Did you know that federal public servants still travel to the US on a regular basis to “meet w/ their counterparts”? I don’t just mean GAC and DND here. That’s something that could be cut today under the guide of budget cuts, but nope.

This is interesting. New South Wales criminal law (Crimes Act 1900, Sec12) is extremely general and broad covering not just Australia but any dominion or realm of Her Majesty or her heirs (so including Canada). So NSW law could criminalize on suggesting/supporting USA invading/occupying Canada.

Hmm, this gets me thinking, I'm fairly sure section 12 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) means that anyone who expresses support for an American military invasion of Canada could be charged if they ever come to NSW

In 2024, Edmonton overhauled its zoning bylaw. It consolidated several restrictive zones into the new RS zone, permitting up to 8 homes per lot subject to 75 square metres lot area per unit. In 2025, we're seeing the payoff. The rise of the 5-8 unit rowhome is truly remarkable.

Want to know what's broken with transit in Canada? Often the same things broken in other areas, government willing to charge taxpayers huge amounts to keep votes in select communities

It can be really hard to get work once you are identified as a passionate advocate. Professional and dispassionate (or even amoral) are too often seen as synonyms. Didn't John Ralston Saul write about this as a problem decades ago?

That we still haven't removed the "you musn't go faster than 25 kph through an intersection" rule on Finch tells you a lot

can't be long now! it's time i went back to visit new zealand

Increasing the distance between stops from 700–800 feet to 1,300 feet (typical spacing in Western Europe) can deliver faster service, better reliability, and more service with the same resources. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-un...

My bad, I wasn’t aware, thought for some reason the ban had to be renewed. If it has been in place since the 1980s, codified in federal legislation since 2019. It doesn’t need to be touched, if we did nothing to it nothing would happen. There are issues like transport and electricity infras to do!

(Context, TTC recently started running trains slowly on outdoor sections when temps dropped below a certain level or when rails started to get icey)

BREAKING: The TTC is getting new Line 2 subway trains (55 trains), manufactured right here in Ontario in Thunder Bay. They’re based on Alstom’s Metropolis platform, and look extremely modern. More here: news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...

the people yearn for public transit

want buses to be fast? have fewer stops worksinprogress.co/issue/the-un...

The technology to make Toronto’s LRTs and streetcars faster already exists. It’s the political will that’s lacking.

One thing that really strikes me about people who shallowly argue for trams in N-America is how little they realize that the way we manage traffic here will seldom produce the level of ease of access they experience in European trams and long for Example: accessibility of stops, Paris vs Toronto

Congratulations Canadian Transit. We beat the Australians in per cap ridership, even Sydney with its massive frequent suburban train network, ferry network, fast and automated fancy metro, buses, and light rail that isn’t slow. @auguststreet.ca @longbranchmike.bsky.social @humantransit.bsky.social

Daily reminder that the primary benefit of railway electrification is not to reduce railway emissions. It is to enable faster acceleration which reduces travel time and thereby increases frequency without adding operating cost. That then attracts more riders and thereby more revenue.

Wikipedia claims they (or at least SA, NSW and Vic) did originally agree on a common gauge but NSW kept changing their minds lol

The first media ride on Auckland’s City Rail Link CBD tunnel from Maungawhau (Mount Eden) to Britomart (Waitemata). Unlike their cousins Sydney Metro, Melbourne Metro Tunnel, and Brisbane Cross River Rail across the Tasman, there are no platform screen doors on the 9 car deep underground platforms.

Subway is a convenient shorthand for rapid transit. I am totally unconvinced that riders much care about how its aligned.

to inaugurate the new blog, i've written about a local and contentious topic that's been on my mind for years. at its heart, it's about understanding the information that transit riders need. the case for splitting TTC Line 1:

I hope we can all understand that “Transit City was a horribly flawed plan” and “subways, subways, subways everywhere isn’t a realistic solution” can both be true at the same time.

It's always amusing and rather sad to watch films of streetcars speeding through intersections, passing each other with gay abandon, and none of the bs "safety" restrictions. Almost like TTC is trying to make streetcars unpopular.

There’s so much room for bus lanes and bike lanes if you take street parking off arterials.

Here's a new chart: a comparison of commercial property taxes. Hamilton and Ottawa, what's going on.

Of large GTA municipalities, Toronto's residential property taxes remain pretty darn low. Lower than Hamilton and Markham. Way lower than Vaughan, Mississauga and Brampton.

