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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Apr 27

Lol 😆

Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Apr 21

Glad you liked it. So many transit fundamentals are being fumbled in Nigerian cities that are building transit today.

The result is extremely low ridership & waste of public funds. Unfortunately, Lagos is compounding their mistakes.

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Reposted by Tonami Playman

Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · Mar 21

State capacity is when you have an entire, publicly available set of manuals and standard design solutions for tunnels (and every other component of railways), and the relative reference cost library, also publicly available and updated yearly.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Mar 17

In 4th place is the 36km Dakar TER suburban rail with 62k avg daily riders in 2024 running 10 min headways weekdays & 20 mins on weekends.

Mauritius's 30km tramway rounds out the list of top 5 performers with 45k riders/day in 2024

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Mar 17

The Casablanca Tramway is a close 3rd with 170k riders/day in 2024 plus 26k riders/day on the BRT lines. The Casablanca Tramway despite being much larger at 72.5km has a 2.3k riders/km vs the 3k riders/km in Algiers.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Mar 17

Algiers urban rail system composed of an 18.5km metro with 2023 ridership of 126k/day & 4 min headways, an RER, & a slow 23km tram with 70k/day that should be a metro is in 2nd Place.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Mar 17

In terms of ridership, the Cairo metro is by far the most useful on the continent. It just needs more central core lines to relieve the current overcrowding.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Mar 17

Nice work on this compilation. A good primer on the urban rail systems in Africa that gives people a starting point for which they can explore more about.

Covering African urban is very challenging even for someone like me who follows these systems closely.

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Reposted by Tonami Playman

Reece Martin @rmtransit.bsky.social · Mar 16

People have long asked for videos on Africa. I didn't end up doing that, but I just wrote a HUGE blog post on urban rail in the continent, which is worth checking out as an intro! (Also consider subscribing to the blog!)

reecemartin.ca/140030623/ur...

Urban Rail in Africa

One thing people have long requested from me is coverage of Africa. This is, sadly, one of the few big items I never got around to tackling in a big way, for a number of reasons — lack of good phot…

reecemartin.ca

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Reposted by Tonami Playman

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · Mar 6

This story from Charleston, SC shows why on-demand transit can't scale:

1️⃣ Transit agency offers those 55+ $21 off 20 monthly Uber/Lyft rides if they pay $4/trip
2️⃣ Seniors sign up in droves, blowing the budget
3️⃣ Transit agency quickly tightens eligibility, lowers subsidy by 1/3, & raises copay 25%

CARTA cuts an Uber/Lyft subsidy for older residents after this column made it popular

The transit agency in Charleston S.C. has for years offered older residents vouchers for discounted Uber and Lyft rides, but now that the program's become popular cutbacks are coming.

www.postandcourier.com

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Reposted by Tonami Playman

Jon Worth @jonworth.eu · Mar 3

Interesting data about rail in France

12% fewer high speed train services, and some stations with even 20% fewer trains (all the red dots), BUT passenger numbers *up* (bigger trains, and filling them more)

Source: www.autorite-transports.fr/actualites/l...

Map of France with blue and red dots on it, showing the evolution of numbers of trains and passenger numbers. Red dots indicate numbers of trains decreasing

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Reposted by Tonami Playman

Benjamin Schneider @benschneider.bsky.social · Mar 3

Former SF Central Subway project director says the line should be extended to North Beach:

"The tunnels are all the way up to Columbus. You can build a station over there right now with minimal expense... That would bring in a lot of ridership.”

missionlocal.org/2025/03/cent...

The Central Subway has been shut down. Will anyone notice?

The Central Subway came in years late and some $400M over budget. But that would be okay (sort of) if people rode it. But they don't.

missionlocal.org

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Mar 3

I would like to understand that, too.

Maybe no in-house capacity was beefed, and they just realized they no longer needed the services of consulting firms.

In the last few decades, consulting firms did a phenomenal job of selling their services, value-adding or not.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Mar 3

Those are some nice pictures. That must have been a fun trip riding all the AGTs.

What did you like best about the Rokko line? Was it the views?

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Feb 21

This is what DeepSeek had to say about it.

Storing opened sesame oil outside the fridge is generally acceptable if done properly, but refrigeration is recommended for optimal shelf life.

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Reposted by Tonami Playman

Diego @ryukyu-hsr.bsky.social · Feb 20

New blog in which I try to sort out the good and the bad from the "15 min cities" and the Paris approach to urbanism. In short: cycle lanes and traffic calming are good, NIMBYism is bad.

Note the professor who Paris credits as co-inventor of the concept says it's an alternative to "faster metros".

Railway suburbs instead of 15 min cities

The « 15 min city » movement proposes a lot of improvements for public streets and squares in urban areas, deprioritising cars in transport planning in favour of pedestrians, …

metrovelododo.wordpress.com

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Feb 17

This company converted an NA Mazda MX-5 1st gen with a 42kWh battery. Weight is 100kg heavier than the 1030kg NA. So it does show that it's possible.

1st Gen Tesla Roadster was 1,237kg with 53kWh 450kg battery, upgraded to 80kWh in the 2016 battery upgrade.

insideevs.com/reviews/7503...

The Original Mazda Miata Works Great As An EV

Electrogenic's conversion is delightful to drive. There's just one sticking point.

insideevs.com

Reposted by Tonami Playman

Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · Feb 17

HOT RESEARCH NEWS!

Motonormativity ("car brain") is a bias that stops people making rational judgements about driving en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motonor...

Our new study shows where this bias comes from AND how it makes people think they're odd for supporting changes to the transport system 🧵

Cover sheet of a journal article: "Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity" by Ian Walker and Marco te Brömmelstroet

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Feb 17

I think that's why MG pushed the Cyberster into the premium GT category. It was initially supposed to be an all electric version of the MX-5.

At 1,885kg, it's heavier than a 1,680kg Aston Martin V12 Vantage, a 1,780kg Ferrari 599 GTB, & similar to a Dodge Charger muscle car.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Feb 17

The same as a Cadillac Escalade SUV.

Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Feb 17

That's the part the EV Fandom has quietly ignored. The Zeekr Mix MPV, for example, is 2.6 tons.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Feb 17

I added the MG Cyberster & Mazda MX-5 to the table.

The MG Cyberster's 1,885kg weight is in line with its footprint. The NMC battery pack holds 77kWh & 400km WLTP range.

An NMC pack in the MX-5 footprint will weigh ~1,500kg & hold 60kWh & 310km range. LFP will hold 50kWh & 260km range.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Feb 17

Wheelbase and Foot Print (Wheelbase X Width) determines the weight of a car.

The same wheelbase constraint also determines the battery capacity. LFP battery packs are in the 12 to 15kWh/m2 range, while NMC/NCA are in the 16-18kWh/m2 range.

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Reposted by Tonami Playman

Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · Feb 17

Also spotted: a "tram gate", a common solution used in Zurich to give priority to trams where there isn't enough space to fit island platforms with lateral lanes for both directions.

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Tonami Playman @tonamiplayman.bsky.social · Jan 29

The presence of the Tesla Shanghai gigafactory is a big contributor. This shows that non Chinese OEMs could make headway if they chose to. The legacy OEMs just decided not to and are paying the price.

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