Happy New Year December 31, 2007

Cool Stuff, TransLink division December 29, 2007

This popped up in the email a few weeks ago from Dan Freeman, a transportation planner at TransLink:

I know it may come as a shock to some of you, but cool things do happen at TransLink…
We’ve been doing some playing around with Google Earth as a platform for displaying passenger load profile data for almost [...]

Bing to Bing December 28, 2007

Walter Schultz relates a fascinating story about the origins of the Sunset Community Centre here.  From Bing Crosby to Bing Thom in half a century.

Say something, dammit December 28, 2007

Lorin, a PT reader, reminds us: 
Metro Vancouver is getting to the end of public meetings on the new regional growth strategy (there are a few more in January). I noticed they’ve extended the comment period from January 15 to January 31.
http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/growth/strategy-review.htm
I have seen almost no commentary or analysis in the blogosphere. But perhaps I’m not looking in [...]

Tough Question December 28, 2007

I ask it today in the Langley Times:
More Fraser bridges urged Get Moving B.C. lobby group offers up transportation wish list
By Jeff Nagel - Langley Times - December 28, 2007
With the new Golden Ears bridge linking Langley and Maple Ridge under construction, a Lower Mainland transportation lobby group is calling for more Fraser River crossings [...]

Kemble’s Critique December 27, 2007

Roger Kemble ends the year with a sardonic missive from Nanaimo on the emerging Olympic Village:

Yup, Vancouver is still singing the same old, same old . . . world class, paradise, the mountains, views. Oh no!
From the sub-prime to the ridiculous. Well, at least we are not Dubai!
When will the hucksters grow up?
The Olympics are [...]

A Merry and a Happy December 23, 2007

Gateway: The Carbon Price? December 22, 2007

In today’s Guardian:
Ministers ordered to assess climate cost of all decisions.
Coal-fired power stations, airport expansions and new road schemes could all be put on hold following a decision by Gordon Brown that ministers must in future take account of the true economic cost of climate change damage.

Ministers have been instructed to factor into their [...]

Disney Dystopia December 21, 2007

Magic Highway USA

The Disney version of the future: so optimistic and naive it’s almost impossible to believe they took it seriously.
Four things jump out for me: (1) an assumption of unlimited energy without consequence, (2) traffic densities less than a minor arterial on overscaled roads (never, ever acknowledging the possibility of congestion), (3) a future without [...]

The Un-Iconic: AR Awards for Emerging Architecture December 21, 2007

In this article in The Times, Tom Dyckhoff notes how “un-iconic” the Arhcitectural Review award winners are:
… in the age of unquestioning devotion to icon architecture, their winners — usually unstarry, un-gargantuan, but always damned clever buildings, addressing very human, social, environmental needs — have long seemed simply perverse, fogeyish, almost betraying the enlightened, but [...]