https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-canada-least-happy-province
TTI is about, Architecture, AI, Engineering, IT, Transportation and Urban Tech in general
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
lions-gate-bridge-counterflow-upgrade
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/lions-gate-bridge-counterflow-upgrade
No matter what they try to do, a 3 lane bridge will always be very limited.
By now a lot of other cities in this predicament would have build a tunnel or a larger bridge.
The Urban (Technology) Intersection
Urban Tech can make cities more efficient, but hopefully not a technological prison.
https://urbannext.net/allthingsurban/urban-tech-101-digital-companies-changing-our-cities/
https://creativetribes.co/increasing-role-technology-urban-planning
https://smartcityhub.com/technology-innnovation/these-are-the-top-10-urban-innovations/
https://smartcityhub.com/technology-innnovation/six-smart-cities-smart/
https://smartcityhub.com/technology-innnovation/which-are-the-smartest-cities-in-the-world-and-why/
https://tomorrow.city/a/technology-for-smart-cities-the-pillars-of-urban-planning-of-the-future
https://tomorrow.city/a/ai-and-cities
Monday, May 24, 2021
Friday, May 14, 2021
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Saturday, April 10, 2021
Seattle northgate-link-light-rail-extension
https://dailyhive.com/seattle/northgate-link-light-rail-extension-announcement
https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/northgate-link-extension
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Link_tunnel
"The twin-bore tunnel carries Link light rail service on the University Link Extension of Central Link (now Line 1), running from the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to University of Washington station via Capitol Hill station." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Link_tunnel
"Westlake station is situated below Pine Street between 4th and 6th avenues in Downtown Seattle. The station consists of two side platforms, a mezzanine level, and entrances from the surface; all three levels are connected by a series of elevators, escalators, and stairs.[2] The 500-foot-long (150 m) mezzanine spans the length of the station, unlike other downtown tunnel stations..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westlake_station_(Sound_Transit)#Station_layout
A 500' or 152.44m long station is the same length as a Montreal Metro station. Amazing, because Seattle never had to conform to small Vancouver train tunnel standards.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/WestlakeStationPlatform.jpg/640px-WestlakeStationPlatform.jpg"University of Washington station consists of a single, 380-foot-long (120 m) island platform located 95 feet (29 m) below street level.[3][74] The station has a stated platform capacity of 1,600 people; it was designed to accommodate large crowds attending Husky Stadium events." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Washington_station#Station_layout
Even a 380ft station is still longer than any underground station in V&BC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Hill_Streetcar V,BC has nothing like the First_Hill_Streetcar_401_on_Broadway. Seattle and Portland were able to revive some of their streetcar network because they aren't under V & BC limitations. V,BC will be one of the last cities on the planet to reestablish some of its streetcar lines.
Friday, April 02, 2021
Friday, March 26, 2021
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Saturday, March 13, 2021
The miniature Vancouver agenda
https://www.urbanyvr.com/vantage-miniature-vancouver That's just how some people would like to keep Vancouver, as a little toy city.
A multi-generational miniaturizing or thwarting process started in Vancouver several decades ago. Essentially a white power-structure wanted to create so many overlapping municipal restrictions in order to dramatically slow the growth of the city. By refusing to build up proper big city infrastructure, Vancouver continually demonstrates its reluctance to act like a big city. Vancouver is one of the smallest major cities on earth. However, the BC Lower_Mainland could contain, Greater_Montreal , the Calgary_Metropolitan_Region , the Edmonton_Metropolitan_Region and Winnipeg. So a clever way was devised to keep the region from becoming another Toronto or Montreal or even like Seattle or any other major urban region that people want to move to.
The result is having short & congested trains when many cities allow 8 to 10 car trains. Having narrow bridges & roads to increase congestion & frustration. Buildings are kept short, despite the high cost of land.
Vancouver & BC is all about keeping people out, but since a force force field can't be established around BC, something else was done. Just keep limiting or restricting the size of the overall infrastructure & hope that no one notices. That's what the predominantly white power-structure still wants. Of course if they openly revealed their agenda, there just might be a multicultural movement that would demand that Vancouver start to behave more like all the big cities in Canada. That BC allow for significant growth. Switzerland can fit into BC about 23 times. Yet, BC has yet to reach the population of one Switzerland.
Unfortunately at this point, its become quite evident that unlike most major cities, Vancouver still refuses to build up proper big city infrastructure.
