https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce_Tower_(Sydney)
UTL is about exploring past, present and future urban technologies in science and fiction, etc...
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Saturday, January 7, 2023
99 B Line to UBC, but no train
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/vancouver-weather-99-b-line-ubc-bus-translink-6327272
https://www.broadwaysubway.ca/arbutus-station-image-gallery/
https://www.broadwaysubway.ca/about/stations/
A train to UBC is expected to be completed well before the next millennium.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=UBC-Broadway+Corridor
Saturday, December 31, 2022
from nauru-house to 80-collins-street-in Melbourne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru_House
https://www.facebook.com/120943481324886/photos/a.512123662206864/1719454298140455/?type=3&theater
https://slattery.com.au/portfolio/80-collins-street-north-tower/
https://mw-arch.com.au/?page_id=453 , https://mw-arch.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/section5.jpg
https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3406
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=18&status=15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Melbourne#Overall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Melbourne#Tallest_buildings_by_function
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Melbourne#Future_skyscrapers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne
Quay Quarter Tower, Sydney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quay_Quarter_Tower
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=290
https://www.quayquartersydney.com.au/quay-quarter-tower
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/australia-quay-quarter-tower-skyscraper/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMP_Building,_Sydney
80-collins-street, melbourne
AT 216 METRES TALL, 80 COLLINS STREET BOASTS PANORAMIC VIEWS ACROSS MELBOURNE.
https://www.capacity-building.com.au/case-study/80-collins-street
https://storeyofmelbourne.org/2022/03/28/80-collins-ex-nauru-house/
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/complex/3257
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=18&status=15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Melbourne#Tallest_buildings_by_function
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Melbourne#Future_skyscrapers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne#Urban_structure
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
waldorf astoria in nyc
https://www.som.com/projects/waldorf-astoria/
https://www.designboom.com/architecture/waldorf-astoria-new-york-som-plans-renaissance-06-17-2021/
https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-09-25/the-secrets-of-the-waldorf-astoria-hotel
https://www.geographicguide.com/united-states/nyc/antique/hotels/waldorf-astoria/waldorf-astoria.htm
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Monday, December 12, 2022
Amsterdam
Everything About Toronto's MASSIVE Transit Transformation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufgQdU5DUI8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Line , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJbi11dv64A , https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/ontario-line
The Toronto S-Bahn? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOXAY3rPzk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvwmiSU7zLY srt line in Toronto
Why Subways in the US are Set Up to Fail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk1vlKVdE9M
SF BART looks to fill its budget shortfall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWBCUaFr95U
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Evolution of Traffic (1890s ~ 2020s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RSy1QkAPSc
53 BEFORE AND AFTER photographs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X87W0JT5gc
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
SF Muni Metro
Muni Metro served an average of 157,700 passengers per weekday in the fourth quarter of 2019, making it the second-busiest light rail system in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muni_Metro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_light_rail_systems_by_ridership#List
federal-funding-boost-for-BART-silicon-valley-extension
https://www.railjournal.com/financial/federal-funding-boost-for-bart-silicon-valley-extension/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_BART_extension
https://www.bart.gov/about/projects https://www.bart.gov/about/projects/corecapacity
https://www.bart.gov/system-map https://www.bart.gov/about/projects/cars
"With an average of 136,200 weekday passengers as of the second quarter of 2022 and 26,026,800 annual passengers in 2021, BART is the fifth-busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United States." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit_rolling_stock#A_and_B_series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_rapid_transit_systems_by_ridership
SF
Monday, December 5, 2022
Saturday, December 3, 2022
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Tallest buildings in Honolulu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Honolulu
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=421&searchname=timeline
https://bjornandannette.wordpress.com/hawaii/hon-highrise-1
https://www.de-simone.com/projects/project/ko_olani-tower 47 stories.
The tallest building on the island, 801 South Street A is 450 ft.
https://skyrisecities.com/database/projects/801-south-street
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=100895
Monday, November 28, 2022
Friday, November 18, 2022
Montreal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal
Hopefully, Montreal will never become Vancouverized & turned into a backwater mess. Vancouver is a watered down city that never wants to reach its full potential. So while Montreal is small when compared to Melbourne & Toronto, at least its not stuck in a Vancouver like trap.
