https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/highway-1-216th-264th-widening-langley-construction
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Sunday, November 26, 2023
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Saturday, November 18, 2023
The Lions Gate Bridge and a First Narrows Tunnel
The LGB is a crossing so narrow that it should have only been a foot & bike bridge by now.
The inept Lions+Gate+Bridge should have had an 8 lane tunnel under it several decades ago.
Georgia_Street through most of the downtown is 6 lanes wide, but as you get closer to Stanley Park, its 7 lanes wide. Thus, an 8 lane First_Narrows tunnel could have easily been constructed.
https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/west-georgia-complete-street.aspx
While the likelihood of Georgia_Street feeding into the Georgia_Viaduct & then connecting East Vancouver & Burnaby with a freeway is not possible, Georgia_Street could still feed into a Stanley Park tunnel.
There would be no need for a freeway through the downtown, as a tunnel would simply provide a high capacity crossing. 3 lanes each way, plus a bus & HOV lane each way & even a provision for rapid rail transit. Essentially, an extension of the Canada (embassament) Line.
The stubborn city & region chooses to continually do nothing with the First Narrows LION crossing. However, at least some serious planning has started for the Second_Narrows IRON Bridge upgrade or replacement.
The Lion & the Iron bridges have been quintessential BC bottlenecks for generations. There really should have been bus & train tunnels and bridges built next to them several decades ago. Despite the region having 2 ferry terminals, there seems to be a reluctance with having the Canada (embarrassment) Line linking both of the ferry terminals. To do so would actually help to reduce congestion, bus backwater BC seems to be against relieving urban transportation congestion.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Lion+Bridge+and+The+Iron+Bridge
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Lions+Gate+Bridge
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Thursday, November 9, 2023
REM trains in Montreal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiTS6RYr_Vw , https://www.youtube.com/@ReseauexpressmetropolitainREM/videos
Le REM, un nouveau trait d’union https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEu817iPBws
A Ride on the Montreal REM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q23mkh8rX88, https://www.youtube.com/@RMTransit/videos
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Friday, November 3, 2023
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
A Horseshoe Bay SkyTrain line to North Vancouver and Downtown Vancouver?
"A SkyTrain from downtown to Horseshoe Bay would provide a solution to the North Shore’s traffic crisis,..." https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/letter-horseshoe-bay-skytrain-north-vancouver-7753960
When the decision and implementation to put a major ferry terminal at Horseshoe_Bay in West_Vancouver was done, there didn't seem to be any sense of proper long-range urban transportation planning. It didn't matter if it was 2010 or 2020, there still seemed to be no need to build or at least an official plan for a rail rapid transit connection between the Horseshoe+Bay+ferry+terminal, Park Royal, downtown Vancouver and YVR.
https://www.vancouversnorthshore.com/neighbourhood/horseshoe-bay
https://www.bcferries.com/routes-fares/schedules/daily/HSB-NAN
The lack of an official plan to eventually link the Horseshoe_Bay_ferry_terminal and the Tsawwassen_ferry_terminal to YVR might as well be just another science fiction story.
The Greater Victoria, Swartz_Bay_ferry_terminal should also have a long-term plan for an intercity rail link to Downtown_Victoria and connect with the Duke_Point_ferry_terminal and the Departure_Bay_ferry_terminal in Nanaimo.
For some reason, Vancouver, Victoria and BC in general, doesn't seem to want to be a leader in transportation planning & development.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SkyTrain-Canada+Line
Friday, October 27, 2023
Why the Panama Canal is Dying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GI0zANA3S4
Inside the World’s Largest Cargo Shipping Bottleneck Today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS_pnCWNb4Y
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Park Royal Shopping Centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Royal_Shopping_Centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Royal_Exchange
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R2_Marine_Dr
It is utterly foolish and inept to not extend an improved Canada+Line to the Park_Royal_Shopping_Centre and the Horseshoe+Bay ferry terminal.
