Showing posts sorted by relevance for query KSB. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query KSB. Sort by date Show all posts

Thursday, April 3, 2025

From the old and inadequate Fraser Street Bridge to the inadequate Knight Street Bridge

Somewhere in between 1950 & 1960, the old Fraser_Street_Bridge (FSB) should have been replaced with a new 4 lane bridge, with 2 very wide sidewalks for bikes & a future provision for 2 bus lanes. Vancouver needs a street and transit connection with No. 5 Rd. in Richmond. Unfortunately, backwards Vancouver has always been a city without a proper big city transportation vision.

https://evelazarus.com/the-fraser-street-swing-span-bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Street_Bridge_(1894)#Provincial_government_headache

https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/photos-and-video-was-this-the-unluckiest-bridge-between-richmond-and-vancouver-4475444

https://search.nbca.unbc.ca/index.php/fraser-st-road-bridge-in-vancouver-bc-1 In the late 1800s, just being able to have a bridge roadway width of 2 wagon-roads in backwater BC was amazing. Then, decades & even several generations later, any BC bridge that could provide 2 wagon-roads each way was even more amazing. 

https://structurae.net/en/structures/fraser-avenue-street-bridge

As usual, Vancouver & BC lost & messed up an opportunity to have 2 great new bridges. 

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

https://structurae.net/en/structures/knight-street-bridge (KSB)

https://evelazarus.com/the-knight-street-bridge-part-2

Once again, the lack of a proper big city vision resulted in the inadequate design for the 2 lane each way Knight_St_Bridge (KSB). However, it makes sense from a bottleneck congestive planning mentality. Despite Vancouver being part of what is suppose to be a major port region and in need of proper transportation corridors, the Knight_Street_Bridge is a classic BC chokepoint.

https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/work-on-knight-street-bridge-in-richmond-below-deck-as-well-7319230

Just because the Knight_Street_Bridge started out as a 4 lane joke, there immediately should have been 2 emergency lanes and 2 wide shoulders, which could have eventually become 2 extra bus lanes. Plus, there should have been a future provision to have 2 HOV lanes. Two wide sidewalks & 2 wide bike lanes. However, that would go against the congestive planning mentality of Vancouver & BC.

Indeed, by deliberately planning the KSB to be a 4 lane chokepoint and not building a new Fraser+Street+Bridge, there clearly was no interest to have proper dedicated bus lanes in that part of the Greater Vancouver Region. With so many inadequate, narrow bridges, there should be bus & HOV lane bridges to help improve regional transportation.

A regional express bus system or especially, a rapid bus network (BRT) requires dedicated lanes. The LGB should have 2 bus lanes & 2 HOV lanes in a tunnel near it. The Iron Bridge, OSB & KSB, all should have a 4 lane bike, bus & HOV bridge next to them. That would allow for a rapid bus (BRT) lane each way & a HOV lane each way.


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Knight+Street+Bridge

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=old+and+new+narrow+bridges 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=bus-bridges

Thursday, September 18, 2025

No inquiry into North Shore sewage plant overbudget problems

 https://www.nsnews.com/opinion/letter-its-a-disgrace-we-wont-get-inquiry-into-north-shore-sewage-plant-problems-11226585 

So much money has gone down the $HIT-PIPE! This has become a total $HIT-BOX nightmare. So much of this wasted money could have gone into a bus and train tunnel under the inlet near the LGB, as well as a bus and train bridge on an improved Iron Bridge crossing. 


 Vancouver council calls for reopening of container truck entrance to port https://www.nsnews.com/economy-law-politics/vancouver-council-calls-for-reopening-of-container-truck-entrance-to-port-clark-drive-11231559 

Despite Vancouver not allowing much of a 1950s-1970s freeway within its small city limits, a lower level of Knight_Street should have been constructed. This could have been a 4 lane, divided truck route between the inlet and the Fraser River and Richmond. Then, the general surface level of Knight_Street could remain as a 4-6 lane regional corridor, but still not as a freeway.  

One of the classic regional Vancouver bottleneck-chokepoints was to have only 2 lanes each way in the middle of the Knight_St_Bridge (KSB). There should have been 2 wide emergency lanes and 2 wide shoulders. That way, the KSB could have been designed to eventually have 4 lanes each way. 1 lane from and 1 lane onto Marine_Drive and the KSB.