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Quebec
https://www.renewcanada.net/study-launched-new-quebec-city-levis-link/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-third-link-tramway-1.6029933 The 6 lane tunnel option.
"Legault’s original proposal for a six-lane, $10-billion tunnel was downsized to a four-lane tunnel with two of those lanes reserved for public transit during rush hours. He said he would leave it to the studies’ recommendations on how to divide the tunnel." https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/final-say-on-quebec-levis-tunnel-will-be-political-decision-legault-insists
streets, roads and highways
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
bridges
"Last fall, the government announced plans to replace the eastbound bridge, widen the westbound bridge and build a new, stand-alone pedestrian bridge over the Bow River in southeast Calgary.
The project will boost the number of lanes to four in each direction — currently the eastbound crossing has two lanes, while the westbound has three." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/pcl-construction-stoney-trail-bridge-calgary-bow-river-contract-1.5866403 Jan 08, 2021
https://globalnews.ca/video/7304951/corrosion-leads-to-lane-closure-on-calgarys-5-ave-flyover
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Alberta
https://westringroad.ca/north-project/trans-canada-highway-improvements , https://westringroad.ca/photos-videos/
https://www.alberta.ca/south-bow-river-bridge.aspx
https://www.aecon.com/our-projects/current/bow-river-bridge-twinning-project
https://engage.calgary.ca/greenline/bowbridge
https://www.renewcanada.net/5000088473-2/ edmonton
https://www.renewcanada.net/edmonton-preparing-valley-line-west-lrt-rfq/
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
cities
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=cities
https://the-loaf-etc.blogspot.com/search?q=cities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census_metropolitan_areas_and_agglomerations_in_Canada#List
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-cities-amalgamation-support
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_cities_by_population#List
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
How the NYC Subway Works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgTKTs33NLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x_1pqfTDe0
The Interborough Express would fill a huge gap in the city’s transit needs.
Friday, October 21, 2022
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Monday, October 17, 2022
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Saturday, October 8, 2022
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Monday, September 19, 2022
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
SF BART
For as long as the Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s trains have screeched across the region, a feeling has lingered among its loyal and would-be riders that the transit service could be so much more.
It was initially envisioned as a system that would reach across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Wine Country while also stretching into the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. BART, however, has never quite lived up to the designs of its original muses — despite being, perhaps, the most influential manufactured system in the region.
The pandemic didn’t help matters. BART ridership numbers dropped off a cliff after March 2020, and a prominent bond rating company recently warned that BART and other U.S. transit systems heavily reliant on fares are “expected to face sizable budget gaps” in years to come.
For as long as the Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s trains have screeched across the region, a feeling has lingered among its loyal and would-be riders that the transit service could be so much more.
It was initially envisioned as a system that would reach across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Wine Country while also stretching into the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. BART, however, has never quite lived up to the designs of its original muses — despite being, perhaps, the most influential manufactured system in the region.
The pandemic didn’t help matters. BART ridership numbers dropped off a cliff after March 2020, and a prominent bond rating company recently warned that BART and other U.S. transit systems heavily reliant on fares are “expected to face sizable budget gaps” in years to come.
I’s not just the stuff of dreams. Numerous studies and reports published throughout its first 50 years tease at this potential idealistic future for BART and its riders. But even as BART continues to plan for future expansion, achieving some version of that vision has never felt more tenuous than it does on the 50th birthday of the region’s most popular rail system.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic spiraled BART toward an uncertain future on many fronts.
Today, roughly 38% of BART’s pre-pandemic ridership has returned since April 2020, when it cratered to just 6%. The historic drop in ridership brought more urgent questions to the forefront about how BART will financially recover from a pandemic that has severely undercut fares, BART’s main pre-COVID revenue source, and how the system will reinvent itself.
Then there’s the lesson of history that many plans for expansion and development of the BART system materialized in times of unprecedented growth in ridership.
It means forecasts about the future remain muddy, more than two years out from the pandemic, and a firm picture of what the region’s new transportation patterns will be in a post-pandemic world have yet to fully come into sharp relief.
“Our role in the region is evolving,” Val Menotti, BART’s chief planning and development officer, said. “On remote work, we know that will be part of our future. But at what level, to me, it’s not clear, and it may not be clear for a couple of years.”
Still, even in these trying times, the region’s planners and transportation leaders view BART as an important linchpin that better connects the Bay Area’s disconnected rail and bus transit networks together to build a future “world-class rail system.”
