Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development)
@Lib_Development

Research Fellow @joinFAI; opinions mine not theirs | Working to make US transportation faster, cheaper, more reliable, & less safe | prev: Econ & CS @UChicago

 Inside the Beltway, USA
developmentalism.substack.co…
Joined January 2022
852 Photos and videos
That’s a you problem, man. Maturity is coming to terms with the fact the human experience is interesting wherever it’s had.
tania 🪆@boywaif
Sep 25
It’s fucked how the United States of America used to have a wealth of interesting cities and now it’s literally just New York Chicago LA or Irrelevant
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okay this is just clearly not true enough to invalidate the point (which requires it to be near-equally interesting across most places)
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love when my bus is 5 minutes late because the bus driver sits at the previous bus stop for an extra 5 minutes for no reason
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the industry term for this is “dynamic headway management” and the explanation is probably that the bus in front of you was delayed it is exactly as dumb as it sounds
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Helen Lewis@helenlewis
18h
The lesson of the masking drama at the Massachusetts lesbian bar is that you can't negotiate with terrorists, even ones with Long Covid: theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
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absolutely incredible
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Extremely exciting news for americans interested in purchasing vehicles:
First Squawk
@FirstSquawk
Sep 12
Trump: If China wanted to come in and open a plant to build their cars here, I would be okay with it. Japan does it. But they hire our people. The big thing is they hire our people. In fact, they use our people.
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Weird that anybody who doesn’t own an American auto company would be opposed to this.
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tbh gut instinct is that if the cheap chinese EV makers had to design a vehicle for the north american market compliant with NHTSA regulations using NA labor that would eliminate most (though not all) of the price advantage so probably no need to fight this too hard
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Who gets Waymo firs?
22% New York City
78% Mexico City
126 votes • 4 hours
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Washington DC will be the first Acela Corridor city to get them, but only because Congress will make them eventually (I will bet good money there will be a separate NOVA rollout first )
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Both DC and VA have AV-authorizing legislation pending but there's like a >50% chance that DC gets there first, believe it or not VA is double-blue too!
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People in the Northeast and Midwest don't get this often: that the climate is as much of a barrier to transit out here as anything.
Bird on Fire 🔥
@nobodyknows2322
18h
Replying to @nobodyknows2322 @Lib_Development
In Sunbelt cities in particular, this is a problem because of the heat!!!
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And it's a different issue from cold on a place like Chicago. You can always put more layers on. You can only take but so many off! @Lib_Development
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part of my dad's family lives in Miami and yes I have definitely observed this to be an issue and like, summers in the northeast suck pretty bad too. Not Arizona bad, but bad enough you really don't want to be outside if you can help it
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Replying to @nobodyknows2322 @Lib_Development
It has deployed in Denver now by the way, so it's now officially in a blue state other than the one in which was invented
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Colorado is a strange one because of its partisan evolution. But the original law which allowed AVs was passed in 2017, and originated in the then-republican state senate so... yes but like not quite?
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Replying to @Lib_Development
Do we know whether the people of New York actually oppose it or not as opposed to the activist nonprofit blob?
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to my knowledge, no. i think support is fairly invariant across populations and it's just the loudness of the opponents that is
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I think they need to legalize adderall first
unusual_whales
@unusual_whales
Sep 24
JUST IN: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China will invite 100,000 young Americans to visit the country for exchange and study programs over the next five years.
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Oh. What?
Tim
@TimurNegru
Sep 24
I’ve been on max. 2 cups of coffee per day for years, but now it seems I should drink more? More coffee = less body fat, less belly fat and more muscle, even at the same BMI. Also, for men total testosterone went up about 8 ng/dL per daily cup too.
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I find it strange how the official name of a big snowstorm is a "noreaster". Like, the Bostonian pronunciation of Northeaster? Who let them get away with that? And why would we call it that anyways? What value does this name add over "big snowstorm" or "blizzard"?
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Wind do be like that claude.ai/share/b132e7ca-6db…

Wind direction naming convention

Shared via Claude, an AI assistant from Anthropic

claude.ai
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so i have learned. I hate meteorologists why can't they simply adopt the reasonable naming convention of transportation, which is where i would expect people to get their intuitions about direction
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extremely annoying how this is becoming more and more demonstrably true for the american left do you think this is how chinese free marketeers felt about the communist movement in like 1916-1937
Rowan Fornow 🚵🚉🏙️🦣🇵🇸@rowanfornow
Sep 24
if you want more regulation and an anti-growth mindset, vote for centrist technocrats. if you want deregulation and free enterprise, vote DSA
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Replying to @Lib_Development
A noreaster refers to the wind direction/origin of the storm. Canadian cold air meets gulf warm air, and the storm moves south west along the coast: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nor%27…

Nor'easter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org
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> storm is called northeaster > refers to wind direction okay so which way does the storm go > mfw its southwest
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clarendon really is the new miami
Metro Forward
@wmata
19h
Looking for weekend plans? We've got you covered. 🎉    Tomorrow is Clarendon Day from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.! Stop by for delicious food, live entertainment, local vendors, activities for all ages and a celebration of everything that makes this neighborhood special.     Metro is your best way to get there. Just head to Clarendon station and the event will be right outside at Clarendon Metro Plaza.     Learn more: clarendon.org/clarendon-day/
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??? many things have been said about clarendon but this one is new
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Lucas Pombo (aka Lib Development) retweeted
Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈@maxdubler
Sep 24
Trad architecture housing twitter should note the zero dots next to “appealing design with landscaping.”
Greg Anderson
@WalkableAustin
Sep 24
visual representation of why housing is so hard to build
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Had to run out of my office today because a kid on a bike got hit by a car. Everyone appeared to be okay but the way people are driving and the way kids are biking I am shocked it doesn't happen every day.
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The e-bikes and electric scooters are especially terrifying. 12 year olds shouldn’t be able to go 25mph silently on public roads
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some people are clearly too far removed from the experience of being 12. what are you talking about, that seems incredibly reasonable?
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it’s great that la metro is extending their heavy rail but it’s not even remotely close to being true that they’re the “only city in the country” doing that
the red line extension project in chicago

ALT the red line extension project in chicago

the honolulu skyline extension project

ALT the honolulu skyline extension project

the second avenue subway project in manhattan

ALT the second avenue subway project in manhattan

limonadier rei :-)@chemdawgrei
Sep 24
crazy how *LA* is the only city in the country actively building new heavy rail lines rn
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I don't think NYC qualifies as "actively building" rn
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