litchralee

The money quote:

VTA buses and light rail carried 30,000 people to and from Levi's Stadium, according to the agency. That was 5,000 more than they anticipated and "far surpassing" ridership records set when Taylor Swift played there in 2023.

As background from the Wikipedia page, the Anaheim Transit Network (ATN) was established as a city-sponsored non-profit in 1998 to operate bus lines around the Disneyland resort in California, with private funding from the various hotels in the area to run this public bus system. These hotels are obliged to operate or pay for shuttles to Disneyland as part of their development agreements with the city, presumably to avoid untold amounts of automobile traffic.

As the linked press release says, ATN will shutter its operations on 31 March 2026. The area will still be served by Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), the county-wide bus service, but looking at the bus lines near Disneyland, coverage seems non-optimal as a replacement to ATN's service.

Other reporting indicates that the City of Anaheim was unwilling to invest further into ATN (despite earlier indications), nor were the hotel operators.

What I find utterly inexplicable is that these stakeholders -- especially the city -- are not recognizing this fact: data from Q3 2025 shows that ATN fixed-buses moved 96,300 average daily riders. From the same document, the USA's heavy rail systems did not exceed that rate, except in the San Francisco, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, and NY/NJ areas. Basically, ATN was moving metro rail levels of people on buses.

I shudder to imagine how bad this will be for Anaheim once the closure occurs, where workers, visitors, and all other former riders will need to figure out how to move around Anaheim. Ride share automobiles hardly have enough capacity to absorb even a fraction of the prior riders, let alone more automobiles, even if they all carpooled. And seeing as many visitors to Disneyland use the buses to stay at farther hotels to reduce costs, this is a negative attraction. The difficulty of car-seats on ride share made the buses particularly attractive to transport younger children safely.

Each individual hotel operator made an economic choice to not properly fund ATN, but together they will all lose out. Likewise, I don't see how the City of Anaheim is going to make up the transportation capacity around the Disneyland area. Disneyland itself isn't party to the agreement that funds ATN, but they do contract with ATN to shuttle visitors from a far-flung parking lot. But they too will be impacted if staff and guests can't afford to get to the park.

Everyone is going to be worse off, and no one is stepping up to the plate to keep the buses rolling, when it's clearly the obvious thing to do.

To make it easier for the haulers, I sort my flattened cardboard boxes by size, and then insert the smaller ones within the larger ones, rotated 90 degrees. That way, they can grab larger bundles at once.

To me, this is less effort than the Japanese approach of using twine to tie bundles of cardboard together.

Every so often, I think about how much electric power my house consumes at all hours, even when it's the dead of night and nothing is really being used. So this morning, I went out and flipped each breaker off, one by one slowly, while watching the instantaneous kilowatt reading on the electric meter and taking observations.

This took about 20 minutes for all circuits, and then I honed in on the suspicious circuits, the ones which don't have a known appliance like a fridge which should always be running. Years ago, when I moved into this house, I drew out a map which describes which outlets and appliances belong to which circuit.

The two suspicious circuits were the living room and bedroom circuits, and armed with a Kill-o-watt, I ended up finding that my very old Bose Companion 5 desktop speakers will draw 23 Watts doing absolutely zilch. And my 2018-era Roku TCL so-called "smart" TV draws 20 Watts when it's "off".

I've been meaning to replace the Bose speakers -- due to a separate issue where the mute button only works half the time, and horrific Linux support -- and a friend recently offered to sell me some reference speakers that I can pair with a Class D amplifier, one which has a physical on/off switch.

For the TV, I'm not exactly sure what to replace it with, since I was going to wait until it died and replace it with a commercial-spec display, one that has no remnants of "smart TV" anything. I don't allow my TV to even have a network connection or WiFi, so it really shouldn't be doing anything. So I guess in the meantime, I'll just pull the plug when I'm not watching; at least it's easy to reach.

EDIT: the TV is now showing inconsistent results. It will occasionally drop down to a more-reasonable 0.1 Watt. But it might also remain at the aforementioned 20 Watts. Not entirely sure what it's doing, whether just sitting there or staying on for a while after turning "off" the TV.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/50842014

When I moved into my home many years ago, there was this lock-box mounted to the water main on the side of the house. I figured it was one of those used by real-estate agents to store the house key for viewings, but months passed and it still remained there. No one from my buyer's agent's office had a clue what this was, and the seller of the house had already moved out-of-state.

