Our cities need to understand the extent of the problem that uncleared sidewalks pose to mobility and safety in winter. Unfortunately, the things they focus on give about as much clarity as a blizzard.
Nearly two years after City Council’s request, Kitchener staff have finally brought forward a report on winter sidewalk clearing. Their recommendation?
Do nothing. (more…)
Subscribe to get weekly updated delivered directly to your inbox!
Subscribe to get weekly updated delivered directly to your inbox!
sharrows—bc what's scarier than weakass bike "infrastructure" that doesn't really protect cyclists? (cc @BicycleLobby) pic.twitter.com/iOCzh687pI
— *map emoji* (@drooliet) October 30, 2016
An update and new round of public consultations for ION stage 2 into Cambridge have been delayed until the new year. Meanwhile, GRT and ION drop the confusing municipal jargon to tell us what we’ve known all along about transit fares when ION opens:
#DYK the fare for ION light rail will be the same as GRT’s other services? One system, one fare. @rideIONrt pic.twitter.com/Zi4wgiPkQ3
— Grand River Transit (@GRT_ROW) October 26, 2016
Development charges: An update report will be given for adding charges to new developments to help pay for light rail and conventional transit. This could lead to significant savings for an already tight budget year, but there is some resistance from municipal governments. Final recommendations are expected to come forward November 22.
Breslau GO station: Breslau has been selected as one of the locations for a new “Regional Express Rail” GO station, so the Region and Woolwich have been asked to give their approval for the new station. Unfortunately, the identified site for the stop is at Greenhouse Road, disconnected from presently built-up parts of Breslau. It will be difficult for Breslau residents to access the station by foot or bike, and as the report notes, it will be challenging to serve with decent transit until additional roads are built. Planned densities for an unbuilt suburb near the station may not come near provincial guidelines for transit supportive development.
Consultations for upcoming road and transportation projects:
Apparently some road engineers think people who bike look like football players..
It’s time for the Region to start preparing next year’s budget again. Assessments are down, which means less natural revenue growth. The projected property tax increase to cover planned or anticipated expenses is about 4%.
At risk is the GRT business plan, which calls for increasing bus service by nearly 30% over the next five years. This is necessary in order to integrate GRT buses with ION light rail service and grow ridership by 40%. This will be a challenging task, one not made easier by the fact that ridership has fallen in the face of years of punishing fare hikes. Will Regional Council have the vision to continue to invest in transit in Waterloo Region, without gouging transit riders? (more…)
Cyclists don’t follow the rules of the road? Maybe it’s time to change those rules (Tom Babin)
“Yet streets are already governed by different rules for different users, such as laws that require slower speed limits for big trucks, or that mandate school buses to stop at uncontrolled railway crossings. Rather than demonize cyclists for their inability to conform to rules designed for cars, laws should recognize that riding a bike is different than driving.”
Feds launch task force on cycling and pedestrian safety (Ottawa Citizen)
L.A. street makeover shows road diets work (NextCity)
Majority of Torontonians favour bike lanes, new survey suggests (The Star)
Turnaround: Fixing New York City’s buses (TransitCenter)
Pushing back on apathy about bus service (Human Transit)
“If you want to know why your bus system isn’t better, the answer is almost always that not enough people care, and that in particular, not enough influential people care. Sure, there are other kinds of resistance, but those can all be overcome when civic leaders decide that better bus service is important.”
New option may see LRT in service as scheduled in late 2017 (570 News)
Like a bright daffodil, a new bus stop emerges from the King Street chaos (Luisa D’Amato)
Region approves transit and fare enforcement plan (The Record)
WMATA finds biking and walking improvements near Metro stations pay off (MobilityLab)
A technical follow-up: How we built the world’s prettiest auto-generated transit maps (TransitApp)
Why it will take more than light rail to fix US transit (NextCity)
“The process begins by creating clear objectives tailored to each place’s needs. For all the flaws under the post-World War II approach, reducing congestion was a clear governing principle. Now cities and regions need to go back to the drawing board and formalize new objectives. Is it designing denser communities that support shorter distances between places? Is it to improve the amount of regional jobs people can reach in a given timeframe? Is it removing the physical barriers that separate communities? Whatever the objectives might be, each community must define accessibility on its own terms.”
Parking lots are an incredible waste of space. Here’s how to end them (Motherboard)
Lots to lose: how cities around the world are eliminating car parks (The Guardian)
No shortage of land for homes in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (Neptis Foundation)
Smart growth planning looks up and not out (Community Edition)
Kitchener homeowners should learn more about RIENS (Frank Etherington)
Waterloo traffic calming plan proves divisive (Waterloo Chronicle)
Victoria Park to get continuous stretch of sidewalk (The Record)
Rod Regier appointed Waterloo Region’s commissioner of planning (CBC News)