Friday, October 20, 2023
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Saturday, October 14, 2023
Montreal Metro
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/montreal-metro
It would have been total chaos if the Montreal_Metro (MM) only had 80m stations, just like on the first 2 SkyTrain lines. An absolute disaster if it only had 50m stations like on the very underbuilt Canada Line. Unfortunatly, Vancouver took the watered down approach, decades after what Montreal did right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro#Rolling_stock
When starting in the 1960s, the MM could have 3 & 6 car trains and a 9 car train during busy times, in recent decades, it's just 6 and 9 car trains.
Streetcars and trams, along with buses, can help any Metro train or Subway system. Unlike Montreal and Vancouver, cities like Melbourne, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, SF and New Orleans, retained some of their tram or streetcar lines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPM-10
| 9 articulated cars per train |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPM-10#Specifications
Of course a good urban transportation network keeps evolving and the REM trains are a nice addition. The REM trains should eventually be at least as long as those on the Sydney Subway.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Montreal+Metro
Burnaby Metrotown Park Royal BRT route
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/burnaby-metrotown-park-royal-brt-route-translink
https://www.vancouversnorthshore.com/park-royal , https://parkroyal.ca/
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/new-westminster-marine-drive-marine-way-brt-22nd-street-station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Royal_Shopping_Centre#Transportation
There still should have been a Canada+Line extension from Vancouver to West Vancouver.
Friday, October 13, 2023
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Subways, old and new trains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7adaFZDPuw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_transit_in_Germany#U-Bahn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BVG_Class_H 6 per train set
| Train length | 51.64 m (169 ft 51⁄16 in) |
|---|
Thursday, October 5, 2023
Vancouver view cone review questioned
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/10/05/vancouver-view-cone-review-questioned/
Just put in more Vancouver stumps. The stump agenda is a clever way to hold back Vancouver, it's been that way for generations.
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Saturday, September 30, 2023
SkyTrain-Canada Line rebuilding
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-canada-line-rebuilding
The YVR Canada+Line should have been called, the Financial Drainage Line. However, the Catheter Line seems more appropriate. That's because it would cost a lot just to attempt to bring the C+Line up to a proper big city standard.
Nevermind designing it to ultimately have 8-10 car trains, starting out with at least 5 car trains. A 2 car train is such a sad joke, but it all fits in with the reluctance to think & build big in BC.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-line-skytrain
Wow, someday the YVR-Canada-Line will be able to accomodate a 2.5 car train, but not a 5 car train. Apparently, a full length 3 car train & especially a 4 car train might actually look like an attempt to have a proper urban train. Even with all the construction budget cuts, the stations could have been built with at least a 152.5 m provision, instead of a 40-50 m, 2 car train of a joke.
This approach goes so well with the regions narrow bridges & its reluctance to build a network of bus & HOV bridges.
Unfortunatly, it's not possible to take a train from the YVR-Airport_station to the Tsawwassen_ferry_terminal or the Horseshoe_Bay_ferry_terminal. There doesn't even seem to be any official long-range plan to link to the YVR-Canada-Line.
https://www.yvr.ca/en/passengers/transportation/public-transportation
https://thecanadaline.com/station-guides/yvr-airport
https://www.translink.ca/schedules-and-maps/station/yvr-airport/schedule
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SkyTrain-Canada+Line
Friday, September 29, 2023
Thursday, September 28, 2023
TransLink ridership recovery reaches 90% of pre-pandemic volumes
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-ridership-recovery-vancouver-public-transit-september-2023
While the recovery is great, the Skytrain network should have been designed to have 152m stations like Montreal & Toronto, but that would mean big city thinking. So the 50m to 80m stations provide a constant reminder of the refusal to think big.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-transit-ridership-recovery-record
Just like the region should have a proper big city train, there should have also been a proper express bus & HOV system by now. However, with such a refusal to have wider bridges or parallel crossings, it's almost impossible to have a proper rapid bus network.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/ironworkers-memorial-bridge-replacement There should be a couple of HOV lanes, as well as 2 bus lanes. Thus, any replacement for the Ironworkers+Memorial+Bridge should have 10 lanes.
