Ricky Leong
@rickyleong.com
🖖 🚇 🚌 📻 📸 Ugly bag of mostly water. He/him. Random musings about such varied subjects as photography, urban planning, transit/transportation, travel, Star Trek, shortwave radio and more. My professional alter ego is @rickyleongyyc.bsky.social
January 1, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Huh, I am now in possession of a transit relic. Goodbye, MetroCard!
December 31, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Huh, I am now in possession of a transit relic. Goodbye, MetroCard!
If you want to truly own books/music/TV/film/etc., buy physical media, perhaps purchased from a local retailer, if feasible.
December 27, 2025 at 6:58 PM
If you want to truly own books/music/TV/film/etc., buy physical media, perhaps purchased from a local retailer, if feasible.
The phone says it’s -10C outside but it feels like -30C. You have been warned!
(Seems it’s much warmer immediately west of Calgary …)
(Seems it’s much warmer immediately west of Calgary …)
December 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
The phone says it’s -10C outside but it feels like -30C. You have been warned!
(Seems it’s much warmer immediately west of Calgary …)
(Seems it’s much warmer immediately west of Calgary …)
Reposted by Ricky Leong
Picard management tip: Think.
December 20, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Picard management tip: Think.
Reposted by Ricky Leong
What does it take to move 1000 people? Smart infrastructure supporting choices that don’t take up so much space (or produce so much emissions/pollution, cost so much public money etc).
Mobility in cities is about space.
Graphic via @seattlesubway.org based on a Sydney graphic I spread years ago.
Mobility in cities is about space.
Graphic via @seattlesubway.org based on a Sydney graphic I spread years ago.
December 20, 2025 at 11:31 PM
What does it take to move 1000 people? Smart infrastructure supporting choices that don’t take up so much space (or produce so much emissions/pollution, cost so much public money etc).
Mobility in cities is about space.
Graphic via @seattlesubway.org based on a Sydney graphic I spread years ago.
Mobility in cities is about space.
Graphic via @seattlesubway.org based on a Sydney graphic I spread years ago.
Reposted by Ricky Leong
Is your transit agency "succeeding"? It depends on the definition of success, and not everyone agrees on that. Here's my timeless article on this, just now updated a bit.
humantransit.org/2018/02/basi...
humantransit.org/2018/02/basi...
Basics: The Ridership - Coverage Tradeoff — Human Transit
Is your transit agency succeeding? It depends on what it’s trying to do, and most transit agencies haven’t been given clear direction about what they should be trying to do. Different people have di...
humantransit.org
December 2, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Is your transit agency "succeeding"? It depends on the definition of success, and not everyone agrees on that. Here's my timeless article on this, just now updated a bit.
humantransit.org/2018/02/basi...
humantransit.org/2018/02/basi...
It took a few days of near-obsessive listening during non-work hours … but I'm finally caught up with @shieldpodulation.bsky.social
September 27, 2025 at 2:12 AM
It took a few days of near-obsessive listening during non-work hours … but I'm finally caught up with @shieldpodulation.bsky.social
Watch this now:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7-e...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7-e...
These Ugly Big Box Stores are Literally Bankrupting Cities
YouTube video by Not Just Bikes
www.youtube.com
April 7, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Watch this now:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7-e...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7-e...
The inverse is also true: Calgary’s sprawl (and some transit-unfriendly suburban neighbourhood design) makes excellent public transit an expensive proposition, from an operational standpoint.
Calgary should be a western metropolis the size of Montreal, unfortunately it's growth is strangled by poor public transit
March 25, 2025 at 2:44 AM
The inverse is also true: Calgary’s sprawl (and some transit-unfriendly suburban neighbourhood design) makes excellent public transit an expensive proposition, from an operational standpoint.
Reposted by Ricky Leong
For 60 years, car advertising has programmed us that driving is freedom, that cars are how we get around, that driving — even reckless driving —is a symbol of status & power. But what if a car marketing vet used his skills to highlight the insanity of car culture?
sf.streetsblog.org/2020/11/05/r...
sf.streetsblog.org/2020/11/05/r...
March 19, 2025 at 5:25 AM
For 60 years, car advertising has programmed us that driving is freedom, that cars are how we get around, that driving — even reckless driving —is a symbol of status & power. But what if a car marketing vet used his skills to highlight the insanity of car culture?
sf.streetsblog.org/2020/11/05/r...
sf.streetsblog.org/2020/11/05/r...
Reuters: Voice of America staff put on leave after Trump orders cuts www.reuters.com/business/med...
