Mark (he/him)

Row from a spreadsheet that lists the motion 'Taking Urgent Action to Boost Street Capacity and Speed Up Transit Service for Vancouverites' with the recommendation 'Postpone - staff recommends that work be completed on the first five bus corridors, before initiating signifiant work on next four.' The final column lists rational 'Reprioritisation of staff resources, advisability of evaluating outcomes of the first five corridors before investing in work on the next four corridors'

Motion text which outlines the 9 approved bus lane routes. The first five are Granville Street, Southeast Marine Drive, 49th Avenue, Hastings Street, and Main Street/Kingsway. The additional 4 are Broadway, King Edward, West 4th, and Downtown to the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge

BUS LANES: There were 9 bus lane corridors promised in this unanimously passed motion from @christineboyle.bsky.social back in summer 2024, with implementation at a rate of at least 2 corridors per year. New recommendation is to postpone 4 of these (which we'll note are already off schedule)

(2/5)

Hey, congrats!

on top of that the biking experience to yaletown is adequate but could be substantially improved (my vote is extending the Helmcken bikeway and building a bike parkade at yaletown-roundhouse)

re: traffic, I think there's actually 3 distinct issues:
1. Yaletown is severed by Pacific (can be somewhat mitigated)
2. Mainland/Hamilton aren't pedestrianized and have an obnoxious level of general purpose travel
3. General background traffic on other major streets (eh, is what it is)

The seismic risk you have to design for in Kelowna is already significantly lower than it is for Vancouver! (for what should be obvious reasons)

My testimony on codes and standards is quoted in a Canadian House of Commons report: "He warned against emulating the US models, stating: 'if you continue to emulate American models, you’ll end up with American outcomes.'" (From 2024! I was ahead of my time.) www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Comm...

Any chance you've still got that article about how the James Bay zoning in Victoria was motivated by the west end 'failure' saved somewhere?

Trying something to help visualize land usage per household (which I think is one of the most useful ways to think about cities)

So-called “inclusionary zoning” acts as a tax on new housing by requiring home builders to sell or rent a %age of the new homes at a loss.

Without funding, IZ only “works” when the market price of new housing is significantly higher than construction costs.

I am glad to see Oregon rolling it back.

Looks gorgeous outside despite the pouring rain

Even our sprawly cities have distinct (albeit expanding) boundaries, and the new sprawl is just denser in general

bsky.app/profile/mark...

A focus on process over outcome is why rent is too high and why my family and I can’t get ahead. We badly need hotel spaces to grow our economy and siting them near major tourist attractions just makes sense.

I think this is a pretty good reason to have nothing to do with @kareem42.bsky.social and the "Vancouver Liberals"; they're NIMBYing new hotels using completely BS concerns about parks

As an aside I enjoy how every time I see this picture, my brain initially thinks it's a Lego product

reading Theory

Breaking: Swedish Maritime Agency Awards Icebreaker Contract to Hyundai Heavy Industries The decision, first reported by Tekniikka&Talous, has been appealed by Davie/Helsinki Shipyard

I think this example is comparable: sixtydegreesnorth.substack.com/p/breaking-s...

Why the U.S. Can’t Build Icebreaking Ships I want to say thank you to all the people who sent condolences following last week’s post, especially those who shared their own stories of loss.

www.construction-physics.com/p/why-the-us...

The 'Silicon Valley' of Icebreaking Let's take a quick tour through Finland's shipbuilding ecosystem by following the virtual footsteps of a visiting U.S. delegation.

A lot less

sixtydegreesnorth.substack.com/p/the-silico...

Statscan must have talked to their national building code colleagues and figured that our population is getting wiped out in the next earthquake

“We fall behind by standing still”: Transit riders warn provincial transit cuts set up fiscal cliff February 17th, Victoria BC Transit advocates are warning that proposed BC Transit funding cuts tee up a disastrous scenario for transit services across the province. Budget 2026, released Feb 17th,…

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...

A modern, glass-enclosed transit shelter illuminated at night, with an escalator visible inside. Snow covers the ground, and a bench and a green trash bin are placed outside the structure.

An escalator descends into a transit station enclosed by a glass and yellow framework. The scene is illuminated with artificial lighting, while snow is visible outside along with vehicles passing by.

My favourite TTC subway entrance. The 1978 Mid-century Expressionist Dupont Station in #Toronto by Dunlop-Farrow Architects.

Also crazy you need a rezoning to go from 0.4 to 0.44 FSR to slightly extend your house

"The District is prohibited from holding a public hearing on this rezoning application pursuant to section 464(3) of the Local Government Act"

You love to see it, folks!

CanViz is super cool, great work @jensvb.bsky.social

canviz.mountainmath.ca

Expanding a bit, if you had to explain what a kilo vs a Newton is to a 10 year old, the explanation for the Newton (it's how heavily something *feels*) is also the more intuitive one! Explaining the kilo accurately is harder and is often done by lying. Makes sense to use weight in everyday life!

Like we talk about the Mars rover crashing because of unit conversions, but I'm sure there's been some kind of collapse because someone absentmindedly divided by 9.81 rather than multiplied.

I'm a shill for SI, inc. celcius, but the fact that the imperial system uses pounds/kips for both engineering and everyday applications seems genuinely handy though. Sorta like if everyone in the rest of the world measured their own weight in Newtons and not kgs.

(from last sunday)

And you were telling me the other day that you thought Cypress should be de-signed!