Bus numbers

Back before Covid, before the bus reorganizations but after they first started running them to this town, I'd drive to or be dropped off at the bus stop and ride downtown. I never saw more than 15 people on the (rush hour only service) buses, and usually about half that. I liked the convenience--I could use my time much more usefully than I could driving--but wondered just how heavily the town was subsidizing the ride.

The city then expanded bus service, including an in-town only route, which I have used twice. Once again, I wondered: how much was that subsidized?

Budget shortfalls are bringing a lot into public view. Last year Metro Bus+Paratransit had 113,951 riders on this town's lines. Counting weekends as a single day, that comes to about 9 riders per bus run. That's more than I expected, based on what I see through the windows, but OK. To be clear, there are two circulator lines, and one which links to Madison downtown. I just assumed everybody rode the circulator.

The contract with Metro this year is for 2.04 million. That's about 18 dollars per ride, all lines included. Fares were about 2 bucks (and there is some state aid, but that doesn't reduce the cost per ride, just changes who pays), so the city itself subsidizes 600,000 -- a bit over 5 bucks a ride.

Madison Metro got itself a reputation for exploitive contracts with the suburbs, but 18 dollars a ride? You'd have to put 2 people on every seat to make 2 dollar fares alone pay for the contract.

For the in-city short hops, a taxi costs less than the real price for the bus ride. I wasn't expecting that.

Wrong kind of bird

Roberts Field has had power outages, and sometimes planes have had to divert.

The Liberia Airport Authority (LAA) has informed the Senate Transport Committee that a group of birds, feeding from nearby dumpsites, has been causing significant disruptions to the airport’s power supply.

Initially, the LAA had attributed the disruption to an electrical issue stemming from the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) power grid.

However, in a subsequent update, LAA officials revealed that the birds have been perching on the airport’s transformers, leading to frequent electricity problems. This unusual interference has resulted in intermittent power outages, significantly impacting operations at the airport.

Image taken from Knews Online.

GPS Spoofing?

I was pointed to an interesting article which, if true, says that GPS (GNSS) on airplanes can be spoofed to drive planes off track. One wild oddity is that it reports that the backup Inertial Reference System was sometimes confused too. One would hope that a backup system runs independently of the primary one, but apparently sometimes the IRS is updated from the GPS.

Navigational errors make a big difference if you are flying near hostiles. And nextnav.com says GPS is easy to spoof, because the signal is unencrypted.

I remember trying to follow directions to a party in Gex, and not recognizing an exit from a roundabout as a real exit (it was night, and the road was tiny). That exit miscount, followed by precise adherence to the subsequent turns, ended up with me having to back the rental car up out of a cow path in the middle of nowhere, France. Cell phones were not a thing back then. Paper maps are your friend.

Drivers

I don't think it is just a "presentism" bias; it seems as though I interacted with more reckless drivers this past year or so--and I'm driving less (except for the trip south we just came back from). I recall back in mid 2020 that the roads were about as empty in the daytime as they'd been before at midnight. Perhaps some people learned a casual entitlement about traffic control that was almost appropriate when nobody else was visible for blocks, and are having problems unlearning it that now that the roads are full again.

Or maybe some people are taking a kind of revenge on the world for the diffuse oppressiveness of the pandemic years...

Geometry on the bus

I gather "manspreading" is the offense of sitting wider than a woman would. I assume this is related to the widespread practice of "purse-flopping," in which a purse or backpack is used to reserve the adjacent seat.

I remember how weirded-out one youth got when I squeezed into the remainder of the seat beside him, and how flabbergasted the young lady and her friends were when I dropped her purse into her lap. (I had a sore knee and wasn't going to stand if I didn't have to, and she didn't take a hint.) Some folks just want extra space, and devil take the latecomers. The sideways sleepers are worse.

OTOH, there's a bit of geometry and physics involved. Seat heights suitable for the average leave those of us with longer tibia and fibula a choice between sitting straight with the femurs uncomfortably unsupported, crossing the ankles, or spreading the knees sideways. Or cross your legs--and that takes up even more space. It turns out men tend to be taller than women, and have to use a bit more sideways distance to get the hypotenuse to fit. Such is geometry.

When the seats face the aisle, there the stop/start of the bus brings some physics into play. Men usually have a higher center of mass than women, and without some extra torque will tend to flop sideways in a sudden stop. Crossed ankles reduce the lever arm against the seat, and thus the available torque. Unless your seatmates like having people fall on them, crossed ankles isn't the best choice.

Which leaves "spreading the knees out a bit" as the best option. At least until everyone is packed in like parka-ed sardines. Then you have to all sort-of rotate on the seat--everybody with the right shoulder forward and the left back, or stagger sitting at the forward edge and at the back of the seat.

No doubt this is all "so 2017," but the bus ride brought it to mind.

California Stop

When I went to UCLA some years back, the taxi took us from the airport to UCLA by taking back roads and not spending much time at stop signs.

I gather the rolling stop is part of the informal rules of the road there, though the link above suggests that other places indulge too. Enough of us obey stop signs around here to make the exceptions stand out--until the intersection gets icy. Then the more experienced drivers take it slow, but never quite stop. It is hard to get started again. I suppose that's technically illegal, but it helps keep driving safe.

Yes, the road to the stop sign is uphill. How'd you guess?

Computers make it all better

The Navy issued its report about the McCain collision.

Commander Alfredo J. Sanchez, "noticed the Helmsman having difficulty maintaining course while also adjusting the throttles for speed control." Sanchez ordered the watch team to split the responsibilities for steering and speed control, shifting control of the throttle to another watchstander's station. ...

However, instead of switching just throttle control to the Lee Helm station, the Helmsman accidentally switched all control to the Lee Helm station. When that happened, the ship's rudder automatically moved to its default position (centerline). The helmsman had been steering slightly to the right. ...

At this point, everyone on the bridge thought there had been a loss of steering. In the commotion that ensued, the commanding officer and bridge crew lost track of what was going on around them.

And there's more.

I suppose that sort of SNAFU is the default for militaries. If I read my history correctly.

Speed limits

John Lower wants to redo our speed limits, based on measurements by smart sensors in traffic control systems. He thinks that might make a lot of speed limits slower.

Redoing the old studies from the 50's and 60's makes sense. Adjustable speed limits does not: keep the number of driving variables small if you want minimum confusion. For example, reversible lanes are OK if there are physical barriers that shift, but if they are controlled by overhead X or O symbols you are asking for accidents. "Motor memory" of how fast I am supposed to be going along street-type X plays a role in my driving style, and I suspect I'm not alone.

And if photographic speed limit enforcement starts to become ubiquitous, I expect a significant rise in vandalism. Air rifles and slingshots and paintball guns would probably be useful for the purpose.

Mike Royko had something to say about speed limits.

UPDATE: "Unknown" points out in the comments that the variable speeds can work.