Recently, I had some plumbing work done, and that also included replacing the main water valve for the house, allowing this lock box to come free from the plumbing. Now inspecting it up close, and looking up the model online, I realized that it has an alphabet wheel and uses a three-letter combination.

As it happens, Thanksgiving weekend was upon me, and since I was bored, I figured I'd try all the possible combinations. Just 17,576 possible combinations, how bad could it be?

The most immediate problem was that due to being out in the elements, the dial did not turn easily. It would move, but was rather rough. And since the knob is only ~1 cm diameter, this is an incredibly un-ergonomic endeavor. I had to stop after the first 100 tries, due to the finger exhaustion.

Knowing this would be untenable for the long-run, I decided to build my way out of this problem. Since a combo lock involves making rotations that almost go all the way around, I drew inspiration from rotary telephone dials, where one's finger starts with the intended number and then swivels the dial around.

But whereas a rotary telephone dial only needs 10 positions, I needed to fit 26 positions, one for each letter. I decided on each hole being 17 mm to comfortably fit any of my fingers, but that also dictated the overall diameter of the wheel. But that's good, since a larger diameter wheel means more leverage to overcome the rough lock movement. It also happens to be that this wheel has a diameter of 180 mm, which is just enough to fit in the 200 mm bed of my 3d printer.

Using FreeCAD, I designed this wheel so that it fits around the splines of the lockbox dial, which held remarkably well. I had thought I would need Blu Tack or something to keep it together.

Using this wheel, I'm able to "dial" combinations much quicker using one hand, while holding the lockbox with my other hand to press the lever down to test the combination. This should be good.

(note: some parts of this story were altered to not give away identifying details)

When I moved into my home many years ago, there was this lock-box mounted to the water main on the side of the house. I figured it was one of those used by real-estate agents to store the house key for viewings, but months passed and it still remained there. No one from my buyer's agent's office had a clue what this was, and the seller of the house had already moved out-of-state.

Recently, I had some plumbing work done, and that also included replacing the main water valve for the house, allowing this lock box to come free from the plumbing. Now inspecting it up close, and looking up the model online, I realized that it has an alphabet wheel and uses a three-letter combination.

As it happens, Thanksgiving weekend was upon me, and since I was bored, I figured I'd try all the possible combinations. Just 17,576 possible combinations, how bad could it be?

The most immediate problem was that due to being out in the elements, the dial did not turn easily. It would move, but was rather rough. And since the knob is only ~1 cm diameter, this is an incredibly un-ergonomic endeavor. I had to stop after the first 100 tries, due to the finger exhaustion.

Knowing this would be untenable for the long-run, I decided to build my way out of this problem. Since a combo lock involves making rotations that almost go all the way around, I drew inspiration from rotary telephone dials, where one's finger starts with the intended number and then swivels the dial around.

But whereas a rotary telephone dial only needs 10 positions, I needed to fit 26 positions, one for each letter. I decided on each hole being 17 mm to comfortably fit any of my fingers, but that also dictated the overall diameter of the wheel. But that's good, since a larger diameter wheel means more leverage to overcome the rough lock movement. It also happens to be that this wheel has a diameter of 180 mm, which is just enough to fit in the 200 mm bed of my 3d printer.

Using FreeCAD, I designed this wheel so that it fits around the splines of the lockbox dial, which held remarkably well. I had thought I would need Blu Tack or something to keep it together.

Using this wheel, I'm able to "dial" combinations much quicker using one hand, while holding the lockbox with my other hand to press the lever down to test the combination. This should be good.

(note: some parts of this story were altered to not give away identifying details)

I happened across a QR code outside of Vancouver, Washington's City Hall about the current progress of selecting a new flag for the city. The thumbnail of this post is the current flag. There are six finalists under current consideration.

I personally like...

Finalist flag #3 by Nathan Hunter. It is geometrically simple yet depicts the history as a fort along the river. If this were a map, a simple square would indicate a fortification or building, so this makes sense to me. The creator also notes of the subtle letter V, although I'm not sure I would have seen that.

Also, I like that the colors are unconventional yet meaningful. The natural inclination for coloring a river would be blue, but white makes more sense here as the river also forms the border between the US States of Washington and Oregon, precisely where Vancouver is located. That the top half uses the green from Washington's flag, and the bottom half using blue (almost) from Oregon's (bizarrely two-sided) flag, is icing on the cake.