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

Marine Drive from South Granville to Boundary Road and through Burnaby, should have been a constant 6 lane eastern_section. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Drive_(Greater_Vancouver)

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Westham Island Bridge, B.C....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westham_Island_Bridge So, it would take until the mid 2020s for this wagon road era bridge to be seriously considered for upgrading.

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/westham-island-bridge-new-replacement-crossing-planning-transink-delta 

https://deltasheritage.com/buildings/wib.html Whenever a new bridge is built, it should have 2 wide lanes, 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks. 

https://lifesincrediblejourney.com/explore-historic-westham-island/

https://seabc.ca/rehabilitation-of-westham-island-bridge-and-alexandra-bridge/ 


The Marpole_Bridge_(1889) was another wagon road era crossing that took a very long time to be upgraded. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marpole_Bridge_(1889)#Congestion_and_replacement 


The 1970s Arthur_Laing_Bridge (ALB) should have had at least 6 lanes, plus 2 wide shoulders. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laing_Bridge#Since_opening There also should have been 2 sidewalks & 2 bike lanes. By now, there should have been a bus+and+bike+bridge built next to it.


Several decades after the removal of the (wagon road) Fraser_Street_Bridge_(1894), no replacement has ever been built. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Street_Bridge_(1894)#Provincial_government_headache  

At the very least, it should have been replaced with a bus+and+bike+bridge in the 1970s.

https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/photos-and-video-was-this-the-unluckiest-bridge-between-richmond-and-vancouver-4475444 However by now, there should have been a new 4 lane bridge with 2 emergency lanes, 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks. 

https://evelazarus.com/the-fraser-street-swing-span-bridge


The joke that is the Knight_Street_Bridge (KSB) was deliberately designed to be another quintessential BC bottleneck-chokepoint. The bridge should have opened with 6 lanes & 2 wide shoulders or emergency lanes. Pulse, 2 wide sidewalks & 2 bike lanes. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Street_Bridge#Maintenance,_upgrades_and_incidents Instead, the middle of the bridge is just 2 lanes each way, with 2 narrow sidewalks & no bike separate bike lanes. The KSB should have had a parallel bus+and+bike+bridge built next to it decades ago.  


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Westham+Island

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

The inept Knight Street Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Street_Bridge NSB 

https://voony.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/cycling-on-knight-bridge Despite opening in the early 1970s, the KSB is so poorly designed. There was no concept to have wide bike lanes, wide footpaths, 2 bus lanes, wide shoulders and 2 wide emergency lanes. Its another fine example of the narrow-minded Vancouver transportation planning mentality and the backwards BC approach to things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyBridge_(TransLink) Never was designed to have 2 express bus lanes, no bike lanes and footpaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Arm_Bridge No express bus lanes and only a half-assed bike lane and footpath.

Most of the Fraser_River passes through the BC wilderness, then small cities and towns. However, though Greater_Vancouver its been difficult to build proper big city size transportation infrastructure crossing it.

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Vancouver SkyTrain-Canada Line - Richmond–Brighouse to Waterfront

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJ9tXAF5s0 

Its very sad that a line which opened in 2009 with only 2 car trains, is still only using 2 car trains in 2026. The logic was to save money on construction, so instead of designing the stations to accommodate at least 5 car trains, there is only enough level clearance for 2.5 car trains, someday. The stations could have been designed with enough level clearance to eventually become doubleted in length. Unfortunately, its like a BC Mind Virus (BCMV) got in the way. The BCMV keeps thwarting so much infrastructure in Canada's most western province. 

For at least the past decade, there should have already been three, 20 m cars forming a 60 m train. Despite the absurd stations having a level clarence of only 50 m, Selective_door_operation could enable 3 car trains, not just some 2.5 car joke of a train. Even if the platforms can't ever be lengthened by 5-10 m, a 3 car train could still mostly have access to a 50 m station. Then with SDO, an extra car at both ends of the middle 3 cars would become a 5 car train.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_door_operation#International_variations 

It just would have been so much better if the stations were at least 60 m from the start. 80 m would have been better, but 100 m stations would almost look like a big city train. Unfortunately, the VMC & BCMV mindset keeps reducing the urban scale of things. 

Some other examples are the LGB and the Iron Bridge. The OSB and the KSB...

