The new standard bus stop poles of Lombardy spotted out in the wild. They are part of a broader effort to harmonize transit wayfinding across the region between all providers.

Now to Cedarvale, soon to be formerly Eglinton West, Station

It’s time to check out the Toronto’s newest transit station

WATCH: If you REALLY want to understand a BIG reason why cycling [aka riding a bike] is so dangerous in North America, and one of the biggest villains in the origin story of our unsafe status quo, invest some time watching this one, by NOT JUST BIKES (aka @theurbanistagenda.com here). Then share it.

It makes me sad that an instructor for several major Canadian universities would assert something so verifiably false. People ask why we build weird, bad projects, well part of it is people learn a version of the world that isn't real.

Caltrain's electric trains run faster and smoother - and people LOVE it. Make service better, and riders will come, which means more people will vote to support transit.

I've done something that I don't do very often. I wrote a short, quick polemic post. It was prompted by a discussion in here. It's about why I'm still skeptical about ALTO's HSR project and why there is no way around transparency in public projects. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

An Air Canada flight right now

Around 15 years ago, I was arguing that this a terrible design and it shouldn’t be built. Now they’re shutting it down. Hate to be proven right this way! Listen to the technical transit advocates – they are always right, even if you are too allistic to see it.

Happy to have written this with Reece and Narayan. There are more details to this but the point is that Spadina can be so much better with a little political will.

A piece in the Star today along with Jonathan English and Narayan Donaldson on fixing the very slow, but very high potential Spadina streetcar. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Update: Civil War cancelled due to shooter being demographically uncooperative

ΣΠΑΠ – Peloponnese Netzgrafik 1962 Something I’d never seen before and I didn’t expect to see. ⚪️ Standard trains 🔴 Fast trains 🟢 Local and steam trains 🔵 Car-ferries A really inclusive timetable, aiming for the passenger’s information Source: gwrarchive.org/site/sitel2p...

Moving the Kitchener Hospital from a site directly next to light rail to a location 1 km away will reduce transit ridership so many times more than a few condos near stations. We are wayyyyy too residential focused for TOD.

Santiago de Chile has an ongoing expansion program for its metro that will add 75 (seventy-five!!) km to its network by 2033 for 7.3 billion USD. It's like adding more than a second métro of Montréal-worth for 50% more of the projected cost of adding 6km to the blue line.

A few weeks ago my life changed suddenly when an unleashed dog running in a park crashed into with my ankle Article: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... Video: www.cbc.ca/player/play/... Since then, I can’t believe how many similar stories I’ve heard. Clearly, off-leash dogs are a real threat to safety

A few weeks ago my life changed suddenly when an unleashed dog running in a park crashed into with my ankle Article: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... Video: www.cbc.ca/player/play/... Since then, I can’t believe how many similar stories I’ve heard. Clearly, off-leash dogs are a real threat to safety

Helsinki hasn't had a traffic fatality in a year: "Helsinki's current traffic safety strategy, covering 2022–2026, is nearing completion. It has focused on improving safety for children, youth, pedestrians and cyclists with safer crosswalks and smarter intersection design."

~150000 daily drivers on the Gardiner stuck in congestion - politicians at all levels leap into action to accelerate construction and fall over each other to talk solutions, a million daily subway riders trapped in slow zones . . . Almost nothing from our politicians.

Supply and demand isn’t something you can “ignore”. If a seller tries to demand a price far above the market price, it just won’t sell. Developers and landlords don’t have this mystical power to demand whatever amount they want. It only seems like that if you live in a tight housing market.

The US is unusual in believing that nonsensical boundaries, like those of the City of Los Angeles, are as permanent as mountains. Britain revises the boundaries of 1000-year old shires whenever they stop making sense.

Great column. If you include Hamilton and Niagara, the population south of the GTA is approximately the same as Alberta. Yet we never discuss the economic powerhouse that is Southern Ontario and have no plan for how to improve any aspect of it.

