Noah 🚎

@noahsbwilliams.com

2196 Followers 1637 Following

Union transit advocate ✊ | Electric Trolley / Zero Emissions | Parallel hybrid bike operator 🔋🚲 | Cyber Mechanic (DevOps/SRE:) | Proudly Cascadian 🌲🟦⬜️🟩

Good morning Councilmemebrs, As a taxpayer who does not have kids, there is no better use of my taxes than feeding those that are hungry, *no questions asked*, because it's morally right. It's also fiscally responsible, because we know you end up with better test scores and more funding when kids have reliable access to food. Imagine means testing other core essentials in schools. Textbooks, paper, pencils. "You must be this poor and your parents fill out a form for a pencil". It'd be humiliating for the kids and a waste of administrative time and effort. The children aren't going hungry because we feed too many of their peers, they're going hungry because we spend an absurd amount of our budget on the police. Last session you passed an expansion to the FreshBucks program which was awesome! Now more families will be able to have fresh food from Washington farms and fewer kids will go hungry. Keep going that way! Feed all the kids!
Electrical return lines encased in concrete below a rail line
Noah eats a carrot lox bagel on the lower eastside
A screenshot of a macOS System Information screen showing a 15W trickle charge
The interior of the Seattle Central Library
Workers maneuver in multiple axis to string the Route 2 wires up at 12th & Union
View through the graffiti-scratched plexiglass of a bus of 3rd Ave, with a trolley in the background
An artisan photograph of the pumpkin pasta
Noah shows off the empty interior of coach 8017 operating Route 605
The video shows gemini4:26b, harnessed in OpenWebUI, competently preparing a week's worth of vegan recipes as prompted. The model takes about 45 seconds to complete the tasks.
A Caltrain F40PH in a consist with a Siemens Charger on Capitol Corridor
Several bikes in front of a pretty dusk backdrop riding along the E Marginal Way bike path. Notable are the trees planted along the left side in a wide (30-foot-plus) grassy median.
TRU members post from Katie Wilson reading: Hi All, If you were at our February Membership Meeting you know this already, but others may not: I'm going to be launching a campaign for mayor, likely next week. Please don't post this on social media or anything like that, because it's not yet public (although it's also not exactly a secret). This was not something I was remotely contemplating before the special election on Feb. 11th. The landslide victory of Prop 1A brought home to me how important it is that we have a mayor who believes in social housing. (I wrote about that here.) Through much further reflection and conversation, my longstanding aversion to considering running for office fell away as I began to think about how this could be a legitimate part of a larger organizing strategy.
A 60' diesel bus
Damage review of the vehicle involved showing flat tires on the driver side, damaged panels, and stickers on the windshield
A photo of the windshield of the stickers on the car that drove onto the tracks, including a Costco membership, a Jewish community center membership, and a Mister sticker
A raised crosswalk to the shared path E/W
The beautiful silhouette of Seattle with the Space Needle and a Washington State ferry in the fading light of a sunset
The highly patronized pedestrian corridor extending up from the north end of 1st Ave through Seattle Center, during Folklife Festival 2026. Each vendor has several customers being served or in line.
A white 2004 Honda CRV with tag AAM4580
The new Amtrak Cascades Aero set passes attached to the empire builder
A vegan stir fry
Screenshot of the profile page of the bot that replied, simply featuring the headlines "democrats are pure evil" with AI generated pics
A beautiful 300-degree panning shot of waterfront park in Seattle
A "#SkyKing Panic In The Sky" poster on an advertising screen at SeaTac/Airport link station
The International Fountain in Seattle Center blasts water 50' into the air as music plays
The interior of an electric Gillig Low Floor
A "Fuck ICE" sticker on a divider panel on a Metro bus
A flag on an apartment balcony reading "Fuck Trump" & "If You Like Trump Fuck You Too"
A 777-9 flies over Elliott bay on approach into BFI. The camera then zooms out to review the beautiful new Seattle waterfront bike path as the rider turns the corner
The interior of a King County Metro route 21 bus as it streaks through the rainy night past S. Atlantic St.
An XT40 waits on Spring St below 4th Avenue
An XT40 operates in ESS (with poles down) up Spring St in front of the Seattle Central Library
A Lego Star Wars Endor set with an AT-ST, a speeder bike, a pair of imperials, and Wicket, the intrepid Ewok
Protestors at the Women's March round the corner of 12th Avenue E & E Thomas St under beautiful flora bearing a variety of antifascist signs