We cannot simply coast by while the Yanks attempt to rewriting or even threaten a sovereign nation: if this ends up leading to a diplomatic spat, so be it

Agreed, EasyGO has to go

Do you have social media savvy? I'm spinning up a sort of micro-advocacy group with a few other transit folks and we need to find someone who can run a couple social accounts (mostly just a post here and there!). Hopefully this will get some notoriety!

Journalists can do real damage by exaggerating opposition to traffic cameras (like the POLITICO Playbook writer, referenced above). Elected officials assume that automatic enforcement is much more controversial than it really is.

Canada's federal gov has a new program to bring researchers to Canada & my uni is starting an internal nomination process for chairs. If you are a full or associate prof working on AI/democracy/community engagement/environmental justice and you may be interested in moving to Canada, dm me

I've been a bit sick the last few days (I think the -20° days in Montreal got to my respiratory system) so time to catch up on what I haven't posted yet: first up, the REM in Montreal is absolutely fantastic, a real demonstration of how great automated metros can be

Time to charge for parking at GO stations and lower GO fares to compensate. Incentivize passengers to save money by walking, biking, taking transit, or being dropped off at their train station. This will be even more critical as GO doubles and triples the frequency but parking remains constant.

Netherlands is not experts on many public transport topics: Proof of payment systems (Amsterdam has stupid ticket booths ON BOARD trams) Metro operations (the TTC runs at least double the frequency of Amsterdam Metro and underground expansions in NL aren’t much cheaper). Frequency could be better.

friends, on this most tram of Tuesdays, let me take you on a little journey into a tale of two new tram systems here in Ontario, just 80km apart as the crow flies but a world apart in operations: the Kitchener-Waterloo ION tram, and the brand new Toronto Line 6 Finch West tram

and it shows in the speed compared to the ION tram. each intersection is painfully visible - and this was only half of my return trip from Albion to Finch West, as my trip out was delayed 25+ minutes due to repeated signal faults, cars on the tracks, and just shitty vibes as a service

Do some #ElectricalEngineers know more about building in high voltage electricity power (hydro) corridors? Ontario’s current approach of building nothing in them is a waste of valuable linear corridors in increasingly busy and space constrained environments.

Faster transit service is cheaper to run. The savings can reduce subsidy or better yet improve service for not even an extra dollar of spending!

In 2021 The City exempted the Finch LRT from the 50 km/h speed limit (allowing it to go 60), citing the importance of short round trip times. Unfortunately the TTC later enacted 25 km/h intersection speed limits, making 60 km/h unattainable between signals anyway. www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis...

TTC Planning & Engineering has been proposing and implementing exactly this type of infrastructure for decades but they face opposition from the City. Queue Jump Lanes constructed by the TTC include: WB Lawrence & Dufferin EB Steeles & Don Mills WB Finch & Yonge EB Finch & Markham

This is a classic example of Toronto's lack of Safe System thinking. They fixate on a particular safety concern and implement drastic measures that end up creating other safety issues. Another example is installing traffic signals everywhere instead of designing safer unsignalized intersections.

Moot point given our current provincial government, but when we inevitably change back someday to a more progressive party, congestion pricing in the GTA should be a high priority. By that point we should closer to 2WAD GO across most of the network, i.e. easily feasible alternatives to driving.

Take a lesson #TTC! @redesigningttc.bsky.social @ttcriders.bsky.social

Nice to see the attention Miles paid to the underwhelming bus replacement service. Many stations get a slower bus service without the weekend service or the regular frequent service they weren’t getting from the train. If the bus replacements were half-hourly or hourly allday express would be better

The approach to e-bikes by most transit agencies is too broad and generalized. The problem has been battery explosions and fires with improperly modified e-bikes or e-bikes not meeting stringent safety regulations. Rather than just banning ones without proper certification, they’re going after all.

rest easy nala :(

I don’t know if Mpls is different, but other transit fare cards go negative as part of a “last trip” feature where you can finish a trip even if it brings your balance below $0 before it gets blocked from further travel. Then you can reload the card to continue using it after you reach destination.

Sorry but I hope the #EglintonEast LRT is NOT built. An at-grade fully median LRT would not deliver worthwhile travel time improvements over the existing curb bus lanes for the 903 and potential lanes for Sheppard East. Median BRT with aggressive TSP could speed it up at higher frequency than LRT.