreddit. A creature of the East Coast, I am forever fascinated by the Los Angeles’s preculiar mix of ambition and ambivalence around transit…
homesignalblog.wordpress.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Earlier this fall, I noticed something odd going on with rail service on Los Angeles's C line. So, I wrote about it, because I could not have asked for a more perfect encapsulation of how schedule design can drive service outcomes.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
Reposted by Kurt Raschke
1. try not to post things that will get you arrested
2. try not to post things that will make your friends want to off themselves
2. try not to post things that will make your friends want to off themselves
January 3, 2026 at 9:33 AM
1. try not to post things that will get you arrested
2. try not to post things that will make your friends want to off themselves
2. try not to post things that will make your friends want to off themselves
Reposted by Kurt Raschke
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
January 2, 2026 at 2:17 PM
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
Reposted by Kurt Raschke
The retirement of the MetroCard at midnight tonight is bittersweet for me. In 1983, as a young lawyer, I took a year's leave of absence from my law firm to serve as special counsel to Richard Ravitch, chairman of the NY MTA. He gave me the task of leading a study ...
It's the final day of MetroCard sales—so as we say farewell to an icon, let's take a look at how it all started.
Thank you, MetroCard, for moving New York to the very last swipe.
Thank you, MetroCard, for moving New York to the very last swipe.
January 1, 2026 at 3:33 AM
The retirement of the MetroCard at midnight tonight is bittersweet for me. In 1983, as a young lawyer, I took a year's leave of absence from my law firm to serve as special counsel to Richard Ravitch, chairman of the NY MTA. He gave me the task of leading a study ...
And three decades after the MetroCard was designed and implemented, account-based AFC systems are increasingly the norm!
(More on this distinction at kurtraschke.com/2021/11/loop...)
(More on this distinction at kurtraschke.com/2021/11/loop...)
Loops and cards and taps, oh my!
Disclaimer: I work for a transit agency which is in the process of deploying a new fare collection system, but I don’t work on fare collection, and nothing here should be construed as official agency ...
kurtraschke.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:55 PM
And three decades after the MetroCard was designed and implemented, account-based AFC systems are increasingly the norm!
(More on this distinction at kurtraschke.com/2021/11/loop...)
(More on this distinction at kurtraschke.com/2021/11/loop...)
The dedicated role of “technical writer” has been slowly going extinct at many shops for a while now and it is a damn shame.
December 31, 2025 at 10:33 PM
The dedicated role of “technical writer” has been slowly going extinct at many shops for a while now and it is a damn shame.
Via Raymond Chen’s blog, another great post on what it’s like to give advice for beginners: anniemueller.com/posts/how-i-...
How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner - annie's blog
“Hello! I am a developer. Here is my relevant experience: I code in Hoobijag and sometimes jabbernocks and of course ABCDE++++ (but never ABCDE+/^+ are you kidding? ha!) and I like working with ...
anniemueller.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Via Raymond Chen’s blog, another great post on what it’s like to give advice for beginners: anniemueller.com/posts/how-i-...
Reposted by Kurt Raschke
Two New York Times journalists joined Miles Taylor, a YouTuber and transport enthusiast, on a daylong journey across New York City area buses and trains before sale of the MetroCard ends on December 31.
To Say Goodbye to the MetroCard, We Spent a Day Riding Every Transit System That Uses It
Two Times journalists joined Miles Taylor, a YouTuber and transport enthusiast, on a daylong journey across New York City area buses and trains before sale of the card ends on Dec. 31.
nyti.ms
December 31, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Two New York Times journalists joined Miles Taylor, a YouTuber and transport enthusiast, on a daylong journey across New York City area buses and trains before sale of the MetroCard ends on December 31.
This should say “read-write-verify”, but I goofed. (Don’t multitask while drafting threads that will accidentally go viral. Lesson learned.)
My kingdom for an edit button!
My kingdom for an edit button!
December 31, 2025 at 7:47 PM
This should say “read-write-verify”, but I goofed. (Don’t multitask while drafting threads that will accidentally go viral. Lesson learned.)
My kingdom for an edit button!
My kingdom for an edit button!
Folks on the Internet tend to have ~thoughts~ about the design of the MetroCard Vending Machine, too—but there again, that design is the result of explicit choices _which made sense in the context for which the machines were designed_:
nextcity.org/features/wha...
bsky.app/profile/kurt...
nextcity.org/features/wha...
bsky.app/profile/kurt...
