UTL is about exploring past, present and future urban technologies in science and fiction, etc...
Thursday, January 16, 2020
TCH in Greater Vancouver, BC vs. Montreal
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Canada's Rail Network
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/via-rail-on-time-performance-1.7374337
https://www.viarail.ca/en/explore-our-destinations/trains
Is Canada's Getting High-Speed Rail? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pMIDqGMP0A
https://cnebusiness.geomapguide.ca/?map=TL&lang=en
Japan & Switzerland have great population density & excellent intercity train service. Just because Canada is a vast, underpopulated country, there should have been a long term, 4 track intercity linking plan. 6-8 tracks in the larger cities. Almost every major city eventually being connected with at least 1 freight track & 1 passenger track, each way. Plus, an east-west high-speed line to almost or sort-of compete with air travel.
What Canadian high speed rail could look like — if it ever happens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXOKVIokp-Q
Even when the railroads were first built in Canada, there should have been 2 tracks on all the main lines. Thus, any bridge & tunnel should have been wide enough to immediately or gradually accomodate 2 sets of tracks.
The TCH has just been a 2 lane country road for most of its history, so far. At least its better than a waggon road. Of course in the cities, its more like a modern highway. https://tc.canada.ca/en/corporate-services/policies/trans-canada-highway-map
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
West Georgia Street in Vancouver
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/west-georgia-street-rush-hour-vancouver-bc--72550243987409307
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-north-vancouver-west-vancouver-north-shore
The Lions+Gate+Bridge is a classic 3 lane bottleneck, or the quintessential urban chokepoint. The LGB could become an excellent foot, bus & bike bridge, if only a tunnel could be built close to it.
Five-blocks east of the park, Georgia Street is continually seven lanes wide.
https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/west-georgia-complete-street.aspx
While that segment of W. Georgia_Street is 7 lanes wide, an 8 lane tunnel could cross the 1st Narrows. A 7 lane tunnel might be a little cheaper with a middle centre lane section & barrier, two 4 lane compartments would be much better. During the morning, all 4 lanes could be heading into Vancouver with 1 as a HOV lane. Then, during the afternoon, all 4 northbound lanes would be open with the 4th being a HOV lane.
The 4 lane northbound tunnel could emerge just north of the LGB. Then the surface route could connect to Marine Drive and then turn onto Capilano Road. The Cap interchange is already there. Simply moving the yellow line over one lane would allow 3 lanes of northbound traffic on Capilano Road.
A reconfigured TCH & Taylor Way interchange could allow for 3 southbound lanes right down to the mall, simply by moving the yellow line over 1 lane. Then, a 3 lane Taylor Way southbound tunnel could start just south of the Marine Drive intersection. A southbound HOV lane would have to be routed into it.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/this-week-in-history-the-great-georgia-harris-viaduct-opens-in-1915 Aparently, no one bothered to make sure that the 4 lane structure could properly support streetcars. Thus, the inept city couldn't use it as a major east-west streetcar route.
https://spacing.ca/vancouver/2011/06/16/the-viaducts-past-present-and-future-part-1 Even in the 1970s there was no concept to have an express bus corridor betwen Vancouver, Burnaby & Coquitlam.
https://viewpointvancouver.ca/2015/01/13/john-mackie-the-georgia-viaduct-and-the-freeway-fight-1972
Then when the first 2 SkyTrain lines were built, the stations were barely half the length of the 152.5 meter Montreal Metro stations. Evidently, this was to save money, but the stations should have still been built to proper big city standards. Then to further reinforce the symbolism of congestive planning agenda, the 3rd line only has enough clearance for 50 meter stations.
Sydney started to have taller buildings than Vancouver by the early 1960s. https://ca.pinterest.com/pin/west-georgia-street-1960--497647827546801125 It took until the end of the 1960s for Melbourne to start having taller buildings than Vancouver. Then as Melbourne soared into the 1970s, Vancouver started to create a series of overlapping restrictions to thwart the city.
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/british-columbia-vancouver-skyline-1970s-with-possible-building-site-of-west-coast-transmission-building--716424253196467928 Despite being a Pacific city, Vancouver & Canada don't seem to be interested in having a proper metropolis on the scale of Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane. The tallest buildings in Vancouver must be shorter than even the tallest in Perth, Seattle & Calgary. Most of the roads & bridges are to be half the width & the trains are also to be a half-length joke. Thus, Greater Vancouver has been in a perpetual state of congestion.
Thursday, April 3, 2025
The BC Coquihalla Highway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Highway_5#Accidents_and_weather
https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/canada/4008-coquihalla-highway.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Highway_5
https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/380.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Highway_5#Coquihalla_Highway
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/coquihalla-highway
https://transcanadahighway.com/british-columbia/bc-tch-history/highway-history-coquihalla-highway-5
https://www.wilsonvilletoyota.com/blog/uncategorized/10-most-treacherous-roads-in-north-america/
Friday, December 13, 2024
City of North Vancouver Top’s List of Canada’s Liveable Cities in 2024
There is North_Vancouver_(city) and then there is North_Vancouver_(district_municipality).
https://dailyhive.com/canada/canada-most-liveable-cities-ranking-2024
As long as you have everything you need on the North Shore, you are fine. Otherwise, you will be punished for using the inadequate The+Lion+Bridge+and+The+Iron+Bridge.
https://www.upperlonsdale.ca/blog/87130/north-vancouver-ranked-1-in-canada
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/article-canada-most-livable-city-north-vancouver/
Unfortunatly, transportation planners haven't seen a need to link Horseshoe Bay and Park Royal with downtown Vancouver. Indeed, a direct LRT connection from the North_Shore_of Greater_Vancouver to YVR might as well be part of a Sci-Fi story. However, multigenerational congestive planning in Vancouver is a harsh reality.
A 3 lane Lion Bridge never had any bus tunnels & especially an LRT line built far under it. The bridge is too narrow to accommodate one, let alone 2 proper bus lanes. This is the finest in BC bottleneck stagnation planning.
The Iron_Bridge was built too narrow for an urban TCH crossing. Unfortunatly, no one planned or designed it to eventually have a lower deck for buses, trains & trucks.
https://www.cnv.org/streets-transportation/travel-options/transit A bus and truck bridge should have been built next to the Iron Bridge, decades ago. Why do that, when you can cram everything into just 3 lanes each way?
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/rapid-transit-projects/bus-rapid-transit
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/north-shore-skytrain-burrard-inlet-rapid-transit-brt-lrt-study
https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/opinion-lrt-remains-the-best-option-for-north-shore-rapid-transit-9643033 Of course a train would be able to move many more people efficiently.