Week in review: January 30, 2018

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Consultations, feedback, and events

• TRANSIT: 2018 network public information centres, dates TBD
• ION LIGHT RAIL: Cambridge extension online, due Feb 16
• UNIVERSITY AVE: Streetscape public consultation
• MHBPNA PRESENTS: 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
• GREENBELT: Growing the Greenbelt in the outer ring Feb 22, comments due March 7
• BIKE: International Winter Bike to Work Day, Feb 9

On foot

• Kitchener plows ahead with sidewalk shovelling study (The Record)
• Time to start thinking of sidewalks as public infrastructure (Waterloo Chronicle)
• Rainbow crossing coming to Kitchener core (Kitchener Post)
• Galt’s new pedestrian cross brings back memories of the ‘Holey Bridge’ (The Record)
• Regional staff recommend new active transportation bridge across Highway 7/8 between Chandler and Avalon (Planning & Works Committee agenda)
• Walking School Bus program coming to 30 schools in Waterloo region (CBC)

By bus, train, or… airplane?

• 3 weeks left for feedback on LRT route into Cambridge (CTV)
• Turns out the hottest ticket in town is a bus fare card (CBC)
• Oxford County wants high speed rail alternative in southwestern Ontario (CBC)
• Airport authority buys International Centre in Mississauga (Mississauga.com) Presumably for an airport transit hub next to the rail corridor.
• Why it’s so expensive to build urban rail in the US (CityLab) For the record, ION’s costs of about $45 million per km are quite low compared to a typical $115 million per km in US cities.
• A conversation about how public transport really works (Financial Times)
• Garneau supportive of Via Rail’s $1.5-billion request for new trains (Globe and Mail)

Vision Zero

• Speed kills, so why do we keep designing for it? (Strong Towns)
• The incredibly cheap street fix that saves lives (CityLab)
• Who’s afraid of the “petextrian”? (The Baffler)
• Mobile phone conversations, listening to music and quiet (electric) cars: Are traffic sounds important for safe cycling? (SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research)
• Undriven snow: activists trace winter car routes to reshape city streets (99% Invisible)

The shape of our cities

• Kitchener parking garages pricey, underused but plans persist to build another (The Record)
• ‘They gave in to developers’: Ontario’s latest move to curb housing costs slammed as weak (CBC)
• Youth! Street life! The case for crowded neighbourhoods (Bloomberg)

The road ahead

• Provincial funding boosts Miovision expansion (The Record)
• Why older Americans might benefit from giving up their cars (Strong Towns)
• Modern vision of an urban future at odds with our local politics (The Star)
• Elon Musk’s “innovations” are not the future — they’re delaying it (Paris Marx)