Before there was the MATRIX in 1999, there was Achtung_Baby and the Zoo_TV_Tour in the early 1990s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2:UV_Achtung_Baby_Live_at_Sphere Its as close as you can get to the holodeck, the 13th Floor and the MATRIX in 2023.
UTL is about exploring past, present and future urban technologies in science and fiction, etc...
Before there was the MATRIX in 1999, there was Achtung_Baby and the Zoo_TV_Tour in the early 1990s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2:UV_Achtung_Baby_Live_at_Sphere Its as close as you can get to the holodeck, the 13th Floor and the MATRIX in 2023.
Theresa O'Donnell came to Vancouver as a deputy director of planning in 2019 after 15 years working for the City of Dallas https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/city-of-vancouver-parts-ways-with-chief-planner
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/theresa-odonnell-city-of-vancouver-chief-planner-departure
Small Vancouver can fit into Dallas 8 times.
| Area | |
|---|---|
| • City | 123.63 km2 (47.73 sq mi) |
| • Land | 115.18 km2 (44.47 sq mi) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver#Geography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas
| Area | |
|---|---|
| • City | 385.9 sq mi (999.2 km2) |
| • Land | 339.604 sq mi (879.56 km2) |
| • Water | 43.87 sq mi (113.60 km2) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas#Geography
Vancouver was one of the first cities to remove its streetcars in the 1950s & will likely be one of the last to bring them back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Downtown_Historic_Railway#Proposed_future_service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Streetcar Of course Dallas would revive a small portion of its streetcar system long before Vancouver ever could. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Streetcar#Future_expansion_plans
https://www.mata.org/ride/route-map
Even Los_Angeles & the Brooklyn-Queens_Connector will likely be up & running sooner than Vancouver's attempted revival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_North_America#Heritage_streetcar_systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_North_America#Light_rail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail_in_North_America#History_of_streetcars_and_light_rail
https://storeys.com/highway-427-expansion-will-reduce-commute-times-by-up-to-25-minutes/
Any expanded or new section of urban highway should always have a provision for bus & HOV lanes. The Vancouver approach for decades was to just funnel everything into such narrow bridges that there is no proper space for bus or HOV lanes.
The Tilikum_Crossing is quite a fine transportation bridge for Portland. Unlike in Vancouver, BC, the Tilikum_Crossing meant that no lanes were reduced from the surrounding bridges.
| Carries | TriMet MAX light rail and buses; Portland Streetcar Loop Service; bicycles and pedestrians |
|---|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilikum_Crossing#Design
Unlike Portland & so many cities, V-BC & the metropolitan region refuses to build something like the Tilikum_Crossing_for_bicycles. The six lane Burrard_Bridge was reduced to 4 lanes in order to accomodate 2 bicycle_lanes. The Burrard_Bridge was designed to accommodate a lower level for streetcars, but never followed through with it. Vancouver-BC became one of the first cities to get rid of streetcars or trams & will likely be one of the last to bring them back. Fortunately, the Vancouver mentality was unable to stop the revival of the Seattle & Portland_Streetcar. Melbourne, Toronto, SF, Boston & New Orleans never totally got rid of their streetcars like backward V-BC.
Seattle might seem small when compared to NYC & Chicago, but it's quite big when compared to little Vancouver, BC.
https://visitseattle.org/things-to-do/sightseeing/top-25-attractions/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle#Transportation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Seattle
https://skyviewobservatory.com , https://skyviewobservatory.com/about
https://skyviewobservatory.com/location , https://skyviewobservatory.com/news
https://skyviewobservatory.com/downloadable-virtual-backgrounds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Net_(building)
https://www.djc.com/news/re/12105569.html This building was Vancouverized so that it can just be another stump building in Seattle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Tower
| Antenna spire | 484 ft (148 m) |
|---|---|
| Roof | 462 ft (141 m) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Tower#History
It would take almost 6 decades before the BC part of Canada would allow what Seattle had in 1914.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver)
It's always amazing to see how Seattle & Calgary are allowed to be big cities, simply because they aren't limited by Vancouver & BC type restrictions & imposed limitations.
