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Week in review: October 2, 2017

News

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Consultations, feedback, and events

Big news

TriTAG has officially incorporated as a not-for-profit! We’ll have more to share in the coming weeks about what that means going forward.

Vision Zero

A woman was killed in Cambridge last week after she and her grandson were struck by a left-turning driver of an SUV at an all-way stop. Police are still investigating.

  • New private member’s bill goes beyond increased fines for dangerous drivers (The Record)
  • Reducing speed-related crashes through design (Alta Planning + Design)
  • Life is cheap by design in Toronto (The Star)
  • How a city in Spain got rid of its cars – and its traffic fatalities (Eco-Business)

Transit

The second (and first functional) ION train has arrived in the Region! It’s parked in the rail yard off Lancaster, and is expected to be delivered to the ION facility Monday night.

In response to the exposure of political meddling in choosing new GO train stations in the GTA, Metrolinx has released its business case rankings report. It’s nice to know that Breslau is ranked among the best-performing locations. It notes that much of the area surrounding the station is not projected to have rapid transit supportive density, but that the station is expected to have a larger catchment area (i.e. park & ride). We hope it will reduce demand for parking at the King and Victoria transit hub, where too much parking will have a detrimental effect on downtown Kitchener.

  • Amazon’s HQ2 hunt is a transit reckoning (CityLab)
  • New: Manual on pedestrian and bicycle connections to transit (US Federal Transit Administration)
  • Boston’s dream of a more powerful fare card (Next City)
  • The rail that fails – why US cities keep building underperforming streetcars (City Labs)
    Editor’s note: Your friendly reminder that ION light rail is distinct from conventional streetcars in that it operates outside of traffic, and while it too is an incentive for development, ION will also actually improve transit along the central corridor.

Transforming the city

Our own Mark Jackson-Brown was part of a REEP panel on sustainable transportation last week. He noted that if we want to change the way in which people get around, then we need to be thinking about how we are building our community and how it impacts the daily trips we take. “In order for it to become a true option, it needs to become easy.”

Cycling

  • Ontario adding bicycle parking at tourist and cultural attractions (Ontario)
  • Space for all on the streets of Montreal (Copenhagenize)
  • The cultural lag on safety at DOTs (Streetsblog)
  • Carmel, Indiana, is showing suburbs how to go big on biking (People for Bikes)
  • Bloor bike lanes inspiring more ‘normal’ people to cycle (The Star)
  • Strong support for bike lanes on major city roads (Campaign Research poll)

Land use

Only one consortium, King Victoria Transit Hub Partners Inc, which includes local firm Perimeter Development, submitted a qualification package to build the transit hub in Kitchener. The consortium will soon begin negotiations with the Region to build the hub, which will include light rail, city buses, GO trains, and GO and Greyhound buses, as well as residential, retail, and commercial space.

  • Kitchener braces for construction boom ahead of new fees (The Record)
  • Cambridge council, sports groups keen on multiplex at the mall proposal (The Record)
  • Waterloo council looks at early design for proposed recreation complex expansion (The Record)
  • Fresh housing policies for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (Urban Strategies)
  • Not the suburb of the future (Human Transit)
  • Public school’s shouldn’t undermine walkability (Streetsblog)
  • Who pays for parking? Unraveling the hidden subsidies that clog our streets (Strong Towns)
  • ‘Snob zoning’ is racial housing segregation by another name (Washington Post)