At least its interesting to see what other major cities are able to do, simply because they aren't under the planning & building restrictions of Vancouver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal#Transportation Mon. & To. flourish in part, because they aren't under any type of small Vancouver or BC building limitations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto#Transportation It would be like a Sci-Fi horror story if Vancouver was able to force Toronto & Montreal to only have 4 lane roads & short trains with only 2 - 4 rail-coaches. Fortunately, Vancouver & BC in general, were unable to change the mentality of Toronto & Montreal. Even much closer Seattle & Calgary are able to have much wider roads than what Vancouver allows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary#Infrastructure
"Construction is underway on the final two legs of the freeway in west and southwest Calgary; both legs have been divided into north and south projects. The time-sensitive northern segment of the southwest leg will be completed first, following a land transfer agreement[42] with the Tsuu T'ina First Nation that was reached in 2013. It is being built as a 6-8 lane freeway to be completed by October 1, 2021,[43] with the ability to upgrade the corridor to a 16-lane freeway with express and collector lanes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoney_Trail#Future (In Vancouver, its like the roads can't be any wider than what Lethbridge has.)
"In late 2020 the Government of Alberta announced they will replace the existing eastbound bridge over the Bow River on Southeast Stoney Trail, widen the westbound bridge and build a new, stand-alone pedestrian bridge. The project will boost the number of lanes to four in each direction — currently the eastbound crossing has two lanes, while the westbound has three." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoney_Trail#Future (Calgary actually will build a pedestrian bridge so that road lanes don't have to be reduced.The Vancouver approach is to avoid building pedestrian & bike bridges, opting instead to reduce lanes of traffic. This bottleneck planning approach ensures the best way to achieve even more congestion. So far, no one from Vancouver or BC has been able to get Albertans to go back to the horse & biggie days. Or, to simply ban most vehicles & force most people to go on bikes, skateboards or roller-blades, in addition to public transit. A good transportation system means having longer trains, wider roads & more bike & foot bridges to not reduce traffic lanes.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Metropolitan_Region#/media/File:Calgary_Skyline_2015.png 4 lanes each way with 2 C Train tracks in the middle.
The closest attempt in Greater Vancouver is in Burnaby. Only because the train is elevated, there might be a potential to have 4 lanes each way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brentwood_Town_Centre_station#/media/File:Brentwood_Skytrain_long-exposure.jpg However, like in Vancouver, its tough enough just to have 3 lanes each way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Highway_7#/media/File:Lougheed_Hwy_near_Brentwood_Stn.JPG
British_Columbia_Highway_7 doesn't have to be upgraded to a freeway, but most of it should have been 8 lanes wide by now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton#Infrastructure
"The entire freeway road was built with expansion in mind; almost all bridges were built wide enough for expansion to the ultimate stage which includes as many as six main travel lanes in one direction, depending on location." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Henday_Drive#Future (A potential of 6 lanes each way in Edmonton. In Vancouver, its tough enough to have streets that are 6 lanes wide.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_Transit_Service#LRT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Deer,_Alberta Two parallel bridges that allow for 3 lanes each way. Not a big deal for RD, but for Vancouver the power-structure doesn't even like more than 2 lanes each way.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Fort_McMurray_Athabasca_River_Bridges.jpg/640px-Fort_McMurray_Athabasca_River_Bridges.jpg Many cities will have parallel bridges less than a block apart. This is a way to add capacity to the overall crossing. In Vancouver this is frowned upon. In stead of increasing capacity, the crossings are kept narrow & sometimes even a lane or 2 is removed. This really helps to increase congestion, but that's whats expected with bottleneck planning. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Fort_McMurray_Athabasca_River_Bridges_2.png/640px-Fort_McMurray_Athabasca_River_Bridges_2.png Vancouver has taken measures to prevent it from ever having any bridge or overall crossing from containing 10 lanes as in Ft. McM.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Surrey_aerial_view.JPG/640px-Surrey_aerial_view.JPG However, Vancouver was unable to stop Surrey from having a 10 lane crossing.Friday, March 12, 2021
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Friday, February 26, 2021
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Friday, February 05, 2021
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Friday, January 22, 2021
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Friday, January 01, 2021
The COVID pandemic era
Unfortunately, the COVID-19_pandemic has become the perfect excuse to limit nonwhite immigration into some countries. Especially Canada, which has the 2 largest land area of any nation, but has less than 40 million people. Indeed, Canada has less than half of 1% of the worlds population. So much of the world has been kept out, without Canada ever posting, KEEP THEM OUT signs. However, the end result is a series of things that still keeps Canada from ever containing 1% of the worlds population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Oceania#Australia
Australia was able to build up much more of its infrastructure than Canada has. Yet, Australia has millions of fewer people than Canada. Up until the covid era, Australia was already building up its infrastructure as if it had a larger population than Canada.