December 31, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Folks on the Internet tend to have ~thoughts~ about the design of the MetroCard Vending Machine, too—but there again, that design is the result of explicit choices _which made sense in the context for which the machines were designed_:
nextcity.org/features/wha...
bsky.app/profile/kurt...
nextcity.org/features/wha...
bsky.app/profile/kurt...
Ultimately, though, the MetroCard design won out.
ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/403...
patents.google.com/patent/US519...
ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/403...
patents.google.com/patent/US519...
Design of a computer controlled turnstile
This paper concentrates on a single major element used in rail type systems, specifically a turnstile, designed for the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) - one of the largest transit systems in ...
ieeexplore.ieee.org
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Ultimately, though, the MetroCard design won out.
ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/403...
patents.google.com/patent/US519...
ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/403...
patents.google.com/patent/US519...
Looking at Cubic patent filings from the 80s, it's clear they toyed with other ideas, like a ticket transport that would grab the fare medium and then pull it into an open slot, where you could still see it and grab it out, rather than having your ticket disappear into the bowels of the machine.
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Looking at Cubic patent filings from the 80s, it's clear they toyed with other ideas, like a ticket transport that would grab the fare medium and then pull it into an open slot, where you could still see it and grab it out, rather than having your ticket disappear into the bowels of the machine.
If you move to another turnstile, it won't know that the card was previously in the middle of being written to, and so tries to start the cycle over again.
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
If you move to another turnstile, it won't know that the card was previously in the middle of being written to, and so tries to start the cycle over again.
This message is triggered when the read step in the read-write-verify cycle worked, but the write or verify steps failed. Consequently, you have a card which may or may not have good data on it, but if you swipe again _at that turnstile_, it can try to complete the write/verify operation again.
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
This message is triggered when the read step in the read-write-verify cycle worked, but the write or verify steps failed. Consequently, you have a card which may or may not have good data on it, but if you swipe again _at that turnstile_, it can try to complete the write/verify operation again.
Like all design decisions, this led to tradeoffs, and here these choices led to the dreaded "SWIPE AGAIN" and "SWIPE AGAIN AT THIS TURNSTILE". Let's talk for a moment about the second message, because it's an interesting one. Why "at this turnstile"?
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Like all design decisions, this led to tradeoffs, and here these choices led to the dreaded "SWIPE AGAIN" and "SWIPE AGAIN AT THIS TURNSTILE". Let's talk for a moment about the second message, because it's an interesting one. Why "at this turnstile"?
MetroCard had no such luxuries. The read/write head had to take the card at whatever pace the passenger chose to swipe it (within reason, of course).
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
MetroCard had no such luxuries. The read/write head had to take the card at whatever pace the passenger chose to swipe it (within reason, of course).
It's that last part that is the real kicker. The advantage of a mechanized ticket transport is that you can move the fare medium over the read/write head at a predictable speed; you can even move it to and fro to account for misreads and make multiple attempts before spitting it back out.
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
It's that last part that is the real kicker. The advantage of a mechanized ticket transport is that you can move the fare medium over the read/write head at a predictable speed; you can even move it to and fro to account for misreads and make multiple attempts before spitting it back out.
It's not like swiping a (pre-EMV) credit card at a retailer, where the terminal is only reading data. No, the turnstile must read the card, compute the data to be written back, execute the write, and verify the data _as the passenger is swiping the card, at a variable and unpredictable speed_!
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
It's not like swiping a (pre-EMV) credit card at a retailer, where the terminal is only reading data. No, the turnstile must read the card, compute the data to be written back, execute the write, and verify the data _as the passenger is swiping the card, at a variable and unpredictable speed_!
So, the passenger had to be able to swipe their card _themselves_, holding on to the card the whole time.
Why does this matter? MetroCard, like all card-based AFC systems, stores the card value _on the card_. This means that every swipe is actually a complete read-verify-write cycle.
Why does this matter? MetroCard, like all card-based AFC systems, stores the card value _on the card_. This means that every swipe is actually a complete read-verify-write cycle.
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
So, the passenger had to be able to swipe their card _themselves_, holding on to the card the whole time.
Why does this matter? MetroCard, like all card-based AFC systems, stores the card value _on the card_. This means that every swipe is actually a complete read-verify-write cycle.
Why does this matter? MetroCard, like all card-based AFC systems, stores the card value _on the card_. This means that every swipe is actually a complete read-verify-write cycle.