Projects
A few things I have worked on or am currently exploring.
American Dream
Median pay by occupation, minus tax, a 1-bedroom, transportation, and food. Leftover income a year, on a map, plus what actually moves the number.
Fill That Train
Weekday and weekend riders at Caltrain, BART, SMART, and Bay Area ferry stations, next to who lives nearby, how much housing-element capacity is listed, and how many homes were built in the same circle.
Airport trains
People movers and dedicated rail at US airports, each compared with that city’s urban rail. The datasets are on the page.
Leadville Bus
Denver–Frisco–Leadville on Bustang West Line and the Summit Stage Lake County Commuter, with connections, fares, and the airport train.
Winter Full Moon
Saturday evening uphill at Sugar Bowl for the January, February, and March 2027 full moons. Meet at the Village Lodge, uphill to Lincoln, drinks after. Calendar invite for Saturday evening.
Rent vs Buy
Buying a San Francisco home versus renting and investing the same cash. Historical SF home-price and S&P 500 presets; every assumption is editable.
Can we build it
New York once added about 110,000 people a year. Then it mostly stopped. San Francisco is the same story smaller. Dallas–Fort Worth is doing that now — and permitting more homes than the New York metro.
Make Room, Sunset
A concept for putting new homes in the middle of extra-wide Sunset streets, with two narrow neighborhood lanes on either side.
Vision Sausalito
Dear Sausalito: be more like Cassis, less like Galveston. Parking lots into cafés, narrower streets, a harbor promenade, better parks, more ferries.
SMART to Sausalito
A proposal to extend SMART south from Larkspur along the old Northwestern Pacific right-of-way, through the Alto Tunnel, to the Sausalito ferry.
Bike data
College towns, density, and short commutes travel with more bike commuting. Income does not. Census ACS for 1,742 U.S. cities.
E-bike economics
Most e-bikes pay for themselves in about a year if you keep the car and use them for half your trips. A separate page compares buying a new car with buying an e-bike.
Waste
Scan a barcode, look up the package, and see which bin it goes in. Cities and hauler rules are on the page; product packaging comes from Open Products Facts and Open Food Facts.
Car costs
Published estimates of what driving costs other people — congestion, crashes, air, climate, parking. The studies disagree; the page does not pick a winner.
Parking reform
Where cities have removed or reduced parking minimums, from the Parking Reform Network map. Their data; this page’s filters.
Be like
I live in X. I want it to be more like Y. Default: San Francisco next to Paris. US commute, Canadian census commute, European typical-day travel, plus Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo census commute where a labeled file exists. GHSL urban-centre density and Overture food/shop counts on the same outline. Other Asian cities are land use only in this extract.
Mode Share
How people usually get to work, from the Census American Community Survey. Map states and counties, then compare large metros and the outliers in the 2024 numbers.
Bus Bunch
Live map of Muni buses that are bunched — same route, same direction, too close together.
SF SROs
San Francisco’s residential hotels: official DBI room counts, then a map of Planning SRO parcels joined to the AUUR list.
SF Zoning
A map of San Francisco use districts. Click a lot for block/lot, address, and Planning Code links.
SF Webcams
Working live views of the Bay — satellite, Golden Gate, Ocean Beach, Mt. Tam, and Pacifica.
Golden Gate Conditions
Currents and experimental Fort Point swell/surf tools for San Francisco Bay.
Driver Behavior
A curated reading list of local reporting about traffic violence in San Francisco.
Countem
Videos of one block, counted. The map shows where each clip was filmed, the time of day, and a tally you can check against the video.
Health Billing
Pick a procedure and Covered California plan, then compare published prices at San Francisco hospitals.
Transit
Live multi-agency map — pick an agency, toggle routes, see vehicles in near real time.
SF Bike
Closing the top 10 gaps in San Francisco’s Core All Ages and Abilities bicycle network.
SF Transit
Low-cost improvements for BART and Muni—signage, gates, boarding, fares, and rider experience.
Bus Bulb
See how much slower Muni’s padded schedules are than the fastest run—and estimate how bus bulbs could buy time back.
Sunshade Planner
Place a triangular shade sail on a San Francisco deck and compare June 21 shadows with a March–September shade heatmap.
UV Index
Live UV for your location or any city — today by the hour, the past and next week, and how it changes through the year.
Bike + Train Maps
Bay Area trip planner — bike directions plus BART, Caltrain, and SMART with bike first and last miles.
Bike Map
Filter Strava heatmap screenshots, georeference popular routes, and compare them with OSM bike ways.
Flying with a Brompton
What to buy, how to get through TSA, and how to board with a Brompton as a carry-on.
Sail Router
Isochrone sailing routes on San Francisco Bay — wind, current, and a boat polar. Click start and destination on the chart.
Transit Moneyball
A prototype ranking of American transit agencies by performance over expected.