UTL is about exploring past, present and future urban technologies in science and fiction, etc...
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Sydney Harbour Bridge (SHB)
Friday, April 19, 2024
The 3 Lane Bridge
A 3 lane bridge, viaduct or tunnel can be great if its for one direction. However, if it's for 2 way traffic, it can easily get very congested, unless its in a rural area.
The Johnson_Street_Bridge in Victoria, BC & the Lions_Gate_Bridge in Vancouver, are quintessential 3 BC lane bottlenecks. How is this possible? Make sure that a bus & HOV tunnel or bridge isn't built next to them. Especially make sure that a heavy rail or a light rail tunnel or bridge isn't built close to them. Thus, both crossings are fine examples of BC congestive planning. It's also crucially symbolic, as BC has been refusing to keep up with urban transportation needs. Thinking big & building big in Texas is no problem, because it's so far away from the backwater BC planning mentality. However, even Alberta & Washington State never seemed interested in taking a backward BC approach to things as well.
If you are from Montreal & haven't visited Vancouver or Victoria, nothing can prepare you for the shock, if you ever do. As preparation, it might be good to drive over to Jacques+Bizard+Blvd and then over the 3 lane Jacques_Bizard_Bridge. Of course this is in a backwater part of Montreal. However, imagine if this 3 lane bottleneck was at one of the main crossings in Montreal. Well, that's what you would have to prepare yourself for, if you visit Vancouver or Victoria. Whether its a low level bridge or a high level bridge, as long as it's a 3 lane chokepoint, it meets the BC standard. Fortunately, Montreal was able to build a new bridge there, simpy because it doesn't have a Vancouver like mentality. https://montreal.ca/en/articles/building-new-bridge-pont-jacques-bizard-26379
The Windsor+Bridge is a backwater, 3 lane Sydney crossing. Just imagine if that was on the edge of the CBD. Well, if you are from NSW & you visit backwards BC, nothing can prepare you for such narrow bridges, short trains & stumpy buildings. Fortunately, nothing like the BC mentality was ever allowed to take over NSW.
If you are from New_Haven,_Connecticut, you might be shocked if you visit the 2 largest urban areas in the BC part of Canada.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ted+Smout+Memorial+Bridge,+Brisbane,+Australia
"The bridge features
- 3 traffic lanes (originally 2 for regular traffic and a T2 (bus, taxi and vehicles with more than 2 occupants) lane, but the T2 lane has now been converted to a regular lane).
- A 4.5 m (15 ft) wide pedestrian and cycle path that connects footpath and cycle networks on either side of Bramble Bay. The path is separated from traffic by a concrete barrier." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Smout_Memorial_Bridge Of course after duplication, it became a 6 lane crossing.
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Senakw's first rental housing towers begin to take shape
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/senakw-squamish-first-nation-vancouver-towers-construction-july-2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver
The tallest buildings in this Vancouver development should have been taller than the tallest building in NW, Burnaby, Coquitlam or Surrey.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/pier-west-1/30319
178 m / 584 ft https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/complex/3304
Senakw should have had at least 2 or 3 towers much taller than the Living_Shangri-La, the tallest in Vancouver at 200m. Something like the Crown_Sydney scale, is banned in Vancouver, but it's no problem for big thinking cities like Sydney & SF.
| Tip | 271.3 metres (890 ft) |
|---|---|
| Observatory | 250 metres (820 feet) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Sydney#Approval
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver#Tallest_proposed_and_under_construction Most of BC is a backwater wildernes that is unapealling for people, but great for wildlife & vegetation.
The plan was to continually thwart Vancouver, Victoria & Kelowna for as long as possible. That in turn slows down the few key areas of urban grown in BC. NSW & California, just never had the same, KEEP THEM OUT MENTALITY. Thus, they were able to think & properly plan for growth. There seems to be an unwritten rule, that as long as Vancouver can do things which are impressive to Kelowna-Victoria-Prince+George-and-Kamloops, that's good enough.
