Tidbits and links on transportation from the last little while!

• Alexander Chen turns the New York subway into a string instrument, using actual scheduled times! If this makes no sense, visit his site to see the experiment in action. As well, here’s an explanation of how he did it.
• The Source, L.A. Metro’s blog, spotlighted my post on our Twitter pilot!
• Victoria transit is now on Google maps!
• Super cool: ;-) passed along a link to Yahoo’s interactive bus stops in San Francisco, which let you play games in the bus shelter ad spaces! Your scores also get compiled into a neighbourhood leaderboard, which lets you see which area is doing the best.
• Improv Anywhere Vancouver did a “random bus song” meetup on Sunday, Jan 30, where they all burst out into song on the 99 B-Line. Here’s photos of the event, and a YouTube video of last year’s song.
• Hey—this Toronto Star editorial calls for a unified transit agency in Toronto, and cites TransLink as an example of how it could work. Also, here’s a Star article and a Globe article about the politics of moving the TTC to provincial oversight, which is currently a topic of discussion over there.
• Tom Vanderbilt asks why do some people pull in straight to a parking space and some back in?
• More Toronto news: WheelTrans, Toronto’s HandyDART, is seeing rising costs as demand rises. The TTC is planning public meetings on bus reductions. Go Transit wants to electrify the rail line to the airport (which the Toronto Star editorial team endorses). Also, the Ontario province may ban Toronto transit workers from striking.
• An article on how Ottawa Transit is refocusing their direction on to express routes and eliminating milk runs. Also, another article on how Ottawa has pulled down its real-time GPS bus info.
• This Montreal Gazette article discusses the “dark side” of their regional transit plan.
• A clever fellow in London put his Oyster card chip into a magic wand and uses it to tap into the system :) Thanks to Dominic for sending this in!
• The BBC talks about the busiest rail lines in England.
• Out west: here’s a Calgary Herald feature article about Calgary’s C-Train and its reach. Edmonton councillors are contemplating allowing liquor ads on buses. Saskatoon transit reports that its complaints dropped last year.
• Closer to home: here’s Zach Shaner’s examination of the Amtrak Cascades train service between Seattle and Vancouver. Stephen Rees has a blog post on transport and land use planning being inextricably linked. Peter Ladner critiques Metro Vancouver’s plans.
• And here’s a post on Metro Vancouver’s walkability from Transportopolis, a UBC grad student blog on transportation.
• A small Human Transit roundup: aerial photos of Brisbane flooding, a clear frequent transit network map for Seattle, and bike vs transit problems.
• If you’re young and you research transportation, apply for the International Transport Forum’s Young Researcher of the Year 2011 award!
• And finally: rats riding the New York City subway! Eek!

If you have any items to suggest, or a photo to showcase on these posts, e-mail me at thebuzzer@translink.ca! (Seriously: photos. Send them to me!)