Nicholas Smith

YouTube video by C-SPAN C-SPAN: President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner

Wait is Sam the urbanist WHCA dinner Obama? youtu.be/n9mzJhvC-8E

That's fair. Though I would add that local electoral districts are sometimes drawn by politicians in Canada; I remember writing a letter to my local paper complaining about drawing districts with large deviations (and proposing a better map) and hearing there was a lot of consternation internally.

And politicians do set the rules. Quebec politicians have worked hard to keep Gaspé having more seats than population would allow, giving less representation to Montreal suburbs. Northern Ontario has more seats than it should. Etc. There is absolutely political interference in redistricting here.

No *partisan* gerrymandering, but Saskatchewan has had fights over their rurban districts (splitting up Regina and Saskatoon and combining part of each city with a rural quadrant). Also we have big disproportionality, esp in QC, where it's ±25% and sometimes more, which would be illegally in the US.

Matt Shearer is undefeated, great kicker. And I'm sure @probablyalissa.bsky.social will appreciate the two pinball machines, among other oddities.

Looking at a tracker, yes, Thalys are taking the old line via Leiden (while EC and ECD are taking HSL Zuid), and currently all trains are taking the new Belgian HSL via Noorderkempen, so even with the stops the ECDs are faster. Plus there are huge delays, and many of the Thalys are ending at R'dam.

Ok, so it seems this mess is due to the Belgian train strike; normally Thalys is faster. Trains are running via Roosendaal, and the ECD waits in Antwerp for Thalys to pass it. But then Thalys takes an hour from Rotterdam to Schiphol, maybe because it misses its slot, my guess is it goes via Leiden.

#banCARs

No one here is cooking.

And they say Americans don't make things anymore....

What about the current large, multi-member district (the whole county) elected using a proportional voting technique (like list PR)?

I remember thinking, oh, I can upgrade for free, and then when I went to do this they said I had to choose, either upgrade to an AB OPUS or an ABC one, but no card could do both.

REM users can't buy monthly transit passes at North Shore stations "You can buy tickets at the station, but our Opus cards don't work," one commuter said.

There's a report today that no stations or sales points in the town where the new REM terminates (DM) in Zones C can sell OPUS cards that will accept a zone C pass. You have to go downtown, to the pool one town over, or to a few dozen locations. montrealgazette.com/news/local-n...

YouTube video by Geoff Marshall The First Contactless Only Station (No Oyster)

I don't know. I don't know if the money on the card is stored on the card or in a centralized database. If the former they need to, when you tap, very quickly determine the fare, but if not it's fine, it'll show at your next tap. Geoff discussed a bit in the video. youtu.be/m0xDbHj4K_E

Except those references are in the opposite direction! Limits to state courts authority should be exceedingly limited.

Bikeshare Shouldn’t Kick Tourists to the Curb Barcelona’s bikeshare program excludes non-Spanish visitors. Other cities charge tourists much higher fees to rent two-wheelers. Which policy makes more sense?

$10.69 for a 15-minute ride?

For visitors, public bikeshare often feels like a ripoff.

In CityLab, I explored why.

French systems use to do this too, I remember Rennes and Paris would just not accept foreign cards. But then later Paris was fine.

One could argue this all began in 2015, when the selection process for chief justice was changed from most senior member to a vote among the justices, which led to some changes.

It's undeniable they've made progress, but there's a way to go. Maybe one day they can get an OVChipkaart, or, because of Scotland and NI, maybe it'll be Suica/Icoca/etc.

Oh sure, I agree with the overall point. Though the direct Eurostar is faster than the change; but if your first train is not going to NL and you're changing anyway, because the ICD is slightly faster it leaves a few minutes before the Eurostar so it's not slowed on the way. Very funny!

The Oyster card zone number is hard coded 4 bits, so there are a max of 15 zones (plus null), so as they expand out there are now places where fares are integrated but you can only use contactless, not Oyster. www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/i...

That Köln Eurostar is going via Brussel Zuid. There are also Amsterdam Eurostars at 0912 and 1019, so just outside that one hour interval. Also it's faster to take the Köln Eurostar and switch to an ICD, which is timetabled 12 minutes faster than Eurostar on Brussels to Schiphol, and leaves first.

City Unique is great. The stories about the gambling dens and the padlock law are wonderful.

Yup. While in Montreal everyone blames everyone else for not funding changes so we have just 1⅓ stations currently being renovated with more than half left to go, and on the train lines we just rebuilt two main stations with low platforms.

Nice, so really close. 80/20 rule I guess.

I see they finally have a date for Old Mill (2028), with the rest done next year. So I guess Montreal still has time to not make any more of its metro or train stations accessible before they're the last systems in the country that aren't.

Ah, I had looked at one point and every schedule had a wheelchair symbol at every stop and they said somewhere they were fully accessible. Do they do it with lifts, or were they just inaccurate?

11.5 months ago. (The TTC is in violation but they are moving quickly and nearly done. They are, afaict, the only non-compliant agency in the province.)

But as others have said, these cars boarded at Gare Centrale's high platforms with level boarding.

If only all these Members of Congress who are annoyed at the Speaker's actions and his use of the rules could somehow change the Speaker and the rules. Alas.

Thanks! I wonder how that was exactly phrased by the attorney. It could be just a hypothetical: if there's a dismissal without prejudice (rather than with prejudice, or voiding), then it comes into play. I'm sure they hope they didn't foreclose that argument. Clearly not before the court then.