The 2016 Pro Walk Pro Bike Pro Place conference happened in Vancouver, BC from September 12 to 15 and I thought it might be interesting to pass on a few highlights. With an event program the size of a heftier magazine and held in conjunction with the Project for Public Spaces and Placemaking Week, the conference felt somewhat like the… Read more »
There is no greater gift than having a deep connection to the work you do all day. And it’s exactly that kind of connection that I heard from Winnipeg Transit’s Manager of Service Development’s Björn Rådström when I asked him about his job recently: “I don’t believe in the importance of transit because I work at a transit system,” said… Read more »
“Okay,” I say looking over at my construction partner, “you ready?” “Ready,” she says, giving her safety glasses one last nudge and shifting the electric jigsaw in her grip. She is determined. She is capable. And she is six years old. And just like that, she pulls the saw trigger, the blade whirs as we both help guide it, and… Read more »
Our daily lives are increasingly multimodal when it comes to how we get around. How might we shape our Census to better track how we are mixing and matching our transportation choices? This past weekend I sat down at our kitchen table and discovered that I had come out ahead in two uniquely Canadian games of chance*: Against all odds,… Read more »
This article was published in Planning West magazine, Volume 58, Number 2 (Spring 2016), and is reprinted here with permission from the Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC), all rights reserved. Since Planning West is a professional planning publication, the article was written with that audience primarily in mind, one planner to another as it were. However, I still want… Read more »
This post started out as a reserved and detailed analysis of the 2016 Canadian federal budget through the lenses of mobility and place. And then I took a break from writing and went out with my five-year-old son to practice riding his bike. And that’s when this post changed. On the fringe of downtown, our relatively quiet neighbourhood exists as… Read more »
The other day I wasn’t just walking through the city, I was stomping. My mind was a swirl of angry thoughts and I was moving fast across the pavement. I was completely focused inside my head and paying exactly zero attention to the world around me. Not the gathering dusk or other people or the buildings. They were technically in… Read more »
I recently had the excellent opportunity to participate in a workshop hosted by the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia (REFBC). Called “Accelerating Progress Towards a Sustainable Built Environment,” the workshop was geared at figuring out which actions should be our united priorities when it comes making our communities more sustainable. I’ve been to many other events that showcase sustainability… Read more »
It’s been a very busy few weeks here at Connecting Dots… and I wanted to follow up on a few threads. Three Minute Math There’s been lots of great comments and discussion on the post about the “just three minute” requests that make transit planners twitchy. Much thanks to all who have read the post, shared it and added their… Read more »
I was interested to see TransLink’s announcement last week that the organization has hired a new CEO, Kevin Desmond. Currently the General Manager for Seattle’s King County Metro Transit, Kevin is set to take on the Vancouver area’s top transportation job on March 21, 2016. The announcement of Kevin’s hiring got me thinking about what I would tell him if… Read more »
The results of today’s vote are in. Residents and property owners on Gabriola, Mudge and De Courcey Islands have said a resounding “Yes!” to their community bus GERTIE and transit in their community. As reported previously in the post Taking GERTIE to the Polls, Islanders were voting today on whether to fund Gabriola’s pilot community bus system on an ongoing… Read more »