However, congestive planning always wins out & who know where all the money has gone over the past several decades?
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-vancouver-demand-extensions
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/commercial-broadway-station-broadway-grandview-woodland-plan-skytrain Brentwood Station, no problem. However, allowing such a crossroads station at a similar scale is too upsetting for the backwater Vancouver mentality.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/city-of-vancouver-car-vehicle-traffic-reductions-broadway Another fine example of the conjestive mentality. Since the train isn't allowed to run 24/7, it's a good idea to still have a wide street for express buses & 24hr traffic, which is common for most major cities.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-metro-vancouver-expansion
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-public-transit-system-comparison
List of North American cities by population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_cities_by_population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census_metropolitan_areas_and_agglomerations_in_Canada#List
While Vancouver is part of the 3rd largest urban area in Canada, it's one of the smaller cities reaching only 8th place. That helps to maintain its backwater mentality & extremely restrictive approach to planning & development.
U2 ZOO Station
When Vancouver can't seem to get enough hotel rooms built, LV just keeps on building in the desert entertainment capital.
Is the Stack, a tower or a stump?
https://storeys.com/james-cheng-the-stack-vancouver
In Seattle, Toronto, Calgary & even Montreal, this would almost be just another average stump building. Those cities & so many more around the planet, have long since allowed office towers to have more than 40 floors. However, in the BC part of Canada, there is no office tower that has reached 40 stories, just a few residential towers are taller. Yet, sometimes the land value in Vancouver is more than in Toronto.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-view-cone-restrictions-policies
Of course Seattle, Toronto, Calgary & Montreal have been allowed to be proper big cities, simple because they aren't under any Vancouver type restrictions or limitations.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouvers-shrinking-skyline
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/larwill-park-office-towers-vancouver-concept
Nevermind Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, LA, SF, Seattle, Toronto, Calgary & Montreal, Vancouver isn't even allowed to build as tall as the tallest buildings in Vaughan, Mississauga, Edmonton & Belleview, WA.
https://storeys.com/cities/mississauga
https://storeys.com/cities/toronto/
https://storeys.com/cities/calgary/
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto-SF
Immigrants and students fueled Canada's population jump in 2023
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230927/dq230927a-eng.htm And to think that Canada is nowhere close to containing even 1% of the worlds population, it's been tough enough just to reach 0.5%.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9989962/canada-population-boom-immigration-2023 Various forces and mindsets have prevented Halifax from becoming as big as Montreal or Boston. Greater Seattle & the Greater Montreal area each have over 4 million people. However, Greater Vancouver has done its damnedest to be continually stunted when compared to them.
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Some Vancouver ‘view cones’ could be scrapped under proposed review
https://globalnews.ca/news/9990941/vancouver-view-cone-review
Toronto, Calgary & Edmonton are allowed to build taller than what's in Montreal. Of course stubborn watered down Vancouver is an exception.
Vancouver & BC was unable to build a wall or generate a forcefield around it like something out of STAR TREK. Thus, a stunted approach was implemented, which was all about slowing down the influx of people. Vancouver doesn't have the authority to restrict Canadian immigration or restrict people from moving into the region from other parts of Canada.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-view-cones-review-housing-impacts-motion
At a certain point, the BC part of Canada will be forced to put more money into proper size infrastructure.
https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/protecting-vancouvers-views.aspx This has been such an ingenious way to hold the city back. So much of BC is mountainous wilderness that will never be blocked out.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-view-cone-restrictions-policies
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouvers-shrinking-skyline Fortunatly, Vancouver doesn't have control over the entire region, so the demand for taller buildings is still possible in the surrounding area.
So many urban restrictions were put into Vancouver during the 1970s, 80s and 90s by a mostly White power structure. In theory, if a city & urban area is continually stunted like Greater Vancouver, then less people will be likely to move there. Calgary & Seattle were never under anything like the extreme Vancouver limitations. Thus, those cities have much taller buildings, wider roads & bridges & any of their underground train stations are much longer than what Vancouver has ever built. The Toronto Subway & the Montreal Metro have stations that are at least 152m or about 500 feet, when stunted Vancouver only built 50m to 80m Skytrain stations.
