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Week in review: October 10, 2017

Posted
By Mike Boos
4 min read

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Consultations, feedback, and events

Transit

It’s here!

The second ION light rail vehicle has arrived

The Region has opened its online survey for the 2018 budget. Shockingly, after committing to fare increases under 2% per year over the next few years in the GRT business plan, the survey asks residents if they would accept a whopping 75 cent fare increase per trip! This is far beyond any of the punishing fare increases the Region has made in the past.  Please complete the survey and ask the Region to invest more in transit, not gouge riders any further.

Metrolinx is planning to upgrade its track through Guelph, which includes replacing the mainline and improving crossings, with the intent of improving speeds from 10 mph to 30 mph. This should help speed up GO train trips, eventually.

Vision Zero

  • Drivers not doing right, still making left, despite new signs (570 News)
  • Uptown parents concerned about route kids have to take to school after busing removed (Waterloo Chronicle)
  • Vehicles from serious crashes on display in Waterloo Region for road safety campaign (The Record)

  • If Toronto is waging war on the car, why are drivers the only ones racking up the body count? (The Star)

    “If your solution to problems relies on ‘If everyone would just…’ then you do not have a solution. Everyone is not going to just. At no time in history has everyone just, and they’re not going to start now.”

  • Amsterdam rethinks the traffic light’s role in city planning (Next City)
  • Philly takes safer streets plan beyond the usual urbanists (Next City)

Trails and walkability

The Region moves forward with its plans for a twisty route between the Iron Horse Trail and the future transit hub, while leaving options open in the future to straighten it out or even follow parallel to the rail corridor. City councillor Frank Etherington is not impressed.

On Wednesday, neighbourhood resident Sam Kamminga will remind Regional Council of the need to maintain pedestrian access between the Fairway Road stores and the Traynor-Vanier neighbourhood, as ION completion closes the fence for good.

Cycling

https://youtu.be/DDX2piZPuyg

  • Volunteer bike counters step up to gather the data the city should be collecting (The Star)
  • Laurier Ave bike lanes reducing collisions say City of Ottawa (Metro News)
  • Six way-finding principles that make communities easier to navigate (Alta Planning + Design)

Land use

  • How shared parking can reduce housing costs and cut traffic (Streetsblog)
  • Midtown plan would see highrises, cafés sprout along King Street (The Record
  • Central transit corridor building boom
    • Breithaupt Block hopes to add 12-storey tower (The Record)
    • Investors put almost $100 million into Waterloo’s Idea Quarter (The Record)
    • Old American Hotel could be reborn as six-storey condo (The Record)
    • Schneiders plant sold, will become ‘largest central infill development in the region’ (CBC)
  • Trying to fix a bad land use plan with a bad transit plan (Torontoist)
  • Transit-focused housing necessary to maximize investments in infrastructure (The Star)
  • Proposed development charges bylaw released (City of Waterloo)

The road ahead

  • The joy and freedom of a city without car traffic (Streetsblog)
  • The heterogeneous future of urban mobility (CityLab)
  • Road pricing the best way to reduce vehicle emissions, concludes UBC study (CBC)
  • 10 questions on how bicyclists and pedestrians will interact with autonomous vehicles (Mobility Lab)
  • 3 senators, 1 car, zero drivers: Committee cruises by autonomous vehicle centre (CBC)
  • Modest test of driverless bus may hint at big things to come (The Record)
  • Transportation equity: the Subaru and the Suburban (City Observatory)
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