Frances Bula header image 4

Entries from January 2016

Traffic alert: Dunsmuir bike lane means you need a new path downtown

May 31st, 2010 · 78 Comments

As I discovered yesterday, when I made my Sunday morning run to the YWCA, the new Dunsmuir bike lane is going to do more than just turn over a lane of road space to bikes. It is also being accompanied by new traffic regulations. So far, there are new signs at both Seymour and Hornby […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

When businesses donate to social housing, it’s a new paradigm

May 31st, 2010 · 1 Comment

I suspect that not many people get how unusual it is to have business leaders donating money directly to government to help create social housing. There certainly hasn’t been anything like this in Canada. The closest you get is in the United States, where large foundations (using money derived from the earlier robber-baron capitalist endeavours, […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Why Vancouver buses get more riders than Seattle’s

May 28th, 2010 · 27 Comments

Thought-provoking article from the folks in Seattle analyzing why Vancouver buses get more riders per bus and, more important, why increasing bus frequency typically does not automatically mean more bus riders. (You can bet TransLink planners are looking at this kind of research while they figure out which bus routes they’re going to scale back […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Smart cards/barriers on their way as TransLink announces shortlist

May 28th, 2010 · 48 Comments

The whole debate over putting in turnstiles on SkyTrain has been boiling along for a couple of years now, with TransLink insisting for the most part that it’s not cost-effective (it would be more expensive to put them in and maintain them than the fares you recover) and the public + former minister Kevin Falcon, […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Citygate daycare may get reprieve, but childcare situation remains underfunded, squeezed

May 27th, 2010 · 19 Comments

This is not news to any parent with children under school age, but the childcare situation in the city (province/country) continues to be the equivalent of an unseen Hurricane Katrina, an ongoing disaster that never seems to get fixed. My son is 27 now so I’m well past the childcare stage, but I’ll never forget […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Planner fired in Surrey after fraud investigation

May 27th, 2010 · 3 Comments

I remember an editor of mine long ago saying there had to be some kind of kickbacks or fraud going on in a city with so many construction cranes on its skyline. My response was that I had never heard a whisper of that because developers were too preoccupied with the city’s form of institutionalized […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Geller reports from Shanghai World Fair

May 26th, 2010 · 12 Comments

I fear that Michael Geller is starving to death on his visit in China, due to a lack of internet connectivity. Here is compilation of a couple messages he has sent out this week and I’m adding a link to his blog post at the Vancouver Sun. This is quite the popular place for Vancouverites […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Major housing announcement this morning to provide almost 1,000 