Week in review: January 15, 2018

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Consultations, feedback, and events

• KITCHENER BUDGET: Public input meeting January 15, or email councillors
• ION LIGHT RAIL: Cambridge extension online and on January 16
• UNIVERSITY AVE: Streetscape public consultation
• MHBPNA PRESENTS: Approachable density Jan 25, Inclusive neighbourhood Feb 15, Sustainable streets April 6
• LAND USE: Proposed methodology for land needs assessment for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, comments due Feb 28
• INCLUSIONARY ZONING: Proposed regulations, comments due Feb 1
• EMISSIONS: Guidelines on community emissions planning, comments due March 4

Sidewalk slip-n-slide

• Abominable snow maintenance and its implications on community accessibility (Robin Mazumder)
• Time to have a conversation about sidewalk clearing (Waterloo Chronicle)
• City should clear sidewalks as a way of improving accessibility (Waterloo Chronicle)
• How to make snow-bound cities less of a frozen hell for people with disabilities (Fast Company)
• We need some creative solutions to snow clearing (Kitchener Post)

Transit

• Testing across the entire ION light rail route (Region of Waterloo)
• GRT piloting buses with driver shields (GRT)
• The secret behind Brampton’s transit success (TVO)
• Toronto cleared cars off its biggest transit street, and ridership soared almost overnight (Streetsblog)
• LRT officials optimistic for spring launch (570 News)
• TTC prepares ‘Plan B’ after delays to Bombardier streetcar order (The Star)
• What did we learn in 2017? (Remix)
• Climate change + transit (TransitCenter)

Crossing the street

• FHWA rescission of interim approval of rectangular rapid flashing beacons (Alta Planning + Design) It’s not clear at this point if these changes in the US will affect Ontario’s guidance for pedestrian crossovers.
• ‘A different kind of guy’: New film tells tale of the Bridgeport General (CBC)

Cycling

• Easy being green: navigating KW’s bike lanes (Community Edition)
• The safe way to ride your bike in winter (CityLab)
• Can dockless bikeshare pump cycling’s diversity? (CityLab)
• Removing cycle lanes no solution to bike safety issues (Advocate Daily)
• Five things we learned from Calgary’s new cycling data (Calgary Herald)

The shape of our cities

• What triggered the decade of ‘dramatic change’ in downtown Kitchener? Carl Zehr weighs in (CBC)
• What California can teach the GTA about urban density (TVO)
• Scooch over: Toronto has room for more density, study says (The Star)
• What would a women-led city look like? This urban anthropologist wants to start that conversation (Generocity)
• Walkable parking: how to create park-once-and-walk districts (Reinventing Parking)

Tactical urbanism

• A crash course in tactical urbanism (Strong Towns)
• How a mid-sized Canadian city became the envy of urban planners (Curbed)

Vision Zero

• Police, public must do better to beat impaired driving (The Record)
• Lowering speed limits on all city streets will save lives (The Star)
• Why drivers may fail to see motorcycles in plain sight (Science Daily)
• Sustainable and safe: a vision and guidance for zero road deaths (World Resources Institute)
• A new traffic safety paradigm (Planetizen)
• Pedestrian death prompts calls for increased safety measures (Metro)

The road ahead

• To measure the ‘Uber effect,’ cities get creative (CityLab)
• Can cities embrace innovation without sacrificing public health and safety? (Next City)
• Microtransit: How cities are, and aren’t, adapting transit technology (Curbed)
• Driverless cars being eyed for Ontario roads (The Record)
• Some of the funnier (less obvious) implications of driverless cars (Driving Towards Driverless Cars)