Ben Keith

@benlk.com

593 Followers 163 Following

Bike advocate and urbanist, North Linden Area Commissioner + Zoning Cmte Chair. He. Trains pls. Senior Web Engineer at Fueled. DMs checked intermittently.

Screenshot of the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, a message from now: I-70 is closed in the Westbound direction from MM 109 (-270) to MM 101 (1-71) due to a crash. This closure could last several hours.
Where before there was a gradually-narrowing parking lane on the right that became too narrow to park in, leading drivers to park in the gradually-widening bike lane, now there is a constant-width parking lane separated from the constant-width bike lane by a constant-width buffer with plastic bollards at 10' intervals. At the intersection with Iuka, the parking lane goes away and the bike lane steps to the left to allow a curb left-turn lane.
In S1E4 of Andor, Dedra Meero stands next to a hip-high stack of datapads.
The bike lane is wider than a parking lane in the foreground, at about 12 feet wide, with a 3-foot painted buffer, and a 5-foot parking lane. Up ahead, the lane markings change to have the parking/turn lane next to the curb, with no door-zone buffer, a 5-foot bike lane, a 3- or 4-foot buffer, and then the street-side parking lane tapers down to nothing as it approaches Iuka Avenue.
edit of the "miette" tweet by Patricia Lockwood: me, dribbling miette with the side of my foot: miette move out of the way please so I don't trip on you miette, her eyes enormous: you KICK miette? you kick her body like the football? oh! oh! gaol for mother! gaol for mother for One Thousand Point!!!!!
Photo of the new bidirectional bike boulevard markings on Summit Street north of Hudson. The road is otherwise one-way.
A bike tries to ride in an unmarked bike lane on the left curb of a one-way 35mph arterial road. The bike lane and adjacent parking lane have recently been repaved and repainted. Drivers are parked against the curb, in the bike lane, instead of in the new and unmarked parking lane. In this short video, 48 cars are shown parked in the bike lane. The video wobbles back and forth a lot; it looks kind of like the rider is trying to take photos of license plates.
A City of Columbus camera named "Chittenden Av at Fourth St". On 2026/06/21 at 10:46:48, the camera shows sunny conditions. Fourth Street is a northbound one-way arterial road with, from left to right: a wide one-way bike lane, a painted buffer, a parking lane that is as wide as the bike lane, two travel lanes, and another parking lane, all northbound. On the right-hand parking lane, there are a number of cars parked legally. On the left-hand parking lane, there are no cars parked. In the left-hand bike lane, there are 5 cars parked.
The Arnold Schwarzenegger statue at the Columbus Convention Center wears a black tee shirt with a rainbow on the chest, and has a crepe-paper skirt in pansexual flag colors.
Truck 659, a Ford pickup with an XL cab, bed delete, and cargo storage lockers on the back, rolls past High and Spruce, flanked by bike police.
Current (2023) aerial imagery of the intersection
A recent-model Range Rover is parked in the bidirectional bike lane on Summit Street at Hudson Street.
The houses with the long sidewalks over deep yards appear to be situated on an island between two roads. The houses line up in the middle of the island, with driveways and garages on one side. On the other side, the sidewalks stretch across what would be a generous backyard to reach the other road.
A screenshot of a website claiming to be "Smart Columbus Insights News", with headlines like "Smart Insights: Visa Denied At The Border? Here's What To Do", "Urban Vision: Top IIFlow Meter Suppliers in Bahrain", "Ipseisportingse Hill Elementary: A Closer Look in Focus", "Philippe De Villiers on CNews: Replay And Key Insights", "Key Insight: IFPGA Image Processing: Projects & Applications", and "IOSCP E-Pesto: Your Guide to TIN, NSDL Refund Status".
Google Street View screenshot at 418 East Tompkins St, Columbus, Ohio, from September 2021, looking west on Tompkins. Facing drivers headed west, there are two sign posts. The one on the left of the roadway has a "LEFT TURN ONLY" sign twisted away from the road. The one on the right has a STOP sign, a "ONE WAY (Left) EXCEPT BIKE LANE" sign, and a graffitied "LEFT TURN ONLY" sign.
A bicycle rides north in the two-way protected bike lane on Summit Street, which is a one-way southbound two-lane 35mph arterial. As the bicycle approaches the intersection with Tompkins, a small silver sedan appears on the east side of Tompkins, and rolls through the stop sign. The driver waits for a car to pass on Summit, and then drives straight on Tompkins across Summit, crossing the bike lane. The bicycle rider had stopped before the intersection, knowing this would occur. After the driver passes, the rider continues north.