Friday, May 15, 2026

Granville Bridge death was preventable, advocates say

 https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/05/14/granville-bridge-death-was-preventable-say-advocates/ 

While the Granville+Bridge needs to have a higher fence like the Burrard+Bridge, there is another remaining pending danger. 

https://vancouversun.com/news/iio-investigates-womans-death-after-9-hour-incident-on-granville-street-bridge 

There is no central safety barrier to prevent head-on collisions. Whether a person becomes disoriented, or actually wants to crash into traffic from the opposite direction, there is no traffic divider.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/barrier-needed-on-vancouver-bridge-after-another-suicide-death-advocates-say/

The sidewalks could have been made a little wider in a way that there still could have been enough space for a traffic divider. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1td85mt/iio_investigates_womans_death_after_ninehour/ 


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Granville+Bridge Was 8 lanes, now 6, but with 2 bike lanes and wider sidewalks.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Burrard+Bridge Was 6 lanes, now 4, but with 2 bike lanes & already good sidewalks. 

Unfortunately, both bridges have no middle safety barrier to prevent head-on collisions, despite their recent modifications. 


The Pattullo+Bridge was too narrow to ever have a traffic divider. Fortunately, its 4 lane replacement does have a central divider. 

The inadequate Knight+Street+Bridge is only 4 lanes wide in the middle, but has a traffic safety barrier. The KSB really needs a bike, bus and HOV bridge next to it.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Oak+Street+Bridge A traffic divider was eventually installed, but the narrow bridge was never designed to have 2 emergency lanes, or 2 wide shoulders. There especially was no consideration to have 2 bus lanes on the OSB. Since there is no 24 hour train service to the airport, there should be a parallel bus and bike bridge. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Arthur+Laing+Bridge While it does have a traffic divider, there are no wide emergency lanes or wide shoulders. There isn't even enough space for 2 bus lanes. Thus, a bus and bike bridge really should be built next to it.

Monday, January 13, 2025

Knight Street Bridge

Despite the Knight_Street_Bridge opening in the 1970s for a seaport city, it wasn't designed to have 2 bus lanes, 2 HOV lanes & 2 truck lanes or even 2 emergency lanes. It was hardly designed with any future corridor-capacity in mind. Such narrow sidewalks that there should have been a bus & bike bridge built next to it decades ago. 

https://trafficcams.vancouver.ca/knightMarineBridge.htm

https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/695.html

https://trafficcams.vancouver.ca/knight.htm

https://buzzer.translink.ca/2024/06/knight-street-bridge-the-first-bridge-repaved-with-innovative-material



https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Knight+Street+Bridge 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=KSB

Monday, August 12, 2024

Several narrow Vancouver bridge issues

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-bridge-cyclist-wire-allegations

Someone might have been very angry with bike people and not with car, bus & truck people. The real problem is that so much of the older BC infrastructure just wasn't designed to be more of a multi-modal crossing. The+Lion+Bridge+and+The+Iron+Bridge have no rail rapid transit crossings next them.

The Ironworkers-Bridge is so narrow for a highway bridge in that location & wasn't designed for substantial future capacity. When it was initially designed in the 1950s, there was no concept to have 2 bus lanes, 2 HOV lanes, 2 truck lanes & 2 emergency lanes for a port city. Plus, at least 2 general traffic lanes each way & a provision for 2 train tracks. Thus, the 6 lane bridge is so overwhelmed, because it just can't do the job of an 8-10 lane wide bridge. While the Iron Bridge has 2 improved bike+lanes, they are part of the sidewalks.  

The former 8 lane Granville+Street will have 6 lanes, while the  & Oak+Street only has 4 lanes. The inadequate Oak+Street+Bridge (OSB) should have opened with at least 8 lanes, instead of only 4. Plus, 2 wide emergency lanes & 2 wide sidewalks. There still should be a new southbound OS Bridge, but the city would be against it. A narrow 4 lane bridge just doesn't have the space & capacity for 2 express bus lanes, 2 HOV & 2 truck lanes. Apparently, it's better to just funnel everything into only 2 lanes each way.  

The OSB should be twinned or replace with something like the Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge in Montreal. The largest city in Quebec is allowed to have a nice wide bridge & long metro trains, because Quebec isn't bound by anything like the backwards BC mentality. 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-montreals-new-44-billion-champlain-bridge-opens-to-traffic-for Fortunatly, the Vancouver mentality wasn't able to ever reach back to Montreal & prevent such a nice modern bridge from being built there. https://www.flatironcorp.com/project/champlain-bridge If you are from Montreal & have visited Vancouver, you will be surprise to see how much shorter an underground Vancouver train station is than what is allowed underground in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Seattle, SF & LA...

https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/granville-bridge-connector.aspx A bike & foot bridge should have been built next to it decades ago. Then the Granville+Bridge could have 3 general lanes each way, plus a bus & HOV lane each way. Instead, if 2 bus & HOV lanes are designated, there will only be 2 general lanes each way in the downtown core.

