Week in review: October 30, 2017

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Consultations, feedback, and events

• LONG TERM: Goals for transportation in the Greater Golden Horseshoe
• 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, comments due Nov 9

Spooky streets

Former Vancouver chief planner Brent Toderian highlights the ‘trick or treat test’ for walkable neighbourhoods - if a street has lots of trick-or-treaters, it’s a good indication of quiet traffic, compact housing, a good street grid, and house frontages that aren’t all garages.

Vision Zero and victim-blaming

• Pedestrian struck by bus in downtown Kitchener (The Record)
• Smartphones are killing Americans, but nobody’s counting (Bloomberg)
• Vision professor says Alberta’s ‘when eyes lock’ campaign unfair to pedestrians (Metro)
• Pedestrian safety advocates slam proposed “distracted walking” legislation (The Star)

Cycling and trails

Last weekend, we were in London for the Southwest Bike Advocacy Summit.

• Kitchener asks for help to redesign its cycling map (The Record)
• Region looks for feedback on proposed multi-use bridge across Highway 7/8 (Kitchener Post)
• Guelph is measuring cycling and pedestrian traffic (CBC)
• Separation and motivation (Ride Cycle Spin)
• Can private bike share change the course of road design? (People for Bikes)
• Cycling and stop signs (Medium)

Transit

• Waterloo Region still playing catch-up to Ottawa in transit race (Kitchener Post)
• Do brands matter in public transit (TheCityFix)
• Anchorage: Alaska’s first frequent transit network (Human Transit)
• Denver’s (side)walks to transit (TransitCenter)
• LA looks to rideshare to build the future of public transit (Wired)
• Why taxing rideshare to fund transit makes sense (Streetsblog Chicago)

Land use

The Chief Public Health Officer’s new report on the state of public health in Canada recommends reducing sprawl and local policies that enable healthier transportation choices.

• Gentrification along LRT line will hurt region’s poorest, advocate warns (CBC)
• Concerns raised that new development charges could leave Waterloo at a competitive disadvantage (The Record)
• Toronto celebrates Kensington Market in word but not deed (TVO)
• Can building a “giant wall of parking” kill a downtown (Strong Towns)
• How highways squeezed taxable land out of cities (Streetsblog)

Road ahead

• The hamster wheel school of transportation policy (City Observatory)
• Is Uber headed for the app junkyard (Globe and Mail)
• Uber testing autonomous cars in Toronto (The Star)