"Troubling new evidence about Canadian attitudes, shaped by the pandemic, suggests that even when borders finally reopen and the economic rebuilding begins, immigrants may no longer be as welcome as they have been in the past.
Outside Canada, the far right has stoked anti-immigrant rhetoric, and Canada is not immune to racism against immigrants." https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-hardened-canadian-views-on-immigration-146512
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Saturday, December 19, 2020
Monday, December 14, 2020
Saturday, December 05, 2020
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Wednesday, October 07, 2020
Sunday, October 04, 2020
Chicago vs. Toronto: 10 Geographical Similarities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56SCacQEkb4
Both are big cities on a lake shore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loop_(CTA) Its elevated with subway connections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_subway#Overview TTC has a loop, but its all in subway.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/875-north-michigan-avenue/345 100 stories
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/skytower/15295 95 stories
Saturday, October 03, 2020
The Riverline in Camden, NJ
"What is this thing? Is this a tram running through the city streets but on diesel? Or is this a train?
Camden, NJ is right across the river from Philadelphia. - The River Line (stylized as River LINE) is a diesel tram-train light rail system in southern New Jersey, United States, that connects the cities of Camden and Trenton, New Jersey's capital. It is operated for New Jersey Transit by the Southern New Jersey Rail Group (SNJRG), which originally included Bechtel Group and Bombardier. Now that the project is in its operational phase, Bombardier is the only member of SNJRG. The River Line is so named because the path between those two cities runs more or less parallel to the Delaware River." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAZosllcM74Wednesday, September 30, 2020
601-beach-crescent-vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/601-beach-crescent-vancouver-rezoning-approval
55 stories, but it still should have been another 10-20 floors taller.
526-granville-street-office-tower
https://www.urbanyvr.com/526-granville-street-office-tower/
Too short, not 40, not 30, not even 25 stories.
broadway-commercial
https://www.urbanyvr.com/broadway-commercial-westbank/
Too small for a project next to 2 rapid transit lines.
the vancouver-office-market
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-office-market-q2-2020
Keep holding it back, as usual.
granville-bridge-connector-interim-design-approved
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/granville-bridge-connector-interim-design-approved
A new bike and pedestrian bridge should have been built instead.
Monday, September 28, 2020
the-post-office-redevelopment
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/amazon-the-post-office-redevelopment-lease
It really should be called, the Stump. Not 55, 45, 35 or even 25 stories. WTH?
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
Tuesday, September 01, 2020
Monday, August 03, 2020
alberni-street-tower
https://www.urbanyvr.com/alberni-street-som-tower/
Should have been at least 10 floors taller.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
TUI
The-Urban-Intersection Point, Of Cities and Technology in general...
(This blog is in a very roughed out format. Perhaps eventually after hundreds of posts, it will gradually start to look a little more complete.)
TUI started out as a place where I could reference & list a bunch of urban links. Then over the past several years I noticed that other cities just as scenic as Vancouver, BC were able to do a lot more things and on a much larger scale. So many other cities don't look for excuses to continually hold things back, like Vancouver does. Simply put, no other major city is subjected to the overall restrictive or scaling down process known as, Vancouverism. Unofficially, the Vancouver planning mentality seems to be about almost watering everything down, while most real cities remain un-stunted in their scale and progress.
TUI isn't just about cities and urban technology, although that is the main theme. It's also about comparing several things that various BIG cities have been allowed to do. Being from Vancouver, its amazing to see what so many cities around the world can do, simply because they aren't under the extreme multi-generational zoning controls and limitations of Vancouver. Apparently, Vancouver is suppose to be a stunted city, because it is in a scenic setting. Yet, several other cities that are also in a scenic setting, have nowhere near the same level of restrictive view corridors & building size restrictions, with short trains and narrow roads that Vancouver imposes. It's amazing to see the size and extent of the urban infrastructure that is so commonplace in most major cities, yet not permitted in small-scale thinking of Vancouver and BC, in general.
Of course the two closest major cities to Vancouver are, Seattle and Calgary. Some might say that Calgary isn't as scenic as Seattle, because it isn't by a big lake or the ocean. However, I think that Calgary is a scenic city in its own right, just as Seattle is by the ocean and lakes. Its impressive to see what both of these cities have been able to accomplish without the small city thinking mentality of Vancouver & BC to curtail them.