If Vancouver was ever allowed to become a big city & region like Sydney, San_Francisco & Montreal, that would mean accommodating more people of color. It's not that the predominantly White power structure of the 1970s, 80s and 90s officially had a, KEEP THEM OUT agenda, but any slow growth initiative can certainly slow down the influx of people & the local economy.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-tower-building-shadowing-solar-access
Indeed, by continually promoting a half size approach to such stunted infrastructure, it shows a reluctance towards accommodating more people. As it so happens, most of the people on the planet aren't of European descent. Thus, anly slow growth initiative is a very clever way to, KEEP PEOPLE OUT. Unfortunately, even if there is finally enough people that want Vancouver & other parts of BC to have big cities, there is quite a tangled mess of laws, ordinances & restrictions that would have to be changed.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/larwill-park-office-towers-vancouver-concept
One would think that especially for a region such as Greater Vancouver with so many narrow roads & streets, there should have been a metro on the scale of what Montreal has. But so much about Vancouver & BC is about congestive planning.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-2017-kevin-desmond-canada-line-built-skytrain Why build 152m long stations linke in Montreal & Toronto when you can build absurd 50m stations? This is a fine example of the reluctance to build without allowing for future expansion. Don't think like a big city or urban region where a train could eventually reach the ferry terminals. It's much better to take the congestion approach.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=building+shadowing+policies
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SkyTrain-Canada+Line
Canadians flock to Alberta in record numbers as population booms by 184,400 people
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/canadians-flock-alberta-record-numbers-154748132.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-population-growth-statscan-report-1.6979657
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/alberta-interprovincial-migration-
BC SkyTrain expansion
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-expansion-program-sany-zein-bcrtc-translink
Why have a 9 car metro train like in Montreal when Vancouver can just have a 5 car Skytrain on the first 2 lines? That's because the first 2 lines only have a length of 80m. The extremely underbuilt Catheter Line is a fine example of financial drainage. The Catheter Line stations & the first 2 Skytrain lines should have all been designed to have at least 500 feet or 152.5m long stations. However, the C Line only has 50m stations so the little trains can only be expanded from 2 cars to 2.5 cars, not 5 cars & especially no 10 car trains. It's all about symbolizing the reluctance to build proper big city size infrastructure. One has to wonder where so much of the money has gone, because it hasn't gone into a full size system, only a half-assed infrastructure.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-ceo-kevin-desmond-vision
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-line-extension-richmond-delta
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/george-massey-bridge-replacement-translink
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-line-vancouver-city-centre-station-second-entrance Conjestive planning really bites, but that's the BC way. The KEEP THEM OUT mentality has been around for such a long time, that not enough people pushed for a train in which the station lengths could eventually be doubled or even tripled. Combine that with a mostly narrow regional road network & you have the epitome of bottleneck planing.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SkyTrain-Canada+Line
Canada's-house-speaker-steps-down-after-inviting-nazi-veteran-into parliament
From Colonial times right up to the present, that has always been a, KEEP THEM OUT mentality in Canada. The WW2 era of Germany was partly about creating a continent for only the "best" White people. Japan during the WW2 era also wanted to be at the top of the Asian power structure.
The British Colonial System as well as other European Colonial Systems were all about the mother country being at the top & all the non-whites had a lower standing.
