we are all belgian on this blessed day

The RCMP would like to remind you that the highway shoulder is a very dangerous place to be full of debris and garbage. Good thing we keep putting our bike lanes there rcmp.ca/en/bc/bchp/n...

This is great! Keeping Granville for people the rest of the summer will show that its success wasn't just FIFA-fuelled lightning in a bottle and that Vancouver wants more pedestrian streets. Next step: accelerate the absurdly long 10 year timeline to build the infrastructure to make this permanent.

Kinda messed up that Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two entities, one of which is called the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other of which isn't called either Bosnia or Herzegovina

Didn't know until today how beautifully Alder frames Vancouver House at sunset. This is way more interesting than a view cone!

Most companies sponsoring FIFA probably aren't getting their money's worth, since I doubt anyone sees a Visa FIFA ad and goes "I should get a credit card". But I have to say Michelob Ultra is really getting incredible value for its money. I've never seen it in Canada before and now it's everywhere.

I'm really coming to agree with the argument @denisagar.bsky.social makes here. frequent transit that sevces more areas is far more important than free transit.

My hope for the condo buyback program was to be able to deliver a lot of non-market housing, quickly, at a price lower than what could be built from scratch, and to do it with a significant contribution from the feds. 1/5

Random question for the Bluesky housing hivemind: Why are bare-land stratas so much rarer in Canada than homeowners' associations are in the United States? Condominium title was invented around the same time in both countries, but we just... don't really have land condominiums?

Don't have to look far for examples of HOV lanes being bad for transit. TransLink's 555, a route with 99% HOV lanes, has peak direction runtimes padded to **double** what offpeak conditions require. Very few other routes have to deal with that level of variance. 99% transit priority btw.

I kinda get why people might think clearing developers' unsold condo stock creates moral hazard. Not sure I agree, but fair enough. But why are the "definancialize housing" crowd against this? This is functionally the same policy as right of first refusal, which they widely support?

Is there any sewage pipe in the world with a more beautiful sunset view than the Iona jetty?

Granville is really lively and popular, and people keep stopping just to take pictures. Let's keep it this way! A 24h bar street is a perfect candidate for a permanent pedestrian space, and the Seymour/Howe bus lanes are working well other than some kinks with the stop in front of the Art Gallery.

ABC isn't on here but they're over on the other site spreading misinformation about the VZ Action Plan, and also making it abundantly clear that they are choosing driver speed over human life. (1/3)

ABC will want to take credit for passing the Vision Zero strategy despite gutting the most important near-term action in the entire plan to pander to super-speeders. Don't let them.

Ruofan: the plan is widely supported by evidence around the world, directly taken from best practices that have successfully saved lives, prevented injuries, reduced dangerous behaviour. "Evidence is frankly overwhelming", permeates the recommendations. "Choice couldn't be clearer".

But hey here's @ruofan.ca to support the plan! A credible path to reducing fatalities while improving travel for all road users. Rewards law abiding road users, rooted in science and evidence. This is a speed and geometry issue. This WILL save lives.

I’ve posted a long FAQ with everything you need to know about a kids’ social media ban. Key takeaway: it is an ineffective and harmful policy that raises privacy concerns for tens of millions of Canadians through mandated age verification requirements.

Today I took one of the weirdest bike routes in Metro Vancouver. It's so circuitous that it makes 45th Avenue look like an airport runway, has a stop sign every block, and doesn't have a safe crossing of a single arterial it crosses. Not sure why anyone would take it over Railway or the West Dyke...

The new bike lane on the stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge is really cool, it's nicely wide and flat. The connections on the Surrey side still need some work, but hopefully they'll get to it after the bridge is complete

high speed rail terminus should be at the cheesecake factory, says cheesecake factory ceo

Such good stuff in Report 3. Vision Zero Safe Mobility Plan coming before Vancouver City Council this Tuesday.

