Alon (they/them)

@alonlevy.bsky.social

10070 Followers 782 Following

Transit researcher in Berlin. Lived in Tel Aviv, Singapore, the Riviera, New York, Providence, Vancouver, Stockholm, Paris. https://pedestrianobservations.com/ http://patreon.com/alonlevy alon@pedestrianobservations.com @alon@mastodon.social

Screengrab of an alt history political map of North America. British North America extends to the Mississippi, and then to the Pacific but only from about the latitude of OTL Minneosta north. Mexico has borders vaguely similar to OTL pre-1848. In between are nine states, one comprising OTL Louisiana and Arkansas as rump-Louisiana, the other eight Native American.
Screengrab from OpenRailwayMap of the Syracuse-Rochester section of the Water Level Route and environs, depicting a rather curvy route about 2/3 of the way.
Hello, Human Resources? meme, with both Mamdani and Jeffries saying "SCOTUS reaffirmed birthright citizenship!" re Trump v. Barbara; the secretary tells Mamdani "you're sweet" and Jeffries "hello, human resources?".
Hunter Dunn, quote-mocking Joe Walsh: Joe, Mamdani didn't mess up here. You did. AIPAC is a group that enables antisemitism by supporting bigots like Donald Trump, & by shifting the blame for war crimes from Israel to Jewish people. AIPAC is a monstrous pro-murder organization. Saying otherwise just hurts the big tent you want to build Me: >AIPAC is a group that enables antisemitism Please never again blame the Jews for anti-Semitism. Even Jews with positions on Israel that you don't agree with. Hunter: Do you seriously think it's impossible for a person or a group to enable or stoke bigotry against them for cynical reasons? Me: Yes, and the idea that any of them does that is conspiratorial, racist, and offensive. Stop it. Hunter: A) come on, AIPAC cynically exploits anything they can for their political ends. B) by the IHRA definition of antisemitism, AIPAC is definitionally antisemitic.
Three arrows in the style of the Iron Front breaking a Hamas red triangle
A map of Germany and surrounding countries with modern borders, with drawn high-speed lines internal to alt-Weimar Germany with Berlin as its dominant capital and some international lines (to Prague, Vienna, Brussels, Poznań, Utrecht, Basel, Zurich, and Copenhagen, and via Gdynia to Danzig and Königsberg).
Photo from the Highway of Death from the Gulf War
Photo of Itamar Ben-Gvir
Table of American commuter lines with their operating costs, per car-mile and car-hour. The LIRR is the worst, at $28.28 and $850.81 respectively. SEPTA is the best, at $18.77 and $369.53 respectively. Source: https://www.etany.org/statements/lirr-work-rules-vestiges-of-the-steam-era with sources linked in the table.
Me: What is the idiomatic Hebrew translation of the American English expression "curricular rigor"? Claude: The most idiomatic Hebrew translation of "curricular rigor" is: דרישות לימודיות גבוהות (darishoht limmudiyyoht gevohoht) — literally "high academic demands/requirements" This is the most natural phrasing in Israeli educational discourse. Here are a few alternatives depending on context: עומק לימודי (omek limmudi) — "academic depth," used when emphasizing thoroughness and depth of material rather than workload intensity. סטנדרטים לימודיים גבוהים (standardim limmudiyyim gevohim) — "high academic standards," more formal and institutional in tone. תכנית לימודים תובענית (tokhnit limmudim tov'anit) — "a demanding curriculum," closer to the full phrase and common in school or university contexts. The word תובענית (demanding/rigorous) is particularly useful because it captures the sense of rigor as something that challenges students, which is the heart of the English expression. You might also encounter אקדמי substituted for לימודי in higher-education contexts.
Berlin Wall, with the death strip on its Eastern (left) end, and graffiti on its Western (right) end.