Just like Washington State, the Alberta part of Canada isn't stunted like BC is.
"The Calgary Metropolitan Region is home to Canada's second-largest number of corporate head offices among the country's 800 largest corporations.[14] In 2015, Calgary had the largest number of millionaires per capita of any major Canadian city.[15] In 2022, Calgary was ranked alongside Zürich as the third most livable city in the world, ranking first in Canada and in North America." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#Transportation
Unlike Vancouver, Calgary & Seattle are able to improve transportation infrastructure without taking lanes away from the narrow bridges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle#Transportation
Calgary has more 50 story office towers than Denver or Minneapolis.
Calgary and Edmonton Compared https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h9HgvwQxJc
https://www.rd.com/list/scary-urban-legends/
Urban_legends can be in the most modern cities and buildings to the oldest cities from-around-the-world.
https://www.insider.com/urban-legends-us-2018-1
https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/5-creepy-university-urban-legends
Top 20 Scariest Urban Legends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJPtl9hjdY
Ideally, if most stores and general services are within 15 to 30 minutes, that would be quite convenient.
However, with AI run cameras & authorization prompts from cell phones, traveling to another part of a city might become more difficult. If an AI human control algorithm says that you have already used up too much of your carbon credits and should remain home, that's not a system fit for free people.
More urban issues at...
https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Exploring+the+15-Minute+City+Concept
The public and private sector has to work out a better system.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-housing-city-funding-ottawa-1.6967212
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-newcomer-find-home
Luxury or high end homes aren't the problem, it's the lack of affordable housing for most people. There are obviously more people that need reasonable rental rates and lower cost housing.
https://financialpost.com/real-estate/canada-housing-affordability-government-cmhc
https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=affordable+housing
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/langley-township-interurban-rail-public-transit
Some cities & regions that kept such systems running through the decades might be better off. While other rebuilt from scratch.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/vancouver-transpo-grid-or-tube/
Essentially, a comprehensive network of trains, trams, busses & bike paths can all work well together when properly planned.
https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Cities+with+the+best+tram+systems+in+the+world
It's all about Stumps+and+Towers.
There is no office tower in Vancouver or BC that has ever been allowed to have a 40th floor. Seattle has the 76 story B of A tower & Toronto has the 72 story BMO tower. That's because those cities aren't under anything like the restrictions and limitations that Vancouver has. If you can't build a wall around BC, the next best thing is to limit or reduce the scale of things. Then continually fall behind with the overall infrastructure.
Vancouver not only has limited the scale of office towers, but residential towers as well. It would seem that there is more of a demand now for residential towers than office towers.
Seattle, Calgary & Edmonton all have allowed a residential tower to be taller than anything in Vancouver.
https://thedigitallabyrinth.blogspot.com/search?q=Vancouver+House
London, UK for the longest time, refused to permit taller buildings. Then eventually as the land became so expensive, they eventually started to allow some towers that even rivaled that of Paris & Frankfurt. Some of the towers would not even be stumps when compared to those in NYC & Chicago.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/no-rooms-at-the-inns-knock-on-effects-of-vancouvers-hotel-shortage If the city would allow taller buildings, then the hotel companies could build more rooms on the lower half, while providing condos on the upper half. Or, visa versa.
https://storeys.com/vancouver-hotel-shortage-council-motion Fortunatly, many other cities are able to keep up with getting more hotel rooms built. https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/09/08/vancouver-hotels-shortage-city-councillor/
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-hotel-supply-shortage-demand
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/city-of-vancouver-hotel-room-shortage-new-policies
Of course by the late 1800s, Montreal & Toronto had a sense of becoming major cities. Then by the early & mid 1900s, it became even more apparent. In the early 21st century, Vancouver is still stuck in a multi-decade rut of wanting to stunt, thwart or hold back the city in any way possible.
https://thedigitallabyrinth.blogspot.com/search?q=The+No+Fun+City
Most of the regional bridges or crossings have been deliberately kept so narrow that it's almost impossible to have a proper regional express bus network to compliment the short sighted Skytrain stations.
