Urban Photography: A Brooklyn Walk

One of my February goals is to go on a photo shoot in the city. Save for one family party, I had not used my Nikon DSLR in more than two years. Put another way, I had yet to use my camera my favorite city. I took a few hours this afternoon to fix this.

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Bringing interfaces to Python

I am a big fan of polymorphic code. My current mantra is “our code should do one thing, it may just behave differently sometimes.” Towards this end, I often write classes that implement a common interface (that is, same methods and same signatures on those methods).

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All's Fare? Diving into MTA Fares

A few weeks ago, I was playing around comparing the MTA fares figures against annual inflation. The results initially seemed like some solid clickbait: “MTA Fares Rise Twice As Fast As Inflation.“ I showed one of my coworkers the graph and his reaction was interesting, something along the lines of, “Oh, so now they’re just raking in the money?” Well, not quite. Transit fare increases are a complicated topic and his misunderstanding is 100% justified. I decided to delve deeper into the topic.

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Graphing Transit Systems

I’ve been away from the blogging world for a while! The last few months included a fantastic and inspiring trip to Transportation Camp NYC and loads of (mostly) fun weekend work on transit graphs.

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"Next Stop…Transitland": A TransportationCamp Colorado Presentation

I attended the inaugural TransportationCamp Colorado was last week! Sticking with the format of an “unconference,” attendees were encouraged to propose their own sessions to present their work and/or lead discussions. I took them up on the format and presented the following slides on Transitland and how I used it to create my New York City transit frequency visualization. We had a really great interactive session with many good ideas exchanged!

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Denver's A Line Opens with Fanfare

Friday was a celebration worthy of Duke Ellington and John Hickenlooper. “Take the ‘A’ Train” was finally a meaningful phrase for the Denver metro area! Unfortunately, only one of them could make an appearance, while the other’s legacy lives on.  Relive the opening of the RTD University of Colorado A Line with my photo journey below!

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Warning: The Fort Collins Streetcar is Adorable

Transit fans be warned: the Fort Collins streetcar is adorable. It’s no kitten, but Car 21 certainly takes you to an era bygone. I wanted to grab an evening post, tighten the top button on my overcoat, and ride into a romanticized time as I leaned against the rattan-backed seat.

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All Aboard the Fort Collins Municipal Railway!

After seeing a call for volunteers in the Coloradoan, Calvin and I are now conductors-in-training for the Fort Collins Municipal Railway! We had our first session yesterday and toured the trolley barn on N. Howes Street. I’ve shared a few photos below!

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Cider Up! A Photo Recap from the Windy City

Each February, a few Purdue friends and I make our way to Navy Pier for Cider Summit Chicago. This was our third year of sampling fermented apples, and my second of making the weekend trip from Colorado to Chicago. I’ve included a few photos from the fantastic weekend below! They can be reasonably categorized into the following: airports, Chicago, Chicago transit, friends, friends on transit, transit in airports, and waffles.

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Ride the Entire Denver Light Rail In One Day? I"m On Board!

Most days, I am content to take the bus to work and back, read a piece or two of transit news, and go to sleep dreaming I am swaying in the center aisle of a brisk underground train. Other days, I have an idea that reroutes the temporary flow of my daily consciousness for the better. One Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago, I had one of those thoughts. “I SHOULD RIDE THE ENTIRE DENVER LIGHT RAIL IN ONE DAY.” It seemed so obvious. How was this a new thought to me?! Having completed a similar urban challenge in the past and enjoying a growing passion for public transit, this was the perfect goal. I set a due date: by the end of 2015, I would ride all 6 lines of the RTD light rail.

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