Week in review: October 24, 2017

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Consultations, feedback, and events

• REGIONAL BUDGET: Online survey, due Nov 22
• TRANS CANADA TRAIL: Potential realignment between UW and St. Jacobs farmer’s market
• PEDESTRIANS: Feedback on ION from the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region
• CLIMATE ACTION: Imagine Our Future survey
• CAMBRIDGE: Transportation Master Plan
• TRANSIT:
  • Transit affordability study – call for participants
  • 2018 Grand River Transit service changes
• BARRIERS: Highway 7/8 multi-use trail crossing, Oct 26 at Chandler Dr GRT building

Transit

• Paperwork leaves ION train in shed (The Record)
• Overhead wires go live, LRT road test may cause traffic slowdown (CBC)
• Don’t let LRT divide the Region (The Record)
• How Seattle bucked a national trend and got more people to ride the bus (CityLab) Hint: when buses get priority, riders prioritize the bus
• Canberra: good planning can lead to more service (Human Transit)
• Pittsburgh tests out red bus lanes downtown (Streetsblog)
• Boston MBTA Tests Out All-Door Boarding, With Systemwide Implementation Coming By 2020 (Streetsblog)
• Amazon’s challenge shows the importance of good transit for cities (City Fix)

Intercity

• Ontario announces High Speed Rail Planning Advisory Board (Ontario)
• New Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster on Bombardier delays and what to do about Union (Globe and Mail)
• Hydrogen fuel technology analysis/evaluation (Metrolinx)
• Number of collisions on 401 between Cambridge and Milton ‘taxing’ OPP (CBC)

Vision Zero

• Colourful crossings created outside Wilson Public School (Kitchener Post)
• We know SUV design kills pedestrians, but we still let carmakers sell them (Streetsblog)
• Portland Crosswalk Shows How Drivers Think (or Don’t) About Pedestrians (Next City)
• Distracted driving: a silent killer? (SSTI)
• Drunk driver Marco Muzzo killed three kids and their grandpa. He’s now eligible for unescorted absences from jail (The Record)
• Toronto has a deadly traffic problem, and it’s time to change (Globe and Mail)
• Levels of ambient air pollution according to mode of transport: a systematic review (The Lancet)

Cycling

• Enough with the data, we already know bike lanes work (Metro)
• These people lost their minds over a bike lane (Streetsblog)
• Can tech’s take on bike sharing help infrastructure and equity? (People for Bikes)
• Winter is coming: Here are 5 things to think about to keep riding through the cold (Tom Babin)
• UPS to deliver packages by bike in Toronto (BlogTO)
• Making signals work for bicyclists and pedestrians (PBIC webinar)

Land use: Googlazon edition

• Land-use policies contribute to GTA’s housing shortage (The Star)
• More rental stock housing needed to support the missing middle (Waterloo Chronicle)
• LRT ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ for housing diversity, says expert (CBC)
• Former glove factory to be redeveloped into 23 storey tower (CTV)
• Waterloo again freezes parking fees in core lots (The Record) When are we going to get a transit fare freeze?
• Google’s founders wanted to shape a city. Toronto is their chance (NY Times)
• Seattle has 5 big pieces of advice for Amazon’s HQ2 winner (CityLab)
• Back to the future: Google’s vision for Toronto is straight out of the 19th century (TVO)

Road ahead

• If you drive less than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) a year, you probably shouldn’t own a car (CityLab)
• Our cities need fewer cars, not cleaner cars (The Guardian)
• Owning a car will soon be a thing of the past (The Guardian)
• Ten rules for cities about automated vehicles (CNU)
• Self-driving cars could ease traffic, but increase sprawl (The Record) Which really just means it will also increase traffic.
• Autonomous vehicles and urban contexts: it’s time to engage all stakeholders (Planetizen)
• Will microtransit be the next wave in commuter services? (Globe and Mail) Well…
• Commuter shuttle bus Chariot halts services in SF (TechCrunch)