Saturday, April 30, 2016

From Streetsblog Network —
A New Blueprint for Streets
That Put Transit Front and Center

The National Association of City Transportation Officials has released a new design guide to help cities prioritize transit on their streets. “The kinds of problems that the guide seeks to solve are exactly the kinds of design problems and questions that cities are trying to solve,” said Roe. “How do you get transit to get where it’s going quicker, without degrading the pedestrian environment? Some of that has to do with the details of design.” For example, the guide lays out how to design boarding areas where buses can pick up passengers without pulling over to the curb and then waiting to reenter traffic — which can slow service considerably. Read more: A New Blueprint for Streets That Put Transit Front and Center.
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Friday, April 29, 2016

From Whistle Posts West via
Victoria Times Colonist — Our History:
The E&N’s long journey from dream to doubt

Thursday, April 28, 2016

From transportblog.co.nz —
"Downtown development is
the golden goose of urban economics"



When it comes to the debate about housing and development, there’s been plenty of discussion about the physical impacts of decisions we make, for example the height and bulk of buildings. There’s even been to a lesser extent a discussion on the capital costs of development, the costs of building or upgrading roads, pipes and other infrastructure. Some of this is quite evident now with the Transport for Future Growth consultations currently underway.
One area that hasn’t really been discussed at any level – other than probably some obscure high level planning papers – is the impact our development choices have on rates and operational costs. In many ways this is odd given how loudly many sections of our society protest every time rates are increased. But there is a clear link between rates and the types of development we allow. More at: The Value of Well-Designed Cities.
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Saturday, April 23, 2016

Jeff Speck in CityLab — Let’s design more streets like the streets we already love

When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And when you’re a traffic engineer, it seems, everything looks like a highway. If traffic engineers did not control the design of so many of our public spaces, this might not be a problem. But they do—and that’s especially true here in the U.S. Even when traffic engineers have the best intentions, too many simply lack the tools to make successful places. In the typical American city, asking a traffic engineer to design a walkable street is like asking a hammer to insert a screw. Read more: The Case for Copying More in Street Design - CityLab
The Case for Copying More in Street Design - CityLab

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From Whistle Posts West via
Victoria Times Colonist — Our History:
The E&N’s long journey from dream to doubt

The saga of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway, and its rocky beginnings as the “consolation prize” offered by Ottawa to secure Vancouver Island’s participation in Confederation, is among the stories contained in Whistle Posts West, a lively collection of tales spanning 150 years of grit, glory and intrigue on the railways of western Canada.

The future was filled with promise when the Colony of Vancouver Island was founded in 1849. Across the Strait of Georgia, and adding to the region’s aspirations, came the 1858 establishment of the Colony of British Columbia. In 1866, the two outposts aligned politically, and New Westminster on the mainland relinquished its role as capital to Victoria on Vancouver Island, a status made final when British Columbia joined the Dominion of Canada as a province in 1871. In view of the city’s increased stature, the federal government promised that Victoria would become the western terminus of Canada’s national railway network.
John A. Macdonald had been knighted for his role in nation-building on July 1, 1867, as the new country came into being with him as its first prime minister. Along with the designation “Sir,” Macdonald could have as easily been labelled “the railway promiser.” His later, much-trumpeted commitment to build a rail link from central Canada across the prairies to B.C. had eventually clinched the deal for B.C.’s entry into the Dominion. Read more: Our History: The E&N’s long journey from dream to doubt

From Ethan Kent — #PublicMarkets should be the most important #PublicSpaces

Thursday, April 14, 2016

From Project for Public Spaces —
How Jane Jacobs Saved Washington Square

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

@CBCUnreserved tweeting all 94 #TRC recommendations: 1 ea day Here's 81 - 94

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@CBCUnreserved tweeting all 94 #TRC recommendations: 1 ea day Here's 71 - 80

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Friday, April 8, 2016

@CBCUnreserved tweeting all 94 #TRC recommendations: 1 ea day Here's 61 - 70

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Association of Vancouver Island
and Coastal Communities AGM
#AVICC

Public life needs to be an intentional
driver in how cities are made


Wednesday, April 6, 2016

From CityLab —
The World's Best Street Designs, Mapped

A newly updated archive lets you track images of urban makeovers across the world. Street design that favors automobiles and ignores pedestrians and cyclists is being rethought—a newly updated resource created by the Brazilian urban design collective Urb-i allows you to chart just how widespread and profound the changes are.
First covered by Citylab last September, when it was an intriguing but still modest archive of street makeovers, Urb-i’s archive has since tripled in size and now contains over a thousand images. Perhaps best of all, the archive now comes with a map that allows you to search and zoom in on urban transformations across the planet. Read more: Photos of the World's Best Street Designs, Mapped - CityLab
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