Samuel

happy 2026. you should ride more public transit.

actually, on second thought, you *will* ride more public transit.

All aboard! The schedule for San Diego Transit Month, happening for the first time this September, is now available!

Get event details and learn more about Transit Month at sdtransitmonth.org. More events will be added to the schedule as time goes on! (1/2)

September is San Diego Transit Month. Join us and @buildsd.org for some amazing events.

sdtransitmonth.org/events

Some highlights:
- Sep 5: Transit Trivia Night
- Sep 9: Draw your vision for San Diego Transit
- Sep 13: Thrift Shopping by bus
- Sep 14: Trolley Speedrun

The first stop, starting in the afternoon.

No stop is too tiny! Not even this one in Trappe, PA, in front of the historic house of the first US House Speaker, Frederick Muhlenberg.

I make an exception to my staunch, anti-car ideology when I need to put up flyers at a bajillion rural bus stops to save SEPTA.

The last stop, in the very early morning.

Wouldn't it be crazy if my dad, Erica and I spent all day taping PA Senator Tracy Pennycuick's phone number onto every single SEPTA stop in her district?

Yes, it would be. But when SEPTA is under attack, there is no overkill.🤜

Have fun checking that voicemail box!

Excited to head this up for BuildSD with so many awesome community partners. All aboard!

Headed back to school? 🏫 Try transit! Many agencies offer "school-oriented routes" that are dedicated to students. Anyone can ride these buses, but they usually only run before and after school. Other agencies offer "trippers" that provide extra service. Whatever your commute is, good luck!

Pure gold.

Good luck to all the SDHS Cavers headed back to school next week! Hope to see some of you at UC San Diego in the years to come :D

New pictures of Eamon Ore-Giron's "Infinite Landscape: Los Ángeles Para Siempre" - probably the D Line Extension (phase 1 at least) artwork I'm most excited for!

You should collect paper trains. It's a niche so small that there's really no other place documenting them.

New on the BuildSD journal: a guest post from @ultracodez.bsky.social - It's a story of agency outreach, paper trains, and public records requests shenanigans that seemed too fun to ignore!
buildsd.org/journal/tran...

"Good afternoon to all of my beautiful people on the train! On behalf of this wonderful train crew, welcome aboard!"

Meet Rodney, a train conductor on the 6 line who's been with the MTA for 21 years! His goal? Make sure every subway rider, whether they're new or a daily commuter, feels comfortable.

This type of advocacy is why North American transit agencies predominently use the slower and more expensive Pay As You Enter model of fare collection.

For Proof of Purchase to work, there need to be fare enforcement officers, but advocates freak out about any kind of enforcement.

The story I've always heard is SANDAG setting up a tax district for the developers building out the neighborhood, using that for building all the cool infrastructure, but then MTS picking up ops and realizing that it was mostly used as a fwy express and running fwy-express-ish headways

Transit adventures? Transit adventures! 🚌 ✨

Take MTS route 84 to the Cabrillo National Monument stop, right inside the park gate, to explore the old Point Loma lighthouse and get beautiful views of the San Diego Bay and the ocean. And...of course...track your bus on Catenary!

They are new CNG Xcelsiors to replace the 600/700 series of buses headed to LA Metro! Here's one at IAD a few weeks ago, just before they went into service.

The Bayview A new mixed-use community could revitalize San Diego's least used Trolley station

Clairemont Drive is among the least used transit stations in the San Diego region. Here's how a new TOD project could change that for good: buildsd.org/projects/the...

Happy Trolley Anniversary to all who celebrate! The BuildSD Primary Sources archive has dozens of studies, documents, and even video footage of the first Trolley line, which opened from downtown to San Ysidro on this day in 1981: library.buildsd.org

Today, BuildSD is proud to honor 35 years of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Disability Pride Month.

In our Journal today, @samuelsharp.com reflects on 35 years of setting the global standard for accessibility in transportation: buildsd.org/journal/tran...

Me at Norristown Transportation Center just after graduating high school.

Me on the NHSL on a very snowy day.

My childhood and history as a person are inseparable from SEPTA and the freedom and joy it offered me and my peers. If I grew up with the SEPTA that PA Senate Republicans are about to create, the best parts of my childhood never would have happened. I would have just gone home on the school bus.

HOLY BASED!!!!!

Opening date for A Line Extension has dropped!

🚊 Four new stations!
🚊 Connection to Metrolink at Pomona
🚊 Alternative to teeth-grinding 210 gridlock

Who rides the school bus? The life and times of a small piece of Americana.

Words today in the @buildsd.org journal: who's riding San Diego Unified's school buses? The answer is a bit more complex than you might think.
buildsd.org/journal/tran...

I’m hearing that these trains are currently running in evening hours (6pm-2am) and pre revenue service on the A line extension is planned to start July 20th.

@buildsd.org we are putting together a primary source library for San Diego's past, present, and future plans. @samuelsharp.com and Sam are hard at work on this project. We have around 30 documents on it already and 200 more to add. Find it at library.buildsd.org

New fare gates being installed at Firestone. #transitLA

chat today marks massive day, im going to be starting on my journey to ride every single bus line on LA Metro's list (including the busway lines and the 857).

i will be recording this.

this project will be a year long effort, and i hope yall ready for this probably tortuous unnecessary gauntlet :3

Metro riders! Wondering if the new HR4000 trains are out there.. somewhere? Wonder no more! https://where-hr4k.samuelsharp.com

Detail of Shinique Smith's "Only Light, Only Love" on view in the MLK Jr. station mezzanine.

Thinking about the MLK Jr. K Line station today: one of the first transit projects I got to explore on my own, and such a meaningful community space.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." - MLK Jr.

All Samuel Transit light rail vehicles now come equipped with the original seating pattern from LA's 45' Compo and Articulated buses. You're welcome.

Route 888 on "layover" in Campo, CA, at Highway 94 & Buckman Springs Rd. I put "layover" in quotes here since it showed up on time but left late due to a broken PRONTO reader. Things you can do when a route runs twice a week, I guess.

A humble low-floor urban bus parked at Highway 94 & Buckman Springs Rd in Campo, CA. The driver bought tamales from a street vendor while on layover, but I had a transfer to catch.

Here's the obligatory layover shots. Also finally started Jarrett Walker's Human Transit on the 888 - a long overdue read.

TL;DR: Explore your area with transit! Go beyond your local routes and go the furthest you can go! You never know what you might find. (/end)