Do I think this flag also looks like the square-root symbol from mathematics? Yes, but that's why it would be a good flag: many ways to depict and ways to riff on any perceived similarities. Much like the UK's Union Jack, the more that a design can be remixed yet still recognizable, that should make for a better flag. That's why I personally prefer fewer squiggly lines on flags that depict rivers, because ultimately, most people don't orient their mental picture of a city based on squiggly lines, but rather with straight lines. See how the London Tube map was created.

For a smaller town like Vancouver -- overshadowed by the major Canadian city of the same name, and by adjacent Portland south of the river -- depicting the geographical position is more relatable than describing the abysmal Pacific Northwest weather, flannel, or whatever else stereotypes may exist but aren't Vancouver, WA-specific. So I think a geographic flag makes sense in this context.

Reposted from heckin_sick (on IG) after DMing him for permission.

FortNine as a YouTube channel mostly covers motorbikes but on-and-off will do some bicycle and ebike content. Being YouTube, the clickbait-esque title is customary but the video is a look at where the fastest, heaviest, not-strictly-legal "ebikes" blur into the low-end of motorbikes.

The specimen in question is, from all that was pointed out in the video, rather abysmal by motorbike standards but par for the course by consumer goods standards. This includes:

• An obnoxious startup introduction to remind you that their brand name is pronounced Aniioki
• Illogical rear suspension design
• Complete disregard for Canadian and British Columbian ebike classifications
• Questionable chain design that keeps falling off the chainring
• A throttle with huge delay before reacting
• And more!

But the paltry nature of this particular ebike wasn't my main takeaway. It's that ebikes at-large are filling a gap in the market, where young people want mobility without the expenses and licensure of motorbikes. Here in California, the chasm between legal ebikes and motorbikes is so wide that I would imagine the same statistics could be found here as FortNine found in Canada. And it makes perfect sense: cheaper, lighter, electric, nimble, and unencumbered by frivolities like highway roadworthiness. For getting around town or to work, it makes perfect sense.

That said, they also touched upon the very real problems faced by faster ebikes (legal or not) today. Motorists -- because let's face it, most problems of micromobility are caused in large part by automobiles -- might expect to see a motorbike doing the speed limit, but not an ebike doing 2/3 of the speed limit. A USA Class 3 ebike can legally do 45 kph (28 MPH) and while that's slower than typical speed limits here of 35 or 45 MPH, the problem arises when there's enough motor vehicle congestion that slows motorists to about the same speed. And that's where the conflict shows up, such as when a car enters the road from a driveway.

Do I think it's a bit silly to bring a 150+ lbs "ebike" onto the ferry, or dangerous to ride along a multi-use trail on the side of a bridge when there are also pedestrians? Absolutely! But again, I think the takeaway is that the times are changing and preparations must be made in anticipation.

The absolute worse-case would be if these overpowered two-wheelers unlawfully dressed up as ebikes were to proliferate to the point that it's total chaos on the roads. At that point, Pandora's Box cannot be closed. Thus, it behooves us to mitigate that situation by, among other things:

• Build actual infrastructure for riders on bikes and ebikes, that isn't doing double-duty as pedestrian or recreational paths
• Incentivize legal, battery-safe ebikes to stave off a glut of illegal, shoddily-made "ebikes"
• Make existing bikes more useful with destination improvements, like bike lockers or secure/valet bike parking
• Seize road space currently used for motor vehicles, and do anything else with it. Parklets, public toilets, bioswale, donut shop.
• Expand public transportation options, for anyone who can't/won't ride a bike, but also as range-extension for anyone who wants to do bus+bike

The premise of a well-built city is that it shouldn't require a two-ton automobile just to buy milk. I would further the sentiment with the opinion that a 160+ lbs two-wheeler also shouldn't be necessary to travel across Vancouver in a timely fashion. We can, in-fact, build our way out of this future problem but only by starting right now.

Hi! I've only posted here maybe once, but I'm looking to change that and have been working to improve my joinery.

Specifically, I recently had the geometric realization that adjusting the horizontal angle on my miter saw is one of the least precise adjustments I can make, when trying to make two cuts that add up to 90 degrees. So instead, I now set the angle for the smaller angle, make the first cut, then set the workpiece for the second piece using a square against the fence. Basically, I'm rotating the piece so it's 90 degrees to the saw fence, and that lets me cut the complementary angle without realigning the saw angle.