The Burrard Bridge should have had a bike & foot bride next to it. Instead, it was reduced from a 6 lane crossing to a 4 lane bridge.

The very narrow Oak+Street+Bridge & the Knight Street Bridge, should have had bus+and+bike+bridges built next to them decades ago. 

Most bridges in Vancouver & the metropolitan region just weren't designed with that much future capacity in mind, especially for buses & HOV lanes. Thus, it's a travesty that by now, almost every crossing should have had bus & bike bridges built next to them. 

https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/walk-bike-and-transit.aspx Unfortunatly, provisions for bus & bike lanes just weren't the thing to do several decades ago in BC.  

A truck lane is just as important as a bus & HOV lane. That's because freight should be efficiently & easily be transported in any major urban region.

https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/trucks-commercial-and-oversize-vehicles.aspx 



https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Iron+Bridge 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Lion+Bridge LGB 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Burrard+Bridge BSB

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Granville+Bridge GSB

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Oak+Street+Bridge OSB

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Arthur+Laing+Bridge ALB 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Knight+Street+Bridge KSB 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Oak+Street+and+Granville+Street OSB and GSB

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=the+missing+element

Saturday, June 27, 2026

How much will Vancouver change by 2036?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJtotvMq2ls 

The Lion+Bridge will likely still not have an express bus and LRT tunnel near it. The+Iron+Bridge still might not have a proper BRT and LRT bridge next to it. The OSB and the KSB will likely not have a bus and bike bridge built beside them. There will still likely be no new Fraser Street Bridge for bikes and buses. No Boundary Road bridges to provide a direct link between the North Shore and Richmond for buses, trucks and bikes.

While the first 2 Skytrain lines will have 5 car trains, the stunted YVR-Canada Line will only have 2.5 car trains. Vancouver still might not permit any office tower to have a 40th floor, but might allow some residential towers to be on a Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Toronto scale. 

However, BIG city thinking and planning in Vancouver has always been so difficult. Boston, SF and the City of Paris are ridiculously small cities like Vancouver with all 3 having a land area of less than 50 sq. mi. or 129.5 sq. km. Yet, Boston, SF and especially the City of Paris, have all been able to fit so much more into the same general space. That's because they aren't bound by anything like the inept and extreme Vancouver type restrictions. 


Friday, November 1, 2024

Vancouver's narrow bridges over the Fraser River

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-knight-street-video-concern

The Knight_Street_Bridge (KSB) was deliberately designed to not have a couple of emergency lanes. No truck lanes and especially no bus and HOV lanes. No proper bike lanes, just 2 narrow sidewalks. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Street_Bridge#Infrastructure

Thus, the Knight_Street_Bridge is one of the best examples of BC bottleneck planning.

https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/695.html

The Knight_Street_Bridge is so narrow and inept, that a new HOV, bus and bike bridge should be built right next to it. The Knight+Street+Bridge is only 4 lanes wide in the middle, so a parallel 4 lane bridge would greatly improve things. One lane on and one lane off between the twin bridge crossing and Marine-Drive. Then the main 3 lanes each way onto the 6 lanes of Knight+Street up to Kingsway. 


The incredibly narrow Fraser_Street_Bridge (FSB) was torn down and should have been rebuilt or replaced by the 1970s, especially by the 1990s. The city and the Provincial_government didn't seem to understand that a new bridge there would be great as a HOV, bus and bike bridge. A couple of wide emergency lanes would have made it a lot easier for emergency vehicles to go between Vancouver & Richmond.


Despite Oak Street being 6 lanes wide, the BC bottleneck mentality wanted to force everything into a 4 lane Oak_Street_Bridge (OSB). Even if there was no concept to have bus lanes in the late 1950s, the OSB should have had 6 lanes, plus 2 wide emergency lanes and 2 wide sidewalks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Street_Bridge#Infrastructure

By now, there should have been a HOV, bus & bike bridge built next to the narrow & inept Oak_Street_Bridge. 


The Arthur-Laing-Bridge (ALB) is only 2 lanes each way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laing_Bridge


The multigenerational inept Vancouver & BC planning agenda is all about creating more congestion. 

