Week in review: August 26, 2017

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Consultations, feedback, and events

• ION FIX-IT LIST: What details need correcting?
• KITCHENER: Urban Forest
• CAMBRIDGE: Transportation Master Plan
• TRANSIT: New Directions 2017-2021 Grand River Transit plan, Sept 13, 18, 21, 27, Oct 3
• BARRIERS: Highway 7/8 multi-use trail crossing
• REGION:
  • Trade-offs in transportation
  • Moving Forward progress report and consultation Sept 12, 13, 19

Transit

Former Cambridge mayor and regional councillor Jane Brewer passed away Tuesday. Brewer was a strong supporter of light rail in the Region, and will be missed.

News that delivery of the second ION vehicle has again been delayed, this time until October, slipped quietly this week. On top of this, while it had appeared that Bombardier had been meeting (revised) targets for its TTC streetcar order, it turns out the vehicles were being delivered incomplete and were being finished in Toronto.

The Regional Planning and Works Committee approved the 2017-2022 GRT business plan. As we noted last week, the plan is intended to be completed in five years, but an additional recommendation was made in the report to stretch that out to seven, delaying frequency improvements and new routes for Cambridge. On a positive note, councillors seemed receptive to our concerns about bus wrap ads.

• Los Angeles neglected its buses as rail expanded, ridership fell [Streetsblog]
• New posters on GRT buses urge respect for all riders [The Record]
• The politics of transportation planning [Streetsblog]
• Anti-infill on surface transit [Pedestrian Observations]

Trails and cycling

On Tuesday, we shared our concerns with the Planning and Works committee regarding the proposed route of the Iron Horse Trail to transit hub connection. It’s a tough decision - timelines for federal funding are very tight, so options are limited, but we wanted to see the best value for our scarce active transportation dollars. Councillors agreed, and have directed staff to take a second look.

Meanwhile, work has begun on a new multi-use path on Conestoga Boulevard in Cambridge, and Waterloo shares its detour route through Waterloo Park as it plans to rebuild the trail starting in September:

https://twitter.com/citywaterloo/status/898554341350490115

• Keep calm and cycle on: the case for cycling infrastructure [The Public Policy & Governance Review]
• A new generation of bike lane separators is set to arrive [People for Bikes]
• The dockless bike share revolution [Alta Planning & Design]
• Cars, bicycles, and the fatal myth of equal reciprocity [The Conversation]
• How to write anti-bike commentary without the nuisance of actual thought [Chicago Magazine]

Vision Zero

• Automated safety systems are preventing car crashes, studies find [The Record]
• That pedestrian signals can kill seniors [Price Tags]

Development

• Kitchener Design for Tall Buildings draft update
• Dense development: is building along busy corridors unhealthy? [CBC]

Road Ahead

• What Dallas, Houston, Louisville, & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways - don’t! [City Observatory]
• Driving fee rolls back asthma attacks in Stockholm [Inside Science]
• What will self-driving cars do to our cities? [TVO]