Zooming out from a test flight of a 777-9 to a view of Belltown with seagulls swooping overhead
Noah makes a peace sign while sitting behind the center wheel on the sideways chair of an articulated Metro bus with a RapidRide red floor
Noah rides down the Zohramp on a Citibike saying: "Good evening Zohramp riders! This is your reminder that there's no challenge too big for government to take on, and no concern too small for government to care about."
A Boston-bound Northeast Regional train pulls into the station, dinging its' bell
The interior of a Gillig electric bus at night. Audible is the slight whine but mostly the road noise
Billy Joe Armstrong rocks out with Green Day
A SJC PD cop car on the highway seen from the window of an LRV
The interior of coach 4109, featuring over-the-wheel seats adjacent to the operator. No rear door on this bus!
A special edition ORCA card in front of a computer screen featuring a Bluesky tweet about the special edition ORCA card
The interior of a King County Metro DE60LFR as it motivates down SR-99 on the H Line. The bus's engine is quiet and the vibrations smooth and minimal.
Woody Guthrie with his guitar, proudly painted with the words "This Machine Kills Fascists"
Noah stands in front of OCS poles, both newly installed and soon to be installed, for the J Line in the U District
The interior of a NABI 30' bus
The interior of an H Line bus in the pleasant sun as it winds around a curve. Video is taken from the back seat on the left side, with the photographer's feet comfortably propped on the wheel well. The vibe is chill
The bus articulates down turner way, winding from 23rd to 24th in a smooth motion. A pleasant afternoon sun shows through the windows.
A view of the nearly-empty yard at OMF Central in front of a pretty sunrise. Most of the trains are out operating in revenue service. In the foreground, a single train car is hostled to the maintenance shed.
Noah says "this is what the right wing thinks will happen if they let trans kids play sports" then throws Blahaj at the camera
The seatback of a Sound Transit Express bus reading "Thanks for riding Sound Transit"
A golden retriever wearing a bone-shaped cardboard sign that reads "fight ignorance not immigrants" and an American flag bandanna
An HO scale model of the German ICE (intercity express) train
A view from the sideways facing seats of a RapidRide DE60LFR on the H line, facing outward at the rear door. The landscape zooms by pleasantly as the axles make their gentle whir. Planetary gears gently blend electric and diesel torque to make the acceleration smooth and seamless. The video is in cruise around 25mph, just above the mostly-mechanical threshold for the drivetrain.
ChatGPT thread reading: Is the Allison eGen Flex platform a true parallel hybrid, or is it more of a geared series-hybrid? ChatGPT said: Short answer: the Allison eGen Flex is fundamentally a hybrid that behaves more like a power-split (series-parallel) hybrid rather than a pure series-hybrid, and not strictly a simple geared series hybrid. Why: The eGen Flex’s drive unit uses a multispeed gearbox with integrated electric motors and a disconnect clutch, letting the vehicle run in full electric (engine-off) mode, or blend engine and electric torque through torque blending inside the drive unit. allisontransmission.bynder.com The system blends engine torque and electric motor torque through planetary gearing and clutches, similar in concept to a compound/split hybrid architecture — there are mechanical and electrical paths to drive the wheels. Model 1 Historically, Allison’s hybrid bus products (whose 2nd-gen eGen Flex descends from) are described as two-mode compound split parallel hybrid architecture, where torque can come mechanically from the engine, electrically from the motors, or as a blend. Wikipedia In practical terms: It can operate purely on electric power for significant portions of a route (up to ~50% or ~10 miles depending on model and duty cycle), which is like series operation (engine off, electric drive). allisontransmission.com +1 But when the engine is running, its power can be blended mechanically with the electric motors through the gearbox rather than only generating electricity for them, making it closer to a true hybrid with parallel characteristics rather than a pure series system. So, it’s not strictly a geared series-only hybrid; it’s better classified as a hybrid with a compound/power-split architecture where both electric and mechanical power paths feed the wheels depending on operating mode.
ChatGPT wrapped screenshot reading: If 2025 gave out awards, you'd get: Transit Encyclopedia on Legs For knowing the make, model, and propulsion quirks of every bus from Seattle to Saturn—and still wanting to compare traction motors. ChatGPT wrapped screenshot reading: If 2025 gave out awards, you'd get: Transit Encyclopedia on Legs For knowing the make, model, and propulsion quirks of every bus from Seattle to Saturn—and still wanting to compare traction motors.