here we go again A transit network is only as reliable as its weakest link. In Victoria's case, that weakest link is a mixed-traffic operation through a single point of failure. Nothing short of grade separation will make this single point of failure go away.

cowichanvalleycitizen.com/2026/03/26/b... The Province is building a new hospital (good), but has denied transit any expansion funding to service said hospital (bad). As a result, staff has now been directed to explore *stealing* resources from other routes to service this new hospital (very bad).

Toronto has the slowest streetcars in the world. Here’s a sensible short-term plan to speed them up. fast-track.to/wp-content/u...

In BC the only consequence is $1,150 in fines when you kill a human being with the vehicle that you have deliberately modified to be even more of a killing machine than it already inherently is. Outrageous. #BCPoli globalnews.ca/news/1174246...

We don't take road deaths seriously, not even parking lot deaths. Multiple layers of negligence happened here, and the result is a dead person and $1,150 in fines to a traumatized person. Nothing coming out of this will make roads safer. Nothing.

Here's your moment of zen: A "holy" cat named Coco stands at the entrance of a church in Mexico, seemingly blessing everyone who walks in 🐱

What is Emmanuel Grégoire, the new Paris mayor, planning for the city over his new term in office? —60,000 new social housing units —15 express bus routes —Completion of city's full bike network —Transformation of ring highway into a boulevard —1000 new pedestrian streets —300 new hectares of parks

As it currently is, most car costs are sunk costs that are incurred whether a car owner drives or not, and actual usage costs are so cheap in comparison that car owners are actively discouraged from using another mode. Lowering that usage cost further is the opposite of what we should be doing.

BC Transit had already been unable to keep up with local governments’ requests for improved transit projects in recent years. Now, all expansions for 2027 are on hold. 🚏 @tyolsen.bsky.social reports. #bcpoli

Kill the homeowner grant, fund transit. Kill the homeowner grant, fund transit. Kill the homeowner grant, fund transit. Kill the homeowner grant, fund transit.

thetyee.ca/News/2026/03... "And whereas the agency’s previous budget had predicted increasing operating expenses the following year, the new budget shows no operation increases in years to come." One year of no expansion is bad enough. Three years of no increases sets up a fiscal cliff.

Earlier today, TransLink released their Burrard Peninsula Area Transport Plan after a multi-year long process. www.translink.ca/-/media/tran... Some of my initial thoughts / hot takes to come.

How far can you get in 60 minutes? European cities offer vastly larger areas reachable by public transit than US cities of comparable population size. Source: lconwell.github.io/lucasconwell...

That "alternate mode" only polled 11% is indicative of a far broader issue, where most costs associated with car ownership are sunk costs and actual usage fees are so cheap. If you own a car, you're actively discouraged from switching to another mode because you're paying those sunk costs anyway.

If the Ford gov believes this change will “reduce gridlock” (it won’t!) why are they restricting it to off-peak hours? Totally nonsensical. www.thestar.com/news/gta/for...

“Roads are free, why shouldn’t transit be?” Well, tolls, parking fees, and gas taxes exist, even if they’re lower than they should be. Even if driving had zero fees, I’d still want to focus on improving transit service — its #1 weakness — over trying to “get even” with driving by being zero fee.

29 replacements that are so late that they're effectively expansion buses now (the buses they were meant to replace were scrapped 3 years ago). Except there aren't actually any service hours to go around to increase the number of buses that get sent out in service!

This conversation is only even happening because our politicians refuse to properly fund transit. Our municipal politicians do not even want to put up the minimum required budget to maintain existing service. Our provincial politicians chose to cut service hours outright.

For the 1st time in the 1st year of a presidential administration since at least 1993, under Trump 2, the Federal Transit Administration signed 0 new contracts for major transit projects, like subways or light rail. The US is facing a crisis of rail transit investment: www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...

Putting busways on existing streets are among most cost effective projects. 20% speed improvement = 20% ops savings or 20% frequency improvement at no ops cost. They're like printing cash

I love how after all this, the one BCT bus that crosses a time zone for half of the year and confuses everyone will continue to be the one BCT bus that crosses a time zone for half of the year and confuses everyone

Taipei has an extensive bike share network, with stands pretty much anywhere you'd need to go. The City also subsidizes the bike share such that it's **free** for the first 30 minutes. Once the cycling infra improves further, it'd be about as good a first mile last mile solution as you can get.

You've heard of bike share, have you heard of umbrella share? These are located basically at every Taipei Metro station. Very useful for anywhere that gets a lot of rain (hint hint).

Équiterre and several 🇨🇦 organizations denounce the federal government's $5 billion cut to public transit: "By cutting solutions that help people save on their travel, the government isn't helping households reduce their transportation costs" Press release: www.equiterre.org/en/articles/...