Even if Canada had 80 million people by the summer of 2023, that would only 1% of the worlds 8 billion people. It was tough enough for Canada to just reach 40 million in 2023.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230927/dq230927a-eng.htm
Canada should be attracting a lot of wealthy people from around the world, but most of the world is non-white & some people might get jealous. Perhaps if Canada were to say that by continuing to contain only a very small amount of the worlds population, that's good for the environment. Then more people around the world might challenge such a ridiculous notion. So many other countries have much less land, yet have a lot more people & infrastructure than Canada.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Vancouver's tourism board sounding alarm bells over lack of hotel capacity
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/destination-vancouver-hotel-challenges-1.6770086
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_hotels It's always amazing to see what other cities can do, simply because they aren't in BC.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-hotel-supply-shortage-demand
https://storeys.com/vancouver-hotel-shortage-council-motion/
Monday, September 25, 2023
Developer announces plan to build 5,000 rental homes after federal decision to drop GST on construction costs
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/dream-unlimited-rental-housing-plan-federal-gst-canada
It's like Canada never really planned to ever have that much of the world's population, despite being the world's 2nd largest county in overall area. A population of 80 million is only 1% of 8 billion. It's taken quite a while for Canada just to contain 0.5% of the world's population.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/population_and_demography/40-million June 2023
There has always been a lagging pace of infrastructure development in BC & Atlantic Canada.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/3861-40-million-strong-canada-reaches-new-population-milestone
One would expect such a slow pace in the arctic regions.
Victoria, BC and other Canadian Capitals
https://storeys.com/victoria-missing-middle-housing-review/
Such a sleepy little city with perhaps the most mild winters in Canada. Yet, big Edmonton has much colder winters with many times the population of Victoria.
Victoria,_British_Columbia has yet to exceed 100,000 people, colder Regina,_Saskatchewan & St._John's,_Newfoundland_and_Labrador have more people. However, Greater_Victoria might eventually rival that of Halifax,_Nova_Scotia. Perhaps someday even Quebec_City & Winnipeg, but Victoria would rather remain a provincial backwater for as long as possible. Being on an island is almost as good as having a wall, but its a salt water moat instead.
Big Toronto has been the only Canadian city to become as large as Chicago.
Perhaps someday Ottawa might get as big as Montreal, but that's quite a long ways off into the future.
Unlike Victoria, NW is part of an urban region of more than a few million people. Thus, its compelled to gradually have more infrastructure.
'Deeply hurtful': Polish ambassador condemns Nazi veteran’s invitation to Canada’s Parliament
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kremlin-reaction-canadian-parliament-1.6977248
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/canadas-soft-pedalling-ukraine-ss-galicia
"Immediately questionably why nobody recognized this"
A Ukrainian-Canadian professor says even without any specialist knowledge, someone should have had questions about the Ukrainian Waffen-SS veteran invited to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Parliament.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2023/09/25/immediately-questionably-why-nobody-recognized-this
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230628/dq230628c-eng.htm
A 'Whites-only' sign for a mom and tot playgroup in Coquitlam draws outrage
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/white-only-moms-and-tots-group-sign
Unfortunately, some people would still like to revert back to the White Colonial System where non-whites are looked down upon.
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Friday, September 22, 2023
U2 - ZOO Station, LV
Unfortunately, there is no holodeck MATRIX yet, so people will just have to settle for a VR, AR, Metaverse sensory data ZOO inside of a SPHERE.
https://www.thespherevegas.com/shows/u2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEcx9F_FW2U Lemon
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Vancouver-USA-ghosts
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40856493-vancouver-usa-ghosts
Another Jeff Davis on the urban paranormal.
https://www.ghostsandcritters.com/aboutjeffdavis.html
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2995371/bio/
https://www.ghostsandcritters.com/main.html
https://blogs.columbian.com/ghost-stories/category/vancouver-stories/
https://cchmuseum.org/programs-events/haunted-walking-tours/
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Smart cities will track our every move
All this ID and tracking tech directed toward human herd management can lead to the ultimate state of Technocracy.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213138822002685
Global totalitarianism for the masses by design.
https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/smart-city-digital-id-products.pdf
That's the System.
https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=The+15+Minute+City
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Metro Vancouver mayors warn housing at risk without expanded transit
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-transit-housing-risk
Despite being the 2nd largest country on the planet, there has been a strong, KEEP THEM OUT mentality since colonial times. Halifax hasn't been allowed to become as big as Boston or Montreal. Vancouver hasn't been allowed to be as big as Greater Seattle or Montreal. Victoria is a hicktown when compared to Edmonton, Winnipeg & QC. Yet, Victoria has the mildest winters than any Canadian city. For the longest time, Victoria is suppose to be a provincial backwater & Vancouver is supposed to be the epitome of a stunted city.