Fortunately, the 8 lane Champlain+Bridge also has 2 passenger train tracks. This was possible, because Montreal and Quebec don't have anything like the Vancouver & BC mentality to hinder them.

Why have a provision for 10 car SkyTrains, when a 2-4 car joke of a train can enable more congestion? That's the backward BC way.

It's amazing that the Montreal+Metro was designed to have 9 car trains, even back in the 1960s. Montreal and Quebec in general, just don't have anything like a backwater BC mentally to contend with. Quebec isn't just able to do more, because it has more people than BC, Quebec has been able to accomplish more, because it isn't like BC.

https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/bridges-and-structures.aspx

Despite being a newer crossing, the Arthur+Laing+Bridge was only designed to have 4 lanes, just like the older Oak+Street+Bridge. Both bridges should have been built with very wide shoulders, so that they eventually could have provided 6 lanes. Plus, both bridges should have had very wide sidewalks. However, that goes against the chokepoint planning mentality. 


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Knight+Street+Bridge

Saturday, April 19, 2025

The narrow bridges of Vancouver, Canada

https://montecristomagazine.com/community/forgotten-bridges-vancouver

The LGB just wasn't designed with any future capacity in mind. 

History of the Lions Gate Bridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHqi7Kijedw 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge#History

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Lions_Gate.jpg 

The inadequate 3 lane LGB is currently the most narrow road bridge in backwards & stubborn Vancouver. It's been in that category since the removal of the 2 lane Fraser Street Bridge in the 1970s. There was a refusal to twin the absurdly narrow LGB between the 1950s & 1970s. By the 1980s there should have been a subway tunnel and an 8 lane tunnel. Then two of the lanes could have been for buses. Georgia+Street is 7 lanes wide as it gets closer to Stanley Park. Thus, the main part of a tunnel through the park could have provided 3 general lanes each way & a bus lane each way. Instead, the 7 lanes of the westernmost part of Georgia Street are funneled into a 3 lane causeway & a 3 lane bridge. The LGB would be fantastic as just a bike & foot crossing, with train, bus & road tunnels well beneath & beside it.    

The Burrard_Bridge, BB or  BSB opened with 6 lanes, but now it only has 4 lanes. There are 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks. Had a parallel bike-bridge been built, the BB could have still had 6 lanes. While the BB has a lower level provision for streetcars or tram-trains, Vancouver did its darndest to phase out streetcars well before the 1960s. 

The Ironworkers_Memorial_Bridge has 6 lanes, but should also have had 2 wide shoulders & 2 very wide sidewalks. Unfortunately, there was no provision for a lower deck, as is also the case with all of the other Vancouver  bridges. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironworkers_Memorial_Second_Narrows_Crossing

Any replacement of the inadequate Ironworkers+Memorial+Bridge should be on the scale of what Perth, Seattle and Montreal have done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Street_Bridge#Third_bridge_(1954)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=vPSdF0jRTC4 The Granville-Bridge or GSB is the widest bridge in the city limits. It opened with 8 lanes, but is being transformed into a 6 lane bridge with 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks. Had there been a paralel bike & foot bride, the GSB could have still been 8 lanes wide. Then there could have been 2 exclusive bus lanes.

https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/granville-bridge-connector.aspx

The Oak Street Bridge should have been 8 lanes wide, with 2 wide sidewalks.

The Knight+Street+Bridge should have been 8 lanes with 2 wide sidewalks. Instead, its a 4 lane chokepoint.

The Arthur+Laing+Bridge should have been at least 6 lanes with 2 proper bike lanes & 2 sidewalks.

If the Cambie_Street_Bridge had 2 very wide sidewalks, then its likely that it would still have 6 lanes instead of 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambie_Bridge#The_present_bridge

Unfortunately, bottleneck or chokepoint planning is part of the Vancouver & BC mentality.

Of course BC & the Metro+Vancouver Region just hasn't put enough funds and effort towards proper big-city planning & infrastructure development. 

If Perth+and+Seattle had to conform to the extremely restrictive Vancouver approach to things, those cities would be in a perpetual state of chaos. Fortunately, nothing like the BC Mind Virus has ever reached WA.


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Lions+Gate+Bridge LGB

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Knight+Street+Bridge KSB

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Oak+Street+and+Granville+Street 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Oak+Street+Bridge OSB 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Arthur+Laing+Bridge ALB