Once-in-a-generation expansion projects, such as BART’s extension to Silicon Valley, are under way. The four-station expansion will take riders deep underground to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, at an estimated cost of $9.8 billion, when it tentatively opens at the end of this decade.
The pandemic also hasn’t stopped BART from planning for its second Transbay Tube. The transformational project, if realized, could create a new BART line and boost its capacity to transport people across the bay while better connecting the fragmented rail networks in the Northern California “megaregion.” It’s an issue that reached a critical point in 2016 when ridership peaked at all-time highs...
e-in-a-generation expansion projects, such as BART’s extension to Silicon Valley, are under way. The four-station expansion will take riders deep underground to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, at an estimated cost of $9.8 billion, when it tentatively opens at the end of this decade.
The pandemic also hasn’t stopped BART from planning for its second Transbay Tube. The transformational project, if realized, could create a new BART line and boost its capacity to transport people across the bay while better connecting the fragmented rail networks in the Northern California “megaregion.” It’s an issue that reached a critical point in 2016 when ridership peaked at all-time highs. Few, if any, meaningful details have been decided in that project, which has a placeholder completion date of 2040.
But pandemic or no pandemic, the extraordinary costs of building rail expansions in the Bay Area and the region’s dismal track record in delivering on these sorts of massive projects on time and under budget is key to why many of these plans remain pie in the sky.
It will have taken almost half a century for BART’s Silicon Valley extension to reach conception to completion. The second Transbay Tube will have taken longer and will require BART and the Bay Area’s patchwork of local governments to raise the tens of billions in funding it needs to become reality. //www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/bart-future-17428345.php
https://sf.streetsblog.org/2022/09/28/eyes-on-the-future-of-caltrain/
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
second-transbay-tube-takes-another-step-toward-reality-with-a-goal-of-completion-in-2040
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Thursday, September 1, 2022
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Monday, July 18, 2022
Sunday, July 17, 2022
Friday, July 15, 2022
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore)#Rolling_stock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore)#Network_and_infrastructure
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Singapore_MRT_and_LRT_rolling_stock#Future
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore)#Future_expansion
new Canada line station in Richmond
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-line-richmond
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/rapid-transit-projects/capstan-station
The Hyundai Rotem cars are 3 m (9 ft 10+1⁄8 in) in width and 20 m (65 ft 7+3⁄8 in) in length. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_rolling_stock#Canada_Line_fleet
https://www.youtube.com/c/TransLinkBC/videos
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/rapid-transit-projects
SkyTrain (Greater Vancouver) Network
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)#Network
The SkyTrain+bridges could have been designed to be proper multimodal crossings. Unfortunately, the BC way is to provide a half-assed attempt.
The Skybridge between NW & Surrey is one of the worlds best examples of inept urban planning. No foot & bike paths & especially, no bus lanes. Fortunately, the backward BC mentality wasn't able to reach & prevent Oregon from building the fantastic Tilikum_Crossing.
The first 2 SkyTrain bridges should have been designed to accommodate at least 3 tracks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)#/media/File:Vancouver_Skytrain_and_Seabus_Map.svg
The first 2 SkyTrain bridges also should have had a foot & bike path on both sides.
Unfortunately, the North_Arm_Bridge for the Canada Line was also designed to not have at least 3 tracks & 2 bus lanes. There is only one combined foot & bike path, when there should have been 2. Fortunately, the Tilikum_Crossing's_Design allowed for 2 types of rail systems, bus access, with bike & footpaths on both sides. The Tilikum_Crossing in Portland is so well designed that such similar bridges should be built in Calgary & Edmonton, or even Winnipeg, some day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)#Rolling_stock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro#Rolling_stock
Of course the SkyTrain always has the potential for higher capacity over the Edmonton_LRT, CTrain & MAX_Light_Rail, simply because its a fully grade separated system. The biggest mistake for the SkyTrain was that it wasn't designed to ultimately have a 152.4 m station, like the Montreal_Metro has.