Two tabby cats sit on the bottom step of a stoop. The bigger one is black and grey with a hint of brown at breast and nose; the smaller one is black and tan. They're sitting oriented the same direction, both looking at the camera.
A wet grey day, but at the intersection of Hudson Street and Audubon Road, there are two new poles with crosswalk signs and beg-button-triggered flashing lights to help pedestrians cross Hudson's three lanes.
Book excerpt: "... and then I made the mistake of getting optimistic. Then we got to a border and found the only option was to rent a ground vehicle and drive across ywo unaffiliated zones because both had zero mass transport. Zero. Mass. Transport. This is supposed to be a civilized space station, in space, why the fuck am I driving a ground vehicle to get to a fucking port on a fucking— (Emotion check: I am absolutely fine.)"
Regular gas, from Amoco: four six point nine and nine-tenths. Why the sign can even display a decimal point there, I don't know.
A GoPro Hero 8 Black is shown with a brand-new metallic-grey clip for socketing it into a mount. Next to it is the same design of clip, but in orange filament, with the attachment fingers between the mount and the GoPro shattered.
Seen from Velma Drive, the northbound segment of Hiawatha Park Drive is closed off with cones, three "Road Closed" barricades, one "Do Not Enter" barricade, and one dumptruck-load of gravel. The sidewalk on the other side of the road is open, though!
Google Maps screenshot of bicycle routings from Hudson Street to Port Columbus. Three options are shown. One takes Mock Road to the Alum Creek Trail, then Johnstown Road to 17th Avenue to Stelzer road. The second route takes Joyce Avenue south to 12th Avenue, Woodward Avenue, and 5th Avenue, before taking the Johnstown route. A third route takes Joyce avenue north to Agler Road to Stelzer Road. All three routes stop at the intersection of Stelzer and International Gateway, where a dotted line leaps across the map to the terminal building. No route actually suggests riding on International Gateway.
Google Maps route screenshot: From the Linden Community center, south to Hudson, west on Hudson to Hiawatha Park Place, south to Velma Drive, through the Fairgrounds to 17th Avenue, west on 17th to Summit Street, south on Summit to 1st Avenue, west on 1st to Park Drive, south on Park becoming Front Street to Front and Gay. Estimated trip time 30 minutes.
The tunnels beneath Washington Dulles International Airport, where the CrystalMover Automated Leople Mover rubber-tired train runs with third-rail power and guidance. This shows a long straightaway with a switch going off to the right, and at the previous station on the line, another train which looks disturbingly like a heavy truck coming down the tunnel.
On a green shirt, a round white sticker with the outline of the state of Ohio, inside which is written "Ohio Voted". The I and VOTED are in red, which presumably is meant to be read something like "I voted", but which actually looks like "I Ohio Voted" or "Ohio I Voted". Maybe "I Voted Ohio".
From a camera mounted on a bicycle's handlebars, the intersection of North High Street and Olentangy Street is visible. The light turns yellow. A second later, a red sedan enters the intersection, crossing the intersection in two seconds. The light turns red. Someone says in a tired and sarcastic voice, "red!" A second and a half later, a dark-colored SUV enters the intersection enters the intersection against the light. "Fuck that person," says the speaker, with some emotion behind it. As the SUV is maybe a third of the way across the intersection, the light turns green for cross traffic. The clip ends with the bike beginning to move to cross the street.
A silver Mercedes-Benz EQE-350 is seen parked diagonally across the parking lane at Summit and Hudson, with its nose in the bike lane. It has no front license plate, thanks to Ohio's removal of that requirement. A middle-aged man is seen opening the driver's door, carrying a paper bag. He is a rotund man with light skin, a close-cropped dense black beard, and thinning close-cropped black hair, wearing a black t-shirt, black pants, and black shoes. This image is a photograph of a computer screen, showing that a video with the filename GHO32291.MP4 has been opened in VLC.
The Hudson Street bridge over I-71 has three lanes headed east: the straight-ahead lane against the curb, and two left turn lanes to go north on Beulah Road or the I-71 ramp. Each lane is clearly labeled. The right-most of the two left turn lanes is empty. The Mercedes-Benz EQE-350 rolls straight to the stop bar. The car's rear medallion pops out, revealing a small camera. The light turns green as the car approaches, and the driver accelerates straight across the intersection, cutting in front of a line of cars in the straight-ahead line. The lane from which the driver drove did not have a green turn signal.
