Urban Tech Links: UTL: Search results for Alberta

Alberta and Washington State have been able to do so much more simply, because they aren't restricted & confounded by anything like the BC Mind Virus (BCMV).

Alberta-BC oil pipeline

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-alberta-canada-new-oil-pipeline-agreement

BC has been so reluctant to bend over and accept the big pipe from Alberta.

Alberta pitches new West Coast oil pipeline to B.C.'s South Coast https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/livestory/energy-proposal-ab-bc-west-coast-july-2-live-updates-9.7251535 Albeta pitches and BC is expected to catch.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/agreement-between-bc-and-ottawa-supports-new-alberta-pipeline/

Its not Butman, but Bitumen, but BC is expected to ben over and submit to it.

https://www.bigwestcountry.ca/2026/07/02/alberta-pitches-new-bitumen-pipeline-to-b-c-coast-with-tmx-pembina-partners/

https://www.alberta.ca/west-coast-oil-pipeline

Despite its size, Canada has less than 1% of the worlds population. BC has yet to have as many people as 1 Switzerland. Yet, the area of Switzerland can fit into BC 23 times.

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Delta council calls for third-party to dig into Fraser River Tunnel project

https://www.delta-optimist.com/local-news/delta-council-calls-for-third-party-to-dig-into-fraser-river-tunnel-project-12430212

Perhaps Alberta might have to leave Canada, just because its right beside backwards and inept BC. Fortunately, the BC Mind Virus (BCMV) hasn't seemed to have messed up Alberta and Washington State, so far.

Friday, May 29, 2026

The Houston Galleria and Galleria Dallas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Galleria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galleria_Dallas

Texas is a place where thinking BIG has been going strong for almost a century.

By the year 1900, NYC had to start thinking and building on a big-city scale, simply out of necessity.

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/03/11/nyc-big-apple

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Apple

In contrast, backwater BC has a tough time keeping up with Alberta and Washington State. Especially with Ontario and Quebec. BC is 75% mountainous and has a seawater barrier on its west side. Still, its almost as if some people would like to have a wall around BC, or even a forcefield like out of Star Trek.

Keeping things small and backwards in BC whenever possible seems to be part of a multigenerational symbolic agenda.

Its as if there is something like a BC Mind Virus (BCMV).

Texas has more people than Australia and California has more people than Canada. Despite its overall size, Canada has less than 1% of the worlds population.

Singapore is on an island that's smaller than all of NYC or Chicago, even. Yet, it has proper big-city trains, bridges, roads and buildings.

Friday, May 15, 2026

Ottawa and Alberta agree on pipeline construction timeline

https://globalnews.ca/news/11851090/mark-carney-danielle-smith-energy-deal/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-smith-energy-announcement-mou-9.7200652

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/ottawa-plans-to-greenlight-alberta-oil-pipeline-construction-by-fall-2027-no-private-proponent-yet/

The AI boom sidelined sustainability and has caused data center safety concerns

https://fortune.com/2026/05/14/anthropics-spacex-compute-deal-comes-as-ai-data-center-backlash-grows-fueled-by-both-real-grievances-and-conspiracy-theories/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx

The carbon and water footprints of data centers and what this could mean for artificial intelligence https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666389925002788

https://opportunitygreen.org/data-centres/reports/data-centres-threaten-energy-systems-climate-goals

https://www.wri.org/insights/us-data-center-growth-impacts

https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/land-water-impacts-data-centers/

https://ucalgary.ca/sustainability/mobilizing-alberta/climate-action-blogs/will-ai-data-centres-raise-water-and-power-use-alberta Since Canada is cold for half of the year, its amazing that there aren't more AI data centers.

https://www.siemens.com/en-us/industries/data-centers/cooling-infrastructure-ai-optimization

https://www.eli.org/vibrant-environment-blog/ais-cooling-problem-how-data-centers-are-transforming-water-use

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Just mostly more stumps or some real Towers in Vancouver?

https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/opinion-the-yiyby-critique-bilsker

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/the-stack/35667 Only 38 floors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) Just 37 stories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Center Seattle's tallest has 76 stories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Canal_Bridge 12 lanes consisting of three 4 lane sections.

Mostly short buildings, short trains and narrow bridges are all part of the imposed symbolism to keep Vancouver small and backwards.

While Seattle had its first 50 story office tower in 1969 and Calgary in 1984, stubborn Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have a 40th floor.

A 30-35 story office tower would be impressive if it was in Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George. However, what's impressive in backwards Vancouver & backwater BC isn't impressive in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Washington State, Victoria State, NSW, Queensland & WA...