Sydney, NSW & SF, California just were never under the extreme restrictions that Vancouver has. Plus, Syd & SF haven't been under a multigenerational agenda to keep holding those scenic cities back.
Sydney and SF aren't afraid to build taller next to a bridge, like Vancouver is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Sydney#Tallest_buildings_(150m+)
"The taller tower, One Rincon Hill South Tower, was completed in 2008 and stands 60 stories and 641 feet (195 m) tall.[A][B] The shorter tower, marketed as Tower Two at One Rincon Hill, was completed in 2014 and reaches a height of 541 feet (165 m) with 50 stories." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Rincon_Hill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_San_Francisco#Tallest_buildings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_central_business_district#Transport This is what you are able to do when you aren't bound by the limiting mentality & backward agenda that Vancouver has. For some reason, Vancouver hasn't been able to get established big cities to emulate its congestive & inept planning standards. That's because most major cities want to plan & implement good transportation infrastructure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco#Public_transportation
Fortunately, Sydney & SF never wanted to take the backwards Vancouver approach to things.
Canada is far off from even containing 1% of the world's human population & BC has yet to have the population of 1 Switzerland. Proper infrastructure planning like in Japan & S. Korea, the UK, CH & Germany, has already been able to accommodate many more people. However, most of the world is non-white & some parts of Canada still want to hold onto the old White British Colonial mentality for as long as possible.
Monday, October 28, 2024
BC and Canada
The BC part of Canada has been engrossed by a backwater and backward mentality since its inception.
Victoria,_British_Columbia is still a sleepy backwater, while Melbourne is a mighty city in Victoria_(state), Australia. Sidney,_British_Columbia is another classic BC backwater, while Sydney is the mighty capital of NSW. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_central_business_district
Due to an extremely slow growth mandate & agenda, Greater_Victoria is a far cry from reaching the scale of Sydney and Montreal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Montreal
Victoria and SW BC are the mildest parts of Canada during the horrible winter. It just so happens that a series of various overlapping restrictions were imposed so as to hold back the scale & progress of backwater BC. Most of BC remains as a wilderness, but it's been very difficult to establish a half-dozen major cities in BC.
While Montreal is big by small Vancouver's standards, Montreal is small when compared to the scale of Melbourne. Despite bing in Canada, Toronto was gradually allowed to become a proper big city. Toronto has some taller buildings than Sydney, NSW, but no 100 story towers like Melbourn & Chicago have. However, Toronto was eventually allowed to have its own 100+ story building.
Why "Nobody" Lives In The VAST MAJORITY Of British Columbia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdeZV_caT78
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Bus Rapid Transit, Cushing Bridge, Calgary
Vancouver needs bus-bridges as much as Calgary, but of course Vancouver is slow to the party, once again. The 4 lane bottleneck, AKA the Cushing+Bridge in Calgary could have gotten the Vancouver Chokepoint Award. There aren't any HOV lanes or even emergency lanes, just 2 lanes each way. However, what transformed this BC type bottleneck in Calgary into a semi-decent crossing, was the simple addition of a bus & bike bridge. The Greater Vancouver Area should have had bus & bike bridges built next to all of the regional crossings decades ago. However, that would go against the congestive planning approach, which is so intertwined within backwards BC, but not in Alberta & Washington State.
The Pattullo Bridge replacement shouldn't require a bus & train bridge to be built next to it, but it might eventually. If only it could have been properly designed in the first place to not just have 2 lanes each way, but 2 bus & 2 HOV lanes as well. Plus, built high & strong enough with a provision to allow for LRT and trucks on a lower deck.
Unfortunately, no one seriously planned to have an express bus and an LRT line between NW & Surrey, because the Skytrain isn't a 24hr system. Overnight buses can't go on the Skybridge, because no one allowed for a provision to have a couple of bus lanes on it. Thus, the Pattullo Bridge replacement wont have any bus or emergency lanes. Even if someday the Pattullo Bridge replacement is widened from 4 to 6 lanes, there still won't be any emergency lanes and probably no bus and HOV lanes.
