What I’m onto

Until very recently, Google Earth Pro was my GIS & navigation software of choice–not anything Esri. ArcGIS Pro only came under my radar since early 2020 so bear with me while I pick it up!

Surprisingly though, I was able to create some sleek-looking transit route plots using it, and I’m very happy with the result. Think about plotting curvatures and making sure station plots align nicely onto the lines. As of now, I have covered 29 cities and counting, and I look forward to compile & package them in more manipulatable forms.

Download the current iteration of all KMZ files packaged together here–apologies if some cities are slightly out of date.

I am a highly opinionated person and have an intrinsic urge to share my thoughts. This is, estimating based on my confidence interval, probably my fifth blog–all the earlier ones are deemed too embarrassing for me and I have deactivated them all.

Given this is not a Substack, you aren’t paying anything (and frankly I probably am not conducting enough fact-checking), there is no centralized theme to it. Anything goes! Though chances are topics will have something to do with what you read about me on my What I’m Into landing page.

Nobody questioned how Staten Island, the only borough of New York without subway access, is managing its beleaguered express bus system. Nobody questioned why in Manhattan, 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th, and 86th streets (and beyond) are the “chosen ones” for two-way access with all the subway express stops.

I couldn’t hold in my curiosity. These papers were all supervised by my wonderful mentor Mosette Broderick, who gave me the blessing to conduct research on these (to my surprise, not deeply explored) territories, and now they’re for you to see.

Well, there’s only one thread so far, but we all must start somewhere, don’t we?

I am oddly literate about some uncalled-for transit history, and that includes the MRT Brown Line in Taipei, a perfect storm of system integration nightmares, crippling public contracts, and a disheveled system that somehow still works. I think you’ll appreciate the thread, and word on the streets the next one will be on the Taoyuan Airport MRT, similarly plagued with issues and delayed for years before finally opening to the public…