Stumpy buildings, short trains and narrow bridges makes for the Vancouver trifecta of B$ city planning.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+McMurray,+AB 10 lanes. Only the TCH bridge between Surrey and Coquitlam in BC has been allowed to have as many lanes as this. Some people still wish that everything could have remained funneled into just 2 or 3 lanes each way.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Quesnell+Bridge 8 lanes in Edmonton.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge 6 lanes.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 10 lanes.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 8 lanes.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lethbridge,+AB It has 6 lanes. Being from backwards Vancouver, its amazing that this 6 lane bridge wasn't funneled into just 2 lanes each way. That's what happened with the Knight_Street_Bridge.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge As a 5 lane TCH crossing, it only has 1 less lane than the 6 lane Iron Bridge in congested, backwards Vancouver. Since Alberta isn't under anything like the imposed BC restrictions, this crossing will likely be eventually upgraded to have 6 lanes, plus 2 wide emergency lanes & 2 wide shoulders that could provide 4 lanes each way, some day.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A TCH bridge with 9 lanes, because no one from narrow-minded Vancouver was able to get them to narrow this crossing. The TCH Iron Bridge in Vancouver just has 6 lanes. No bus and LRT bridge has ever been built next to it, so far.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A 6 lane crossing.

As of 2026, congested Vancouver only allows 2 bridges to have 6 lanes. A total of 5 lanes were removed from 3 Vancouver bridges. Had Vancouver built a series of proper bus and bike bridges, no lanes would have been removed.

Despite NW trying to be one of the smallest cities in BC, Surrey is set to become the biggest city in BC. Fortunately, small NW & backwards Vancouver can't stop that from happening. However, narrowminded NW was able to force a narrower new bridge to Surrey.

This bridge-replacement is one of the best examples of BC bottleneck-chokepoint planning today.

McBride_Blvd. and Royal_Ave_in_New_Westminster are mostly 4 lane corridors.

King_George_Boulevard and Scott_Road both are at least 4 lanes wide. One might think that the new bridge should have had 10 lanes, or at least 8 lanes, because two 4 lane boulevards, a 4 lane avenue and a 4 lane road, are all funneled into a bridge that opened with only 2 lanes each way. The old bridge that it replaced was also a 4 lane crossing. A congestive approach to transportation planning is the name of the game in backwards B.C.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Stalewasem_Bridge_%282026-03%29.jpg/960px-Stalewasem_Bridge_%282026-03%29.jpg

At the very least, this new 4 lane bridge should have had enough room for 2 wide emergency lanes, 2 wide shoulders and especially, 2 bus lanes. There should have been a provision for a lower deck for LRT, bus and truck lanes, given that this is supposed to be a seaport region.

The narrowmindedness planning by Greater Vancouver to still have mostly narrow crossings, has made it very difficult to implement a proper regional express bus network, let alone BRT.

The first 2 Skytrain lines only have station lengths that can barely accommodate the new 5 car trains. The YVR Line or the C Line, has stations than can only accommodate a 2.5 car train, some day. Given that the Skytrain network is a multibillion dollar transit system, all of the stations should have been designed to gradually accommodate 8-10 car trains, but that's what a proper big city would do.

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/05/02/expo-86-40-years-later-the-memories-live-on

Four decades later and Greater Vancouver remains so far behind with the scale of its infrastructure.

Monday, April 13, 2026

Quebec

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_sovereignty_movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec#Economy Canada should have become a commonwealth of independent states similar to Australia. However, since Canada is right next to the US of America, some thought that it might be too confusing. Alberta as well as Quebec, should become fully recognized states within Canada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia

Alberta

The Alberta Secession Movement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LiCuWV2D9g

Alberta within Canada should have become something like a commonwealth independent state similar to Australia. However, since Canada is right next to the USA, some thought that it might be too confusing, back in the day. As each provincial district wants to become more like an independent state within Canada, that should become possible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia#States

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Surrey should have more night-bus routes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Translink/comments/1rop925/thoughts_on_yvr_movenments_idea_of_making_surrey

Alberta has two cities with over a million people each, those being Calgary and Edmonton.

Vancouver has never had 1 million residents, but the Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District has well over 3 million people.

Victoria,_British_Columbia has yet to reach 100K, but the Capital_Regional_District is getting close to half a million.

Surrey has almost 3 quarters of a million people and is expected to be the first city in BC to eventually have a million residents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey,_British_Columbia#Current_transportation_network

Surrey like Burnaby, will eventually have some of the tallest buildings in BC, that's because they aren't under the extreme height restrictions that Vancouver has.

https://www.surrey.ca/about-surrey

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=2&status=15 Surrey

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15 BC

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15 Canada