ClearSky screenshot showing I am blocked by 3,750 accounts
Google AI overview: "Pedestrian Observations" is a blog by Alon Levy focusing on urbanism, public transit, and infrastructure costs, which frequently analyzes walkable neighborhoods. The blog explores how city-planning, such as the 15-minute city concept or the 15-minute city in Paris, creates dense, mixed-use neighborhoods that prioritize pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit. Key insights on city neighborhoods from the blog and related studies include: * 15-Minute Cities: Neighborhoods designed to put essential services (shops, doctors, schools) within a 15-minute walk, reducing the need for cars, as seen in Paris. * Transit-Oriented Development (TOD): The blog highlights the need for denser, mixed-use development surrounding rail stations in suburban contexts, particularly around New York. * Residential Mix: Neighborhoods are most vibrant when they are "residential-but-mixed," containing local services that serve the daily needs of residents rather than just acting as commuting suburbs.
Photo of the minaret at the Islamic Center of North Texas.
Photo in the uphill direction of Hadar HaCarmel, Haifa, Israel
World Bank chart of life expectancy at birth, 1960-2024. The US (dark blue) is stuck at 79 and has been for a decade, and also had a large corona dip in 2020-21. Sweden (magenta) is at 84, and Israel (green) and France (indigo) are at 83.
Chart of socioprofessional categories in France and their shares of the working population, 1982-2024: Farmers: 7.5% -> 1.3% Business owners: 7.7% -> 6.8% Middle/upper middle class professions ("cadres"): 8% -> 23% Intermediate professions (e.g. teachers, nurses, librarians, lab techs): 18.8% -> 25.2% Working class, non-menial ("employé," comprising pink-collar jobs, cops, and firefighters): 26.4% -> 24.8%; this graph is an inverted-U, peaking at 30% in 2002-2009 Working class, menial ("ouvrier"): 29.9% -> 18%
Gaza spam/scam account, currently @mhmoodfmly77.bsky.social, with 3.1k followers, including four I follow. This account was @drdemography.bsky.social and according to Clearsky was hijacked 27 minutes ago. As the hijackers delete all previous posts, I can't tell whether the account was active at the time it was hijacked.
XKCD comic #1731
John Bradley West, better known for playing Sam on Game of Thrones, in cardinal garb playing the future Leo X on Borgia: Faith and Fear.
Skeet from @jametc.bsky.social Oh fuck the British nationalists found my post and are all "uhhh that's just British society, idiot, that's just our reality" Shut up colonizer go get blown up with a car bomb 12:05 AM CET 26 March 2026 The skeet self-quotes a thread beginning with, I truly believe that Harry Potter was so popular because the cocnept of being put into little societal castes was very appealing to Westernerrs, particularly white ones, with no culture or tradition of this- they feel special and chosen, a sense of pride. White people crave this lol A link to the person criticizing the original thread, who the main skeet in the screencap is wishing got blown by a car bomb, is available in my main skeet.
100 Jumps screengrab, showing I completed 100 jumps after 79 attempts.
Screencap of Wikipedia's lede on the Srebrenica massacre: The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, was the July 1995 genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. It was mainly perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska under Ratko Mladić, though the Serb paramilitary unit Scorpions also participated. In addition, 25,000 to 30,000 Bosniaks, mainly women and children, were abused and forcibly moved out of Srebrenica. The massacre constitutes the first legally recognised genocide in Europe since the end of World War II. Before the massacre, the United Nations (UN) had declared the besieged enclave of Srebrenica a "safe area" under its protection. A UN Protection Force contingent of 370 lightly armed Dutch soldiers failed to deter the town's capture and subsequent massacre. On 13 July, peacekeepers handed over some 5,000 Muslims sheltering at the Dutch base in exchange for the release of 14 Dutch peacekeepers held by the Bosnian Serbs.
Rudolf Meidner with red laser eyes and red background
Red Alert surface to air missile site
Excavator Digging Out Suez Canal Ship meme, with the Ever Given labeled "Islamic Republic of Iran" and the excavator "one MEU."
Cem Özdemir
Screengrab of me fighting with Komi/anonymousleftie.bsky.social Komi: Hope Europe enjoys refugees! Me: The intact Iranian regime produced double-digit millions of refugees and internally displaced last decade, is another reason. People in Syria are celebrating Khamenei's death. Komi: Syrians are cattle who will enjoy Israeli occupation soon Me: Syrians are cattle? What the fuck is wrong with you. Komi: If you celebrate Zionist crimes then you're evil. Komi: Which they are Me: Around 600,000 of them were killed, mostly by the Assad regime and allies, is why they're not performing anti-Zionism to your satisfaction. Stop calling Arabs who aren't killing themselves to kill Jews cattle.