Light_rail_in_Sydney, NSW. Once again, BC falls so far behind. BC was so quick to get rid of its streetcars before the 1960s. Where as NSW has been gradually reinstating a modern version of their old tram lines.
New Tramways_in_Paris have been gradually added, but not in backwater BC.
Unlike NW & Surrey, Portland_has_Streetcars & the MAX train which cross the river. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JvGTx4ufFo
https://www.travelportland.com/plan/portland-streetcar
MAX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpfRKqy96_E
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=BRT
There is just something backwards in the way that BC does things.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Best mate of man killed in Harbour Bridge crash calls for safety improvements
The Sydney+Harbour+Bridge (SHB) is a nice wide structurer with high traffic volume, but there are some safety issues.
All & all, the SHB is a much larger & better structure than the very narrow, dangerous & inept Pattullo+Bridge in BC.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Sydney+Harbour+Bridge
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
The Sydney Metro Train
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro , https://www.sydneymetro.info/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InYZw4mIWGA
https://www.sydneymetro.info/citysouthwest/project-overview
| Train length |
|
|---|---|
| Headway | 4 minutes (peak) 5-7 minutes (intra-peak) 10 minutes (off-peak) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro#Operations
"The Metro North West Line currently operates with 6-car trains running on 4-minute headways. After the addition of the Stage 2 extension to Bankstown, the stations’ platforms will be configured to allow for future use of 8-car trains and the signalling system designed to allow for 2-minute headways, both of which are planned to be introduced once increased patronage demands it. Eight-car trains have a design capacity of 1,539 customers and increasing the running frequency to ultimately 30 trains per hour (2-minute headway) would provide a maximum capacity of 46,170 passengers per hour per direction." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro#Capacity
Unlike backward Greater Vancouver, Sydney makes it easier to have longer trains to better handle future capacity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro_Metropolis_Stock
Fortunately, Sydney builds to NSW standards, not the backwater standards of backwards BC.
Monday, May 12, 2025
NSW OSCAR Trains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_H_set
| Train length | 81.55 m (267 ft 6+5⁄8 in) |
|---|---|
| Car length |
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_H_set#Design
An 8 car train stopping at a 6 car station.
"Example of selective door operation. The doors in the first 2 carriages are not opened, because the platform is too short for an 8-carriage OSCAR train." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_door_operation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Trains
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Selective+Door+Operation
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
City of Burnaby switches to height-based building policies, abandoning density limits
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/burnaby-height-based-development-framework
Fortunately, Vancouver can't stunt and stump Burnaby anymore than it could with Parramatta, NSW. Vancouver is trying its darndest to prevent any buildings from rising above 200 m. Unlike Vancouver, Burnaby doesn't try to look for any excuse to hold its city back.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=building+shadowing+policies
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Friday, March 14, 2025
Massive Jericho Lands development will be 20-times denser than its neighbourhood
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Sydney's First 300m Towers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUuy94brhLI Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, GC City & Perth, are all allowed to have taller buildings than little stumpy provincial Vancouver, Canada.
How Sydney´s Skyline Will Change by 2030 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzz6aXvTZko Unfortunatly, the AI voice nation wasn't set to an Australian standard.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Sydney, NSW
http://www.sydney.com/destinations/sydney/sydney-city/city-centre/events/australia-day-sydney
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Vancouver developer pitches 43- and 39-storey towers next to Commodore Ballroom
Of course, nothing to rival the tallest in Edmonton or Calgary & especially not Seattle, SF & Sydney, NSW.
https://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applications/800-876-granville-st/revised-introduction.pdf
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Sydney Metro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro Perhaps its because of the warmer climate, but this Sydney Metro train will be longer than any metro or subway rain in Canada.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro#Capacity "...6-car trains running on 4-minute headways. After the addition of the Stage 2 extension to Bankstown, the stations' platforms will be configured to allow for future use of 8-car trains and the signalling system designed to allow for 2-minute headways..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro#Rolling_stock
| Train length | 121.5 m (398 ft 7+15⁄32 in) |
|---|---|
| Car length | 20.25 m (66 ft 5+1⁄4 in) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro_Metropolis_Stock#Design_and_construction Eventually, an 8 car train could be 532 feet long. That's longer than a 500 foot or 152.5m 9 car Montreal Metro train. So far, the max on the Toronto subway are 6 car trains.