Trump signs order to gut Voice of America, other agencies
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at gutting the parent of U.S. government-funded media outlet Voice of America and six other federal agencies, his administration's latest step to shrink bureaucracy.
www.reuters.com
March 15, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reuters: Voice of America staff put on leave after Trump orders cuts www.reuters.com/business/med...
Leaving this here for no particular reason 🇨🇦
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ozb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ozb...
We Are Canadian
YouTube video by Jeff Douglas
www.youtube.com
March 6, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Leaving this here for no particular reason 🇨🇦
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ozb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ozb...
[…] Les déboires du REM produisent déjà un effet pervers : ils découragent des résidants de la Rive-Sud d’utiliser le transport collectif. Plusieurs, atteints d’une écœurantite aiguë, sont retournés à leurs vieilles habitudes automobiles.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/c...
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/c...
Ras-le-bol du REM !
« Vouloir » et « pouvoir » sont deux choses bien différentes avec le Réseau express métropolitain (REM).
www.lapresse.ca
February 22, 2025 at 5:34 AM
[…] Les déboires du REM produisent déjà un effet pervers : ils découragent des résidants de la Rive-Sud d’utiliser le transport collectif. Plusieurs, atteints d’une écœurantite aiguë, sont retournés à leurs vieilles habitudes automobiles.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/c...
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/c...
Produced from extensive research: this graph shows volume over time of positive comments about Connor McDavid from Calgary Flames fans
February 21, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Produced from extensive research: this graph shows volume over time of positive comments about Connor McDavid from Calgary Flames fans
Titulaire de la Chaire Mobilité à Polytechnique Montréal, Catherine Morency appuie totalement cette idée. « Franchement, les concurrents du REM, ce ne sont pas les lignes de bus, ce sont les cinq ponts à côté », commente-t-elle.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/g...
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/g...
Réseau express métropolitain | « Ça prend de grosses améliorations »
Le Réseau express métropolitain (REM) n’a plus d’excuses et doit offrir un service de meilleure qualité rapidement, plaident des experts et des regroupements d’usagers. Devant ce ras-le-bol, le gouver...
www.lapresse.ca
February 20, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Titulaire de la Chaire Mobilité à Polytechnique Montréal, Catherine Morency appuie totalement cette idée. « Franchement, les concurrents du REM, ce ne sont pas les lignes de bus, ce sont les cinq ponts à côté », commente-t-elle.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/g...
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/g...
Reposted by Ricky Leong
Shame on every "journalist" writing shit like this.
Shame.
Shame.
Canada as the 51st state? Trump thinks it would be a boon to his legacy. But it would also be a boon to Democrats, who would gain a lot more voters. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/u...
Canada as the 51st State? In Electoral Terms, Trump’s Idea Favors Democrats.
Bringing Canada into the United States, however farcical the prospect may seem, would alter the political map in a way likely to cost Republicans.
www.nytimes.com
February 18, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Shame on every "journalist" writing shit like this.
Shame.
Shame.
Reposted by Ricky Leong
Once you recognize that widening roads always leads to more congestion, the case for (de)congestion pricing + transit investment is obvious.
But if you need a study, here's a study:
ssti.us/2025/02/03/c...
But if you need a study, here's a study:
ssti.us/2025/02/03/c...
Congestion pricing could be the only path to managing gridlock
Transportation agencies in the U.S. spend billions of dollars each year expanding highways to ease gridlock. Yet commute times have increased 20% over the last 50 years and traffic congestion is still...
ssti.us
February 10, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Once you recognize that widening roads always leads to more congestion, the case for (de)congestion pricing + transit investment is obvious.
But if you need a study, here's a study:
ssti.us/2025/02/03/c...
But if you need a study, here's a study:
ssti.us/2025/02/03/c...
One of many underground passageways in Montreal.
February 9, 2025 at 9:14 PM
One of many underground passageways in Montreal.
How about a timeline cleanse? Here’s a beautiful mural at rue Sherbrooke and boulevard Décarie in Montreal. flic.kr/p/2qJVRwV
Raconte-moi une histoire
Montréal. (février 2025)
flic.kr
February 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
How about a timeline cleanse? Here’s a beautiful mural at rue Sherbrooke and boulevard Décarie in Montreal. flic.kr/p/2qJVRwV
I’ve seen these popping up along Centre Street North in Calgary the last couple of times I’ve walked around there.
February 4, 2025 at 4:47 AM
I’ve seen these popping up along Centre Street North in Calgary the last couple of times I’ve walked around there.