In the middle of an unmarked 30' asphalt roadway, a 1' wide concrete island supports two 4" square poles bolted into the concrete. Each pole is paired with two 3" round bollards, bolted into the concrete just a scant few inches from the poles that those bollards allegedly protect. And then a foot upstream and downstream of the island, there are the skinny 4' traffic cones, which have more reflectorized surface than the bollards.
Against a cloudy sky, a helicopter with just two blades.
A hand-drawn digital-art map of the route Lincoln's funeral train took, with stops at: DC Baltimore Harrisburg Philadelphia NYC Albany Buffalo Cleveland Columbus Indianapolis Michigan City Chicago Springfield The proportions of many states are notably distorted; particularly West Virginia and Virginia.
This is a very compact vehicle, shorter along the tracks than it is wide. The deck is maybe a foot off the fround, supporting a waist-height mechanical box, and a small one-seat cab which is oriented perpendicular to the direction of movement along the rails. The cab is light grey, with a windshield that on first glance appears curbed but on further inspection is flat with a curved frame. The rest of the vehicle is safety orange, with the exception of a drawbar, which is brick red. Behind this vehicle is a grain hopper, which looms over the pusher like a dump truck parked next to a Mini Cooper.
105.02 - City coat of arms and corporate seal. The following described form and design shall constitute the coat of arms and official corporate seal of the city: (a) On a blue field a half-wreath of buckeye leaves, green, and a half-circle of sixteen stars, gold, the whole enclosing a national shield bearing a gilt circle in which appears a galley, or vessel of the fleet of Christopher Columbus, after whom the city is named, said shield and vessel to be in proper colors, above and clutching the shield to be an eagle, with outspread wings, proper, guarding a gold star, making the seventeenth and representing Ohio. Above and between the wings of the eagle to appear the cupola of the state capitol, surmounted by the lettering "Columbus, Ohio," gilt, in old English letters.
The 311 "Select a Report Type" interface is shown, with "bike" entered in a search box. A list of report types follows, of which "Request Bike Rack" is highlighted.
The Fellowship of the Ring "second breakfast" meme. Pippin smiles awkwardly, saying, "We've sent in one comment, yes. What about second comment?"
Screengrab from Untitled Goose Game. A white goose stands on a utility access door, flapping its wings and honking. Two women on an adjacent picnic table cheer on the goose.
Riding on the Hudson Street shared-use path eastbound, a 10' sidewalk-height asphalt-paved two-way bike/pedestrian path next to a three-lane 35mph road. A series of buildings next to the path block drivers' view of the path until they're already in the path's unpainted crosswalk. A Cadillac sports car on a side street rolls forward into the crosswalk and stops at a point where the driver can see cross traffic on Hudson. As the bike rider approaches, the driver reverses their car out of the crosswalk. The bike rider continues riding, without really slowing down.
"Sign" means a name, identification, description, display or illustration which is affixed to or painted upon or represented directly or indirectly upon a building, structure or piece of land or affixed to the glass on the outside or inside of a window or door, or inside a building within three feet of a window or door so as to be readable from outside the building, and which directs attention to an object, product, place, activity, person, institution, organization, business, or the like.
ARTICLE I: WAR POWER-MURDER-PIRACY In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, in violation of his constitutional duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has usurped the congressional war power enshrined in article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution by, among other things— (1) initiating war and murdering scores of putative but unproved drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific; (2) committing war crimes in violation of the War Crimes Act of 1996; (3) blockading Venezuela; and (4) committing piracy on the high seas and coastal waters by theft of Venezuelan oil.
Quarter-letter flyer, printed solidly red with white text. TSA ConfirmID: The ID you presented is NOT REAL ID-compliant. To continue to screening without an acceptable form of ID, you may register for TSA ConfirmID. Scan the QR code to pay the $45 TSA ConfirmID fee, or visit tsa.gov/ConfirmID. Visit tsa.gov/ID for the full list of acceptable forms of identification.
A dull sparrow with bright beak is seen peeking out from a square ceiling vent in a suspended ceiling.
A small sparrow sits on a ledge above the seats reserved for people with disabilities. Its face is turned towards the camera, sidelit by a window brighter than the indoor lights, highlighting the normally-unobtrustive sparrow's beak and buff bust against the dull airport walls.
VOLLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
@cbuscitycouncil.bsky.social's profile header now has a display name: Columbus City Council 130 followers, 28 following, 378 posts.