If you are from NSW & visit the BC part of Canada, you won't believe how short the train between the airport & Downtown_Vancouver is. Its a 2 car joke of a train & is a fine example of inept transportation infrastructure planning in backwards BC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Airport#Rail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Sydney_International_Airport#Rail
Monday, February 17, 2025
Old and new narrow bridges in BC
The New_Westminster_Bridge opened in 1904 and in typical backwater BC style, it was too narrow to do the job, right from the start. Not only should the bridge have been double-tracked, there should have been at least a 2 lane upper deck. At least having a provision for 2 tracks and more than just a 1 lane wagon road.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Fraser_River_Bridge%2C_New_Westminster%2C_BC.jpg
http://archives.newwestcity.ca/Results.aspx Thats all you got back then, just a 1 lane wagon road.
http://archives.newwestcity.ca/Results.aspx? Despite the bridge being required to handle passenger trains as well as freight trains, everything is funneled into a single track, even well over a century later.
http://archives.newwestcity.ca/Results.aspx?AC Had there been some real forward planning, there should have been at least 4 wagon lanes on the upper deck & at leas 3 tracks on the lower deck.
Unfortunatly, NW only saw itself as a provincial capital backwater & that also became the case when the BC capital was relocated to Victoria.
http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/bridges/Vancouver_area.htm
https://www.newwestrecord.ca/local-news/looking-back-and-looking-forward-pattullo-bridge-opened-85-years-ago-today-6106270 It must have been amazing to finally have a bridge with 4 wagon roads. Unfortunatly, there was no provision for a lower deck to accommodate interurban tram-trains & trucks. https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=britishcolumbia/pattullo
https://www.reddit.com/r/SurreyBC/comments/yhf6wg/pattullo_bridge_in_silver_grey_1957 Had there been a provision for a lower deck, then perhaps by 1960, both decks could have provided a wider 3 lanes each way.
Unlike the SHB in NSW, the Old-Pattullo-Bridge wasn't built with the same level of quality and wasn't designed to last that long.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/pattullo-bridge-new-replacement-construction-update-2024 Of course the new bridge is a year behind schedule and once again, doesn't seem to be designed with much that much future capacity in mind.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/pattullo-bridge-new-crossing-widening-six-lanes-surrey-board-of-trade Aparently, opening the new bridge with 6 lanes & a provision for a lower deck with 2 bus & HOV lanes & 2 truck lanes is too advanced thinking for BC infrastructure development. Just like the short Skytrain stations, having double deck bridges goes against the congestive planning agenda. So, the new bridge will open with only 2 lanes each way & no emergency lanes & especially no bus-HOV lanes or truck lanes for a seaport region. Thus, everything will be crammed into a 4 lane crossing. Why would such a bridge not open with enough width for 2 bus & HOV lanes? Most people in the Greater Vancouver Region know that the Skytrain isn't open 24 hours, so a good bus & HOV bridge between NW & Surrey would make sense, but this is the BC part of Canada where a lot of things don't make sense.
https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca/
https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca/about/projectoverview/
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Pattullo+Bridge
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=old+and+new+narrow+bridges
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Bridge and Tunnel Projects in Australia
https://www.webuildvalue.com/en/reportage/sydney-harbour-bridge.html
https://www.smec.com/mm/project/west-gate-tunnel-project/
https://lpclawyers.com/bridging-the-gap-part-1-bridge-projects-in-australia
https://www.georgiou.com.au/project/mandurah-estuary-bridge-duplication/
https://www.bridgewaterbridge.tas.gov.au/about/history , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQJIdGUlFqg , https://www.bridgewaterbridge.tas.gov.au/
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_deck_of_the_south_east_pylon_of_the_Sydney_Harbour_Bridge.jpg)