The new problem is that because I'm still using slightly-warped and slightly-twisty stock, the surfaces aren't terribly great for gluing up. In one case, I glued up one end of a diagonal brace but the other end was lifting up, off-plane. Hand sanding with a block helps, but more often than not, I end up rounding off the edges and glue leaks out. So I'm now seeking recommendations for a small hand plane, so that I can have better, flatter surfaces to glue together.

Is this the right approach? If I'm mostly working with narrow stock like 1x4-inch, is there a correct-sized hand plane to smooth out an end-grain on that small of stock? Apologies in advance for not really knowing all the right wood terminology. I'm still learning.

Ideally, I'd like to buy something that will be versatile and serviceable for a long time. So cost isn't too important, but ideally it'd be proportional to my (few) other tools. If I know what to look for, I'll keep my eye out for such a specimen while at the thrift store.

EDIT: To clarify, a use-case would be if I'm gluing a diagonal brace at mid-height of a post. If i had a plane, I could work the post so that it has a flat face, so that the brace won't deviate left/right. For the diagonal brace itself, I can mostly trust my miter saw to cut the angle reasonably plumb.

EDIT 2: Might I actually want a card scraper instead?

EDIT 3: y'all are awesome and I now have a fair number of suggestions to consider. I guess there goes all my disposable money for September, once I go visit the nearby woodworking shop.

I've put off the overhaul of my ebike's Bafang G510 mid-drive motor for so long that it has never actually been serviced since I bought it 3800 km ago. Over the past weeks, I slowly pulled the motor off the bike, carefully disassembled it, and found the rotor shaft gear in a poor state. Metal flecks were visible within the blackened grease, making a mess within the housing.

To get the sprockets off of the motor, I did have to obtain a deep-socket YC-29BB tool to remove the "spider" from the crank shaft. A standard wrench for the Bafang lock ring will not work, because the spider itself is in the way.

This motor has an all-metal gear arrangement, consisting of the primary gear axle which is coaxial with the cranks, a secondary gear axle, and a tertiary gear axle which is driven by the rotor shaft gear. It was the gears where the tertiary axle and rotor shafts meet which were substantially ground down, resulting in play between gears that causes additional wear every time the motor accelerates or decelerates.

Note: some references online say that the G510 pre-2023 had a nylon gear. I could not locate any images of this, and my motor appeared to have all-metal parts. So idk.

Part of the issue is that the tertiary axle used a gear which isn't as deep as the rotor shaft's gear, resulting in wasted gear-to-gear surface area. A newer gear design for both the rotor and tertiary axle came out in 2023, and can be swapped in but requires recalibration of the motor.

So with the motor half disassembled, I figured the only sensible way forward was to order both the new rotor shaft and new tertiary axle, plus the CAN bus-specific Bafang dealer tool to perform the recalibration. I purchased these from greenbikekit.com, which didn't have the most intuitive ordering process but they did deliver in the end.

Perhaps the most arduous process was cleaning out all the old grease, which requires some solvent to shift. And even then, some crevices were unreachable without a very long cotton swab. In any case, I then re-greased using Permatex 80345 white lithium grease, since this has a higher temperature rating than typical white lithium grease, according to its data sheet. I obtained this from the local auto parts store, and this was the best I could get locally; Mobilgrease 28 was not available near me.

For the recalibration procedure, I knew that I wouldn't have -- nor would want to register for -- the Bafang dealer software to use with the programmer tool. Also, I'm a believer in the right-to-repair and having to beg for software is antithetical to this notion. Fortunately, someone has a FOSS project that can control the programmer and issue the recalibration command, among other neat features.

After dealing with a file permissions issue for /dev/usbhid2, the programmer was able to issue the calibration and the motor was set for reinstallation into the frame. This was basically all the earlier steps in reverse.

During testing, it is notable how much the new gears add the characteristic "whirling" sound of an electric motor. However, because the play within the gears was reduced and with new grease added, I found that the overall noise signature of the motor is substantially reduced. Also appreciated is how much less current the motor draws when riding at speed, compared to before the overhaul.

While it did take a while to assemble the parts and procedure for this endeavor, I am pleased with the results and would suggest periodic re-greasing for ebikes in regular service.

After some 3000 km, this mid-drive motor is grossly overdue for some maintenance. I can see the specks of eroded metal mixed in the dark, gunky remains of whatever factory grease they used in here.

I don't know where locally to get the Mobilegrease 28 that everyone recommends, but I did find some high-temp white lithium from the auto store. But just removing the old grease has already consumed half a roll of paper towel. And I can't exactly dunk a motor into gasoline as degreaser.

I'll carry on wiping.