Mario World 1-4 final scene: Little Mario is greeted by Princess Peach, who says: THANK YOU MARIO! BUT OUR BUS IS AT ANOTHER STOP!
Screenshot of a certain web app. "The request failed eith a status of 'Bad Request'. Internal error jnfo: 'Sql error: SQL timeout expired. CRM ErrorCode: -2147204783 Sql ErrorCode: -2146232060 Sql Number: -2'
Bicycle handlebar camera footage of riding east on Hudson Street's shared-use path, towards a T intersection where the approaching side street is controlled by a stop sign. Bike traffic doesn't have a good view of the side street's traffic, and vice-versa, because of a building very close to the ROW. This means that a driver who rolls the stop sign will jump out in front of bike traffic without much warning, as is shown in the video.
Satellite-image screenshot of COTA's system information map, showing this stop, located on Hamilton Road just south of Sawyer Road, southbound, served by the 24 and 7. There's another stop in the picture, on the north side of Sawyer Road headed northbound, served only by the 24.
Title: Say "I Do" to COTA Uploaded to COTA Videos on YouTube by COTAbus on 12 March 2026 at 10:02 a.m. The video preview shows a blue-and-purple gradient in a vertical-video frame, superimposed with golden text repeating the video title.
Short list: "Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle" Full screenshotted excerpt: The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency released a list of offices and infrastructure run by top US companies with Israeli links whose technology has been used for military applications, describing them as “Iran’s new targets”, said Al Jazeera’s Maziar Motamedi, reporting from Tehran. “As the scope of the regional war expands to infrastructure war, the scope of Iran’s legitimate targets expands,” the agency said. The companies include Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle, and the listed offices and infrastructure for cloud-based services are located in multiple Israeli cities, as well as in some Gulf countries, said Motamedi.
Google Maps screenshot of the intersection of High Street and Vine Street, at 450 North High Street. Vine Street dead-ends onto High Street, at a big glass wall of the Convention Center. Right up against the back of the curb is a mass of concrete planters, maybe 2' by 6' each and 2' tall, spaced no more than 2' apart, in the path of the direct continuation of Vine Street.
Screenshot of a public safety message broadcast on Android: I-70 WESTBOUND IS CLOSED AT EXIT 101 A DUE TO A CRASH. THIS CLOSURE COULD LAST SEVERAL HOURS.
A grey sedan is parked at the corner of Summit Street and 13th Avenue, with its butt in the bike lane and its front wheels blocking the crosswalk over 13th. The very topmost tip of an orange fire hydrant can be seen behind a garbage bin, also blocked by a Jeep Wrangler. The car's lights are on.
Voter IDs shall contain a color photo containing the uncovered face and head of the individual and the full legal name for the voter, a full address, a full date of birth, and proof of U.S. Citizenship that exactly match the information on the County’s voter registration. If a person registers to vote in another County, that person shall be deemed to have changed his or her residency. If a person removes to another County with the intention of making it such person’s residence, such person shall be considered to have lost such person’s residence in the previous County in which he or she was previously registered. No person shall remain an elector longer than such person shall retain the qualifications under which such person registered. A signature is not required for removal.
Screenshot of the State Department travel advisory for Yemen. Key quote: "Do not travel to Yemen for any reason. U.S. citizens are at risk due to terrorism, unrest, crime, health risks, kidnapping and landmines." Yemen is listed under a Level 4 Travel Advisory, the most-severe level, which states plainly: "Do not travel." Reasons cited include unrest, crime, health, "kidnapping or hostage taking", terrorism, and "other".
"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," broods Anakin Skywalker, turning away from the camera and his mentor just before the climactic battle of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Volcanoes spew lava in the background; glowing cinders sweep across the camera. In this moment, he finally turns against his mentor, his comrade-in-arms, his father-figure, his brother: Obi-Wan Kenobi.
ODOT traffic camera view of the Hudson Street and Silver Drive (and I-71) shows that the north sidewalk of the bridge over I-71 has been cleared of snow, but the south sidewalk is still covered in snow. At the intersection, one curb cut has been cleared to let people enter the intersection to cross Hudson, but the other end of the crosswalk hasn't been cleared. All other crosswalks end in snow walls.
Against a backdrop of small houses, a miniature red-and-white tractor is seen plowing off the walking path that connects to the sidewalk on the east side of Audubon Park.
On the north sidewalk of the bridge, a crew of three or four people in high-viz jackets are shoveling snow from the sidewalk into the roadway. A van for them sots in the right lane with cones, forcing through traffic into the southbound turn lane.