BCT had requested a 15k hour expansion for Vic to *maintain* service levels due to increasing congestion. In denying expansion, and actually cutting, the province has made clear that Transit isn't a core service and that they are fine with seeing service quality degrade. So much for Climate goals.

The 2026 Budget freezes transit funding and forces service cuts. Write your MLA and tell them to protect transit funding! At the minimum, the BC gov should allow local governments to make up for lost funding. #yyj #bcpoli bettertransityyj.ca/2026/02/17/2...

With a frozen operational budget for the next 3 fiscals, the Province had made clear in their budget that Transit to them is not a "core" service that needs to be protected. Frozen absolute dollar figure budgets are how fiscal cliffs are induced once inflationary pressures kick in.

Sorry, but this @nytimes.com op-ed on free fares in New York City, by @galvinalmanza.bsky.social, is deeply ignorant of the issues. It proposes that pretty social justice vibes and some careless citations will change facts of math. Thread: 1/ www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...

Even washrooms within stations are a rare luxury in NA. Meanwhile Tokyo Station has an entire mall *inside* the fare paid zone, complete with a whiskey bar as well as a distillery, and a few dozen dessert places offering so many tempting options that I absolutely cannot fit it all in my luggage.

Please fill this out. Don't force people going to Sidney to divert through the airport each time.

I suspect that the decline is actually due to this new network being far too transfer dependent in the name of reducing duplication. This also explains why night/weekend ridership has tanked (almost half!) given those have much less service so the transfer penalty becomes that much more painful.

The survey waters down this risk to virtually nonexistence: It's obvious that existing users of the 72 in Sidney will be adversely affected. What's not obvious though, is that the **70** will also end up getting bricked at the same time.

BC Transit is looking for your input on service to the airport. Take the survey, or chat with them in person. We encourage you to tell transit to fix overcrowding and improve frequencies on important routes before investing into airport service. #yyj #bctransit engage.bctransit.com/victoria-air...

Not surprising from a government that also chose to *remove* an existing bus lane while under construction for another transit infrastructure project. You can say "short term pain for long term gain" but this really speaks to how the priority is to ribbon cut more than it is to make transit better.

the exact same arguments i heard against bus lanes in toronto repeat themselves in vancouver: ✅ "i want better transit, BUT..." ✅ "businesses die without street parking" (despite an abundance of off street parking) ✅ bus lane turns car sewer into an "unsafe highway" ✅ "accessibility worsens"

Congestion pricing has improved commute times, bus speeds, noise levels, traffic safety, and businesses and restaurants have seen more profits. A runway success by any measure. And a model for other cities too. Gift 🎁 link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Call it decongestion pricing. 27 Million Fewer Car Trips: Life After a Year of Congestion Pricing www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... "Not wanting to increase costs to residents, [Mayor] Harrison said the city is waiting for provincial funding before expanding transit services and buying more buses." It's disingenuous takes like this from electeds that are hindering transit expansion altogether.

Savings from transit priority measures created the 80. It's been so successful that it's now being expanded to operate at more times of day. Transit priority is important! It can very well kick off the ridership feedback loop where better service induces more ridership, justifying more expansion.

The Lions Gate Bridge bus queue jump is beautiful and anxiety-inducing at the same time

Hot take: The transit in Vancouver has lower frequency, shorter span of service, and frequent trip cancellations. The bike share system has paltry coverage, dated technology, and absurd pricing Toronto's sheer frequency, availability, and coverage of its transport systems makes it far superior.

Road diets and traffic calming necessarily slows down transit vehicles running in mixed traffic too. And that's a perfectly fine, if unfortunate, tradeoff. Where it becomes a real issue is if transit isn't given the investment to help counteract those tradeoffs -- which is now a very common problem

The so called King Street Priority Corridor on a Saturday night

There's a lot of good news in this quarter's service changes, but perhaps the most exciting is mid-day service on the 80, which provides an essential link from the River District to the Canada Line, and also relieves the overcrowded 100 on Marine Drive! www.translink.ca/servicechang...

Overly cute bus stops generate Vehicle Miles Traveled from tourists. Design bus stops to attract and protect bus customers.

It's been 509 days since @christineboyle.bsky.social 's bus lane motion passed in Vancouver. Maybe 365 additional days since the previous ABC one did. Do we have anything to show for it? Nope. Nothing. Dude where's our bus lanes? 🚍🤷

Imagine the dignity of having a publicly-run bus company offering service like this on Vancouver-Kamloops-Prince George-Prince Rupert (on the Highway of Tears) and Vancouver-Kelowna-Nelson? It is far cheaper than you think and it could be up and running in a year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXyv...

The thing to remember is that the critics of the LRTs when they were proposed took issues with the original run time of 33 minutes, even the most critical opponents would never have believed that the run time would end up in the 50 minute plus time