It's as if Seattle and Calgary as well as most cities, have a symbolic Vancouver stump next to their version of a towering office building.
The Vancouver stumps vs. the Seattle & Calgary office towers. One_Union_Square at 456 feet (139 m) is just another stumpy building in Seattle. Yet, it would be one of the tallest office towers in Vancouver or anywhere in BC. So in effect, when the 2nd tower was built, it was like showing a major Seattle office tower next to a Vancouver stump.
| Roof | One Union Square: 456 ft (139 m) Two Union Square: 741 ft (226 m) |
|---|---|
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | One Union Square: 36 Two Union Square: 56 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Square_(Seattle)
The view From_Calgary_Tower , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suncor_Energy_Centre
When the Petro-Canada Centre opened in 1984 its Vancouver stumpy sidekick would be one of the tallest office buildings in BC & still is.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons Sometimes I wonder how a city so close to Vancouver could permit an office tower to be 40 stories taller than the tallest office building in BC. Well of course, Seattle isn't under the small scale building limitations that Vancouver has imposed. Indeed, there is no office building in BC that has been permitted to even have a 40th floor, let alone 76 stories like in Seattle.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Downtown_Calgary_2020-3.jpg The days of a 30 to 35 story Vancouver size office building in Calgary & Seattle being impressive are long gone.wikipedia/commons/Vancouver_Skyline_and_Mountains The 34 or 36 story Scotia_Tower in Vancouver still remains as one of the prominent office buildings on the skyline. Yet, in most cities it would just be another background stump. Even in other scenic cities like Sydney, SF, Seattle & Auckland. Unlike those cities, Vancouver uses its scenic setting to limit the size of building & infrastructure overall. This helps with the, KEEP THEM OUT Agenda in BC, especially in Vancouver.
Unlike scenic Sydney, Vancouver has used almost any excuse to have small buildings, short trains and narrow roads. All because the Vancouver interpretation of a scenic city is to keep everything small.
Friday, August 23, 2019
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Monday, August 19, 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Vancouver Skytrain - Waterfront Stn to King George Stn
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Friday, August 16, 2019
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Bloor–Yonge station...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloor%E2%80%93Yonge_station
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bloor-Yonge/@43.6705019,-79.396956,3272m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x0:0xe518535946532948!2sRosedale+Station!8m2!3d43.676842!4d-79.388878!3m4!1s0x882b34ac2a6598f9:0x8952e75c4eca1d62!8m2!3d43.670906!4d-79.3856373
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosedale_station_(Toronto)
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2019/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-131525.pdf
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/11/07/ttc-using-gap-trains-to-improve-service-on-busiest-subway-line.html
Friday, August 09, 2019
SF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AobK7Fr1f7M 1941
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0yjYMpFiEQ 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awz-NdqsuYo 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQoxRDE3UZk 1979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ciudUyS-ZQ 1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTnWIPRrKgQ 1991
Thursday, August 08, 2019
canada-s-population-needs-to-be-100-million-by-2100
Wednesday, August 07, 2019
vanport-authority-gct-square-off over-terminal-priorities
https://biv.com/article/2019/05/roberts-bank-terminal-2-hearings-broach-topics-fuel-spills-other-ecological-impacts
https://biv.com/article/2019/05/terminal-2-opponents-want-review-panel-widen-scope-projects-environmental
https://biv.com/article/2019/04/gateway-magazine-terminal-capacity-crunch
https://biv.com/article/2019/04/gateway-magazine-greener-gateways
Monday, August 05, 2019
Saturday, August 03, 2019
Minneapolis, Minnesota
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Minneapolis,+MN,+USA/@44.9706756,-93.3315179,25604m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x0:0xbb21fa83626bc29c!2sMinnesota+State+Fair!8m2!3d44.9791559!4d-93.168355!3m4!1s0x52b333909377bbbd:0x939fc9842f7aee07!8m2!3d44.9777621!4d-93.2649994
Thursday, August 01, 2019
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Regenerating Nine Elms: London's New District
years on from the London 2012 Olympics, we investigate how the Games are leaving a lasting legacy on the UK's capital.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gP_iaQwAkg
uk
New Orleans
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Friday, July 19, 2019
Thursday, July 18, 2019
pattullo-bridge-closures-scheduled-july-august
https://dailyhive.com/montreal/montreal-mercier-bridge-reopens-july-2019
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_Mercier_Bridge
https://jacquescartierchamplain.ca/traffic-works/live-traffic/honore-mercier-bridge/?lang=en

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