All the narrow bridges should have had additional Bus+and+HOV+Lane bridges by now.
https://thedigitallabyrinth.blogspot.com/search?q=HOV
The stump city has so much potential, but only if Vancouver reaches for the sky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_60
It's about the same height as the B of A tower in SF, but with a few more floors than 555 California.
https://sunshinecity.jp/en/observatory
https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/sunshine-60-tokyo-skyscraper
https://medium.com/@movingjapan5/haunted-places-you-definitely-shouldnt-visit-in-tokyo-d7c01e7eb1bd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_California_Street By the end of the 1960s, SF had a tower that was even big by NYC & Chicago standards.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/555-california-street/1027
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/san-francisco-building-trump-stake-on-watchlist-17801816.php
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/555-california-falling-glass-san-francisco-17839533.php
https://sfyimby.com/2021/11/number-6-555-california-street-financial-district-san-francisco.html
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/650-california-street/12775
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/650_California_Street
https://www.650cal.com When this opened, it would have been a major size building in Australia & Canada in the 1960s. Today, it's just another stump building, especially in many American cities.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/tower-is-out-of-sync-but-still-timeless-4360470.php
https://www.matrixhginc.com/projects/601-california
This is would just be another stump building in Melbourne, Victoria. Whereas in Victoria, BC nothing has been permitted to be as tall. Yet, the land costs continue to climb.
https://www.planetizen.com/news/2023/08/124945-new-rem-light-rail-launches-montreal
As long as the trains can eventually become double the length, then Montreal can avoid a Vancouver type delema.
https://rem.info/en/reseau-express-metropolitain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=REM+Train
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Samuel-De+Champlain+Bridge
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/montreal-rem-vancouver-skytrain-comparison
If the SkyTrain could ever have longer stations & longer trains, then it might be on the same level as even the Montreal Metro, let alone REM.
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CenterPoint_Energy_Plaza
https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=1089
https://www.houstonarchitecture.com/Building/2164/CenterPoint%20Energy%20Tower.php
https://www.keatingarchitecture.com/center-point-energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Houston
Most bridges in Greater Vancouver are so narrow, because there was no provision to have bus and HOV lanes. The+Lion+Bridge+and+The+Iron+Bridge are 2 classic examples of not constructing additional infrastructure to accommodate bus lanes, HOV lanes and especially, rail rapid transit. That's because such improvements would actually go against the congestive urban planning agenda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bridge , https://www.historylink.org/file/21298 A narrow 4 lane BC type bridge was upgraded to an 8 lane crossing, plus 2 LRT tracks for WA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrows_Bridge_(Perth) From a basic bridge to a nice 10 lane crossing with 2 train tracks for WA. https://structurae.net/en/structures/narrows-bridge Its great that the horrible backwards Vancouver mentality never made it to Perth. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-13/perth-narrows-bridge-60-years-since-construction/11697812 Unfortunately, Vancouver & BC have done their damndest to prevent a similar nice, wide crossing, which also includes 6_car_trains. While backwards Vancouver & BC didn't want to build wider infrastructure simply to accomodate more drivers, the funds didn't seem to go towards a regional rapid bus or at least an express bus & HOV network with its own set of bridges. The SkyTrain should have been designed with a provision to eventually have stations at least as long as those on the Montreal Metro, which can accomodate 9 car trains on a 500 ft platform or 152.5 m. https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Place:Constructing_Narrows_Bridges
The old Champlain_Bridge_in Montreal just had 3 lanes each way & no provision for a train. Where as the new Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge provides 4 lanes each way & has 2 REM train tracks. https://www.samueldechamplainbridge.ca Fortunately, Montreal, like Seattle & Perth was able to have a nice wide bridge with 2 train tracks in the middle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge#Construction_method
Montreal, Seattle & Perth are allowed to exist on a larger scale than backwards Vancouver, because they don't have the same imposed restrictions. Urban Quebec and urban WA are able to do so much more, because they aren't hindered by anything like the backwards BC mentality.