When the world population reached 8 billion, Canada didn't even have 80 million, only 40 million people. Most of the world's' population is non-white, so during colonial times the, KEEP THEM OUT mentality was the way it was, because no one could challenge it. Canada only has 1% of the human population, yet its the 2nd largest in overall area.
One can understand why Antarctica has a very limited population, but for Canada to only have 1% of the world's population seems indicative of a successful plan to keep most of the world out. While a slow growth initiative has been a clever way to reduce the influx of non-white people, many other smaller sized nations have already been able to build more infrastructure and accomodate more people for several decades.
An aerial view of the Broadway Subways' construction progress in Vancouver
Toronto and Montreal really know how to build a proper high capacity subway system in Canada. However, Vancouver has been so slow growth for so many decades it's absurd. Toronto & Montreal have 152m or 500 foot long stations. However, Greater Vancouver wasn't allowed to have a proper big city metro system. Thus the first 2 Skytrain lines only have 80m stations. The ridiculously underbuilt C Line was only designed to have 50m stations, when it should have been 3 times as long.
Just like most of the bridges in the region are so narrow, it's very difficult to have a proper regional express bus system. Special bus bridges or tunnels should have all been built next to the inept narrow crossings. But that would all be indicative of properly planning for growth in a part of Canada that doesn't get -20 to -30C winters.
The Multiverse Perspective on the Cyberpunk MATRIX
Themultiverseperspective.wordpress.com has been dormant for several years.
No new links about urban legends or cyberspace technology for quite a while at TMP.
No_Maps_for_These_Territories and half of U2 could have been part of a supertech series exploring the urban MATRIX around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Maps_for_These_Territories#Content , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIDVvhy9Z0I , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib6siNUJbx0
Neuromancer: The Origin of Cyberpunk | A Horrifying Dystopia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGW_7HTXuQo
Cyberpunk Documentary PART 1 | Neuromancer, Blade Runner, RoboCop, Akira, Shadowrun... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sttm8Q9rOdQ
William Gibson: The New Cyber/Reality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVEUWfDHqsU
Blade Runner, Altered Carbon, and the Relevancy of Cyberpunk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK6IjJkjkiI
CyberPunk Cities: Fiction or Reality? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p93lMyCCYig
The Peripheral - Season 1 | RECAP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6DAZ3Nax7E
The_Peripheral_(TV_series) could have gone on for a few years, but...
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-peripheral-canceled-amazon-season-2
U2 shocks Vegas fans with pop-up concert on Fremont Street ahead of MSG Sphere residency
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.
Monday, September 18, 2023
City of Vancouver parts ways with its chief planner
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
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Highway-427-expansion-will-reduce-commute-times-by-up-to-25-minutes
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.
Cool Pedestrian and Bike Bridges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_Street_Pedestrian_Bridge Portland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_Bridge Singapore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provencher_Bridge#The_pedestrian_bridge Winnipeg
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=bike+and+pedestrian+bridges
The Tilikum Crossing in Portland, Oregon
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
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.
Calgary, Alberta
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
Friday, September 15, 2023
Urban Technology intersection
https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=The+15+Minute+City
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjut20/current
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnyRZotnPSU
UTi is at...
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Urban+Technology
https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Urban+Technology
The Spookiest Urban Legends from the USA
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
The 15-Minute City
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
Governments-alone-cannot-fix-canadas-housing-affordability-challenges
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
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Langley, BC Township wants the Interurban revived for rail public transit
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
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
The Stack Tower, or is it just another stumpy office building in Vancouver, BC?
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.
Sunday, September 10, 2023
Sunshine 60 tower in Tokyo
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
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