The key part of the GO Expansion/RER project is to turn train schedules like the one on the left into the one on the right Regular 15-min or better service, 7 days a week This is a service that’s attractive to both existing and potential riders

well at least you didn't try

And English was a great asset to the Toronto Board of Trade who ignored his (and others) policy work there and instead are happy to cheer on Doug Fords 401 Tunnel and other non-problem-solving politcs.

Last comment: The fact that Jonathan English who has now written up *two* coherent regional rail plans (arguably two more than Metrolinx) and released them to the public isn't running Metrolinx is crazy. I think that neither feature "GO" branding is interesting. urbantoronto.ca/news/2012/07...

Union Station’s train shed should be removed or relocated. It’s outdated, unloved, and constraining transit in a major global city. Ironically, Doug Ford could pull it off with no political cost. Heritage matters—but not at the expense of mobility. nexttoronto.substack.com/p/the-union-... #Metrolinx

Just asked a California transit manager if the state's Zero Emission Bus mandate is causing them to run less service than they otherwise would. He said: "Yes, definitely." A diesel bus only has to get 4 ppl out of cars to be better for the planet than an electric bus. Hmm.

Toronto currently doesn't allow their transit priority system to insert a transit phase for streetcars going straight, even though the system is able to. Streetcars need to wait for left turns. If the City also disallows phase insertion on LRT lines that would be an insult to ON taxpayers.

Really proud to have written a piece in the Globe and Mail with @wklumpen.bsky.social about why investing in transit is a great approach to soften the blow of the trade war! www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

I've written an article on the extraordinary transit success of Brampton, how it was achieved, and the lessons it has for other suburban areas in North America. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The power of clockface scheduling! Because trips depart at the same times every hour, 7 days a week, my friend can easily write the entire LRT schedule for his local station on his kitchen whiteboard Since he knows it takes exactly 4 minutes to walk to the station, no time is wasted!

Not to flex but anyone who followed Elon's hyperloop arc saw this coming a mile away. He said he could save 90% over high speed rail by ... buying land cheaper. That was it, he never offered any further specifics and the media utterly failed to convey how much of a charlatan he was.

Congratulations, you just invented Lower Wacker Drive

Some thoughts on Chinese subways after a bit of riding 1. The platform seems defined by a standard rectangular box with platform screen doors, no obstructing pillars and a combo of escalator and fixed stair. It’s a very attractive product and worthy of emulation.

Great to hear from Eric Goldwyn on how to manage increasing transit project costs

Not calling other transit advocates names and keeping conversations friendly is *actually* really important. If people are afraid speaking up is going to get them peppered with insults then they don't engage and you get ossification and stagnation.

Tracks. I've said this in numerous columns, others have said it, but the greatest enemy to drivers is other drivers. Whether it's delays, traffic or life or death or dents. Other drivers are the main threat. Everything else is distraction and intentional scapegoating to avoid the truth.

I know it goes back to the 1970s but Sudbury is hard to beat no matter what decade it’s up against. It even looks great when they did it on a modern bus.

A person on a bicycle is by far the most energy-efficient among animals and machines per distance traveled relative to body weight. The bicycle is magic. www.jstor.org/stable/24923...

Some snowy scenes from the Halton County Radial Railway yesterday! The streetcar museum is open this weekend and next for festive Christmas rides! hcry.org

NYC had the longest metro system in the the world until the 1980s. Now it’s not even in the top 10. Major cities elsewhere in the world are adding new metro lines at a rapid clip & NYC has just a 3-stop extension planned for 2033 or later… www.thetransportpolitic.com/databook/urb...

There was opposition to building transit even in 1858. Locals complained about property value impacts, noise, and taking space from private vehicles The more things change, the more they stay the same We shouldn’t allow such parochial concerns to stand in the way of needed mobility improvements

And the winner for worst take on cycling & transportation goes to (drumroll please) This article! The jury concluded it has the perfect combination of basic stats, driver vibes, fluff & no contextualization of how much more expensive car infra is than bike lanes! www.therecord.com/opinion/colu...

New York City built more housing in the 1920s than it has built in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s COMBINED. Nobody alive knows what an actual urban housing boom looks like.