Risk assessment model of bottlenecks for urban expressways using survival analysis approach https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235214651730474X
Perth and Seattle are fine examples of what hasn't been allowed in Vancouver, BC. Perth has good year round weather & better infrastructure than Vancouver. While Seattle can almost have as much cold & crappy damp Vancouver weather, it's not a thwarted city. Perth & especially Seattle permit taller buildings, wider bridges & have longer trains.
https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/places-to-visit/perth-and-surrounds/travel-to-and-around-perth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth#Infrastructure
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windan_Bridge , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goongoongup_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railways_in_Perth#Routes_and_services
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_line,_Perth#Stations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_line,_Perth#Rolling_stock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandurah_line
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/High_Wycombe_train_gn1.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_railway_station#/media/File:Perth_station_platform2.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle#Transportation
https://www.soundtransit.org/blog/platform/making-i-90-floating-bridge-stronger-longer-lasting-trains This crossing provides 4 Lanes each way with 2 tracks for LRT.
Essentially, Perth+and+Seattle both have been able to develop on a grander urban scale than restrictive Vancouver. There is just something about the small-scale thinking of backwater BC that hasn't caught on with, or been adopted by WA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany,_Western_Australia
https://gsdc.wa.gov.au/our-region/city-of-albany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Albany
https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/places/albany/56b266bb2cbcbe7073ae06bd
https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2021-11/LST-Albany.pdf
https://profile.id.com.au/albany/population-estimate
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vancouver+Peninsula+WA+6330,+Australia
https://www.google.com/maps/place/West+Cape+Howe+National+Park
https://www.icontainers.com/us/2020/01/20/top-10-ports-australia
https://www.marineinsight.com/know-more/8-major-ports-in-australia
https://www.porttechnology.org/news/top-5-ports-in-australia-2021
https://container-news.com/top-10-the-busiest-container-ports-in-oceania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_ports_by_cargo_tonnage
https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-by-l/sidetracks/history-l , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NPCFnF4csA
https://www.947wls.com/2022/02/28/this-is-where-the-cta-el-train-is-its-loudest/
https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-by-l/sidetracks/how-cta-map-got-its-colors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6xJFpPY_7s&t=2019s CTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLti1BiNCPE OH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro#Rolling_stock
| Peak From 7am to 9am and from 4pm to 6pm | Non-peak Morning, day and evening (non-peak) | |
|---|---|---|
| Week | Every 3 to 5 minutes | Every 4 to 10 minutes |
| Week-end | Every 6 to 12 minutes | |
https://www.stm.info/en/info/networks/metro/orange
https://www.stm.info/en/info/networks/metro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro#Future_projects
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/union-station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Line
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/ontario-line
https://www.infrastructureontario.ca/en/what-we-do/projectssearch/ontario-line/
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/finch-west-lrt
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/eglinton-crosstown-west-extension
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/eglinton-crosstown-lrt
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/scarborough-subway-extension
Beacon Hill's 400-foot-long (120 m) split island platform is located between the two Beacon Hill Tunnel tubes, with a small cross-tunnel passageway between the two sections of the platform.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_Hill_station_(Sound_Transit)#Station_layout , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Line_(Sound_Transit)#Stations , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_station#Station_layout , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westlake_station_(Sound_Transit)#Station_layout , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Line_(Sound_Transit)#Route
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_light_rail#Rolling_stock
seattle metro
train stations