Sunday, July 3, 2022
Saturday, July 2, 2022
Amtrak-cascades-train-Vancouver-Seattle-Portland
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/amtrak-cascades-train-vancouver-seattle-portland-return-september
Someday, all 3 cities will have better Amtrak links.
urban can towers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UatSgangE van
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d0hwH2kQEM cal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv9mVN4QJKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97H7dO3Q8JE tor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p84Sg4AKSlI mon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmdq631l9TA
FDR Drive, NYC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FDR_Drive 1
https://twitter.com/the_transit_guy/status/1543242784559308800 2
https://untappedcities.com/2016/07/05/the-top-10-secrets-of-the-fdr-drive-in-nyc 3
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Friday, June 24, 2022
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Tokyo Has Built The World's Best Subway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFpG3yf3Rxk
World’s Busiest Station: Shinjuku Station Tokyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOmskE5uTm4
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Saturday, June 18, 2022
The Iron Bridge and the old Champlain Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironworkers_Memorial_Second_Narrows_Crossing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champlain_Bridge_(Montreal,_1962-2019) Both became classic 6 lane bottlenecks or chokepoints. That's because more than 6 lanes of traffic connected to such bridges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge An 8 lane bridge with 2 REM tracks. While I would like it to have been 10 or 12 lanes with 4 tracks, its still so much better than what backwards Vancouver would allow. 8 lanes plus 2 HOV lanes & 2 bus lanes, because the REM train isn't running 24 hours.
The+Lion+Bridge+and+The+Iron+Bridge are just too inadequate to be modern transportation crossings.
The inept Lion_Bridge should have had bus & train tunnels built next to it decades ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge An 8 lane road tunnel could allow the Lions-Gate-Bridge to become a foot & bike crossing, but that's what a proper big city would do.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVfdglQUAAEiQZV?format=jpg&name=large Vancouver Stumps vs. Towers.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouvers-shrinking-skyline Holding Vancouver back is what you do when you symbolically don't want to acomodate growth. Whit so much scaled back infrastructure, who knows where the money went?
Monday, June 6, 2022
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Friday, May 20, 2022
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Vancouver, BC
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1523561566817316866/photo/1 downtown https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1517236502995947520/photo/1 , https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1511618392544841731/photo/1 , https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1503461510474989568/photo/1 , https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1502545425038921734/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1525348528070922240/photo/1 RBC & B3
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1522723091058610176/photo/2 park place & B5
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1518712240249090049/photo/3 sb tower
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1521114197924319234/photo/1 Hb cen
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1520282118990876673/photo/1 conv cent
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1517003303187484672/photo/4 cube
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1522723091058610176/photo/4 camb br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1522343076437512192
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1522434268684689408/photo/1 gr br
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1519453279700234240/photo/1 gran & burr br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1503461510474989568/photo/2
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1524304688283226112/photo/1 lion br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1522435033000120320/photo/1 lion br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1517376472469581824/photo/1 lg br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1515771715082547204/photo/1 lg br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1503461510474989568/photo/4 lg br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1502748828574773249/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1523893277056901120/photo/1 iron 2nd nar br https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1504583305584209943/photo/1 double vision https://twitter.com/MarksGonePublic/status/1262920439564660737/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Miss604/status/1522345911069724674 put br
https://twitter.com/DriveBC/status/1507421707161661450/photo/1 al fr br
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1520282118990876673/photo/3 golden ers br
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1519477390887440385/photo/1 portmann br https://twitter.com/DriveBC/status/1512208789113475074 , https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortMannBridge?src=hashtag_click
https://twitter.com/hashtag/MasseyTunnel?src=hashtag_click
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1522723091058610176/photo/4 BC Place
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1522723091058610176/photo/1 arena
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRAbH1EUUAET_3K?format=jpg&name=large e.van.
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1517589964828995584/photo/1 port m
Friday, May 13, 2022
Urban Tech Links, etc...
Some UTL posts might occasionally just have a few links that will eventually become part of a more complete post with more data added much later on.
The Vancouver, BC infrastructure is quite lacking when compared to what's allowed in Calgary and Seattle...
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1525349620120899586/photo/1 Views of downtown Vancouver. https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1523561566817316866/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1525235043869675520/photo/1 , https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1525235043869675520
https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/status/1525348528070922240/photo/1 The RBC tower that opened in 1973. The building wasn't permitted to have a 40th floor, let alone be a 50 or 60 story office tower. The building only has 39 levels above the ground & the windows only go up to the 36 floor. In contrast, the B of A Tower in Seattle has windows up to the 76th floor.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=building+complex
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=UTL