Not You meme saying "All states in the Middle East are valid." Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, Kurdistan, and Lebanon are valid. Saudi Arabia is not.
Hot Dog Man meme with Jens Spahn's face photoshopped onto it.
Central and Central-eastern Berlin, with large railyards and workshops at Rummelsberg visible on the center-right-bottom of the image a few km outside the Ring.
Chart from the source in the main skeet, showing gross and net income per household by whether the household is Jewish or Arab.
Interior of ICE train. The screen is visible in the distance with destination to Chur.
Richard Mlynarik takes on Caltrain and related planning, for full text see http://mly.users.sonic.net/
Delverde-brand farfalle on the shelf at Rewe
Google Earth screengrab depicting Romania with high-speed rail lines overlaid on it connecting Bucharest to Budapest via Brașov and Cluj, to Iași with a branch to Chișinău and Odesa, and to Constanța.
Screengrab of @thepeoplestim.bsky.social's profile showing 1 follower, 3 follows, and 3 posts.
Skeet: Their blackface Santa parades are done for the year so now they're paying attention to our shit again and it's getting very annoying 6:10 AM Jan 19, 2026 6 replies, 14 boosts, 1 quote, 290 likes
Screengrab of a New York zoning map from https://zola.planninglabs.nyc/about#13.3/40.76252/-73.89935, depicting zones in and around Astoria. Most residential lots are R5 and R5B; a few are R6A, a few are even R4.
Sankey's original diagram of the energy inputs and outputs of a steam engine
Depiction of the spectra of rings over R = \mathbb{Z}, including R[x], R[x]/x = \mathbb{Z}, and R[x]/(x^2 + 1), with representations of the generic points of the spectra.
This user really loves this character; "this user" has an arrow pointing toward the poster (me), "this character" toward the second image.
Screengrab of the intro to the Wikipedia article on Circassians in Israel, with the line, "Circassians are one of only two minority groups in Israel (alongside the Druze) from whom conscripts are drawn for compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)."
Floorplan of a 110 m^2 3-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartment with a corner aspect.
Floorplan of a rectangular, two-aspect, three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartment of 87 m^2 (legally 84 because the loggia counts as half).
Photo of Edward Said
Wikipedia screengrab from James Howard Kunstler's page: In 2010, Kunstler was a harsh critic of the Republican Party, describing them as "a gang of hypocritical, pietistic sadists, seeking pleasure in the suffering of others while pretending to be Christians, devoid of sympathy, empathy, or any inclination to simple human kindness, constant breakers of the Golden Rule, enemies of the common good."[11] However, following the election of Donald Trump, he began to criticize the Democratic Party and their "underhanded attempts" to get rid of Trump, a man whom Kunstler sees as showing "strength".[12] He was a promoter of the concept of a so-called "deep state" working to overthrow and thwart Trump.[13] He endorsed Trump for re-election and declared that he intended to do "everything he can to prevent the Democrats from winning the election."[14] In an interview with American Conservative, Kunstler attacked gay marriage, describing it as "cultural mischief" that would further damage "a struggling institution".[15] He believes that the 2020 United States presidential election was fraudulent, describing it as a "fraud-inflected election" on his website, and he suggests that the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol was the work of left-wing groups.[16] Kunstler now uses Patreon to crowdfund his writing.[17] In an interview with Doug Casey published on October 13, 2021, Kunstler called the COVID-19 pandemic a "scam",[18] and on October 11 he published the theory that the vaccine would kill people "steadily over the weeks and months" and went on to name hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as "effective" treatments.[19]
Train departure board at Berlin Hbf. Two thirds of the trains are delayed or canceled.
Map of where in Germany I'd live. Berlin is "willing," the rest of East Germany is "never," NRW and Hamburg are "maybe," the rest of West Germany is "reluctantly." Yes, this means I'm not "never" to Bavaria. So sue me.
Map of US states I'd be willing to live in. All are "never" except New York, which is "reluctantly." I like having good building insulation, trains that occasionally run on time, health care, and no concentration camps for immigrants, okay?