Recently got my hands on a gorgeous 1977(?) Raleigh Supercourse aluminum road bike whose previous owner modified it with bar-end shifters (the best configuration!). Can't wait to take it out for a spin

This is a big deal! We have a real chance to get a lot of excellent ideas enshrined in city policy: bike lanes on major streets, no right on red, transit priority, traffic calming, designing for slower speeds, more pedestrian spaces, etc. Council needs to hear that people are paying attention.

Apparently Mike Klassen blocked me for what (I think at least) is fairly tame criticism of his votes

It's honestly really impressive that every single one of those ideas is the worst idea ever. From exempting doctors from taxes to doing more "zero means zero" cuts to the public service to reviving Kerfoot's waterfront stadium, this man keeps coming up with downright bizarre policy proposals.

To Mike Klassen, supporting climate action means ramming natural gas back into buildings while voting to restrict multiplexes in order to push sprawl ever further up the forests of Burke Mountain and Cypress

Fun fact: Pierre Trudeau spent his entire career trying to shut down and demolish his namesake airport in favour of Mirabel, so the irony could be worse.

I spoke to Vancouver council tonight in opposition to this motion. ABC can't claim that allowing methane in homes is a pro-housing measure, then immediately move to savage multiplexes to cater to quell specious aesthetic concerns. Part of my remarks:

La réalité, c'est qu'on vient d'ouvrir une ligne de métro léger sans connexions bus fréquents, sans solutions de dernier kilomètre et sans densité de logement—dont le terminus est au milieu d'une forêt. Le West Island mérite mieux qu'un éléphant blanc qui lie rien à rien.

I love this delightfully old-fashioned question on the City of New West's 311 form

La vraie capitale de l'urbanisme canadien

Who else likes biking in the construction equipment storage lane?

For some reason Vancouver seems to have a single American NACTO-style bike cross-ride. It's located on the mostly useless Alberni St bike lane where it crosses a random driveway.

Land value taxes are elegant and pure and make for endless high-brow party conversations. But if you want to make society and housing function better just do what @kevinerdmann.bsky.social says: Raise the [property tax] rates and make them more universal and equitable.

Of all the North American cities studied, Vancouver's buses have the second highest variation in travel time throughout the day. This should set off alarm bells that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to making buses reliable.

My favourite order at Tim Hortons is the classic combo of chocolate-coated paper bag and unglazed Boston cream donut

I'm not against data centres, but I'm against the zoning that makes a standalone one viable in the middle of Vancouver. Metro Van says we need to protect employment lands because they have high job density, but what jobs are we protecting in a bunch of self-storages, car dealers and server farms?

Shout out to whoever at the CRTC thought using the US president's nuclear attack warning system for Amber alerts 16 hours away was a good idea

Apparently last year, the government of Madagascar was overthrown by a human resources department

@lucymaloney.bsky.social brought an amendment to ask staff if introducing food delivery robots onto the narrow and overcrowded sidewalks of Kits and the West End will create a barrier to accessibility for blind people and wheelchair users, as the CNIB has repeatedly said. ABC voted it down.

Ken Sim and @petermeiszner.bsky.social are trying to force through a vote right now, on the same day it's introduced. I've never heard of council trying to pass a motion barring a specific landowner from a specific use without notice and hearing. Doesn't this breach procedural fairness 101?

Instead of housing catalogs and “pre approved plans” we need pre-approved Development Permits. The BP is mostly building code, is algorithmic, and very site specific. The DP is subjective, and at times arbitrary, but gives the city a degree of control over massing, aesthetics, amenities etc

I think Vancouver's become too reliant on using unrelated roadwork as an opportunity to build bike lanes. I argue that it doesn't save that much money, does little to quell local opposition, and often fails to create network effects.

This Harbour Air ad is the most personally offensive ad I've ever seen

That just seems cruel

I put all my Strava rides onto a heatmap and can you tell I always get confused about how to stay on Heather?

Who should pay for the costs of densifying? Should growth pay for growth? Taxes on new infill homes are counterproductive in a housing crisis, writes @jacksandor.bsky.social #yyj #bcpoli #vanpoli #bc

Is housing demand fake? Absolutely not, writes Will Dawson #bcpoli #housing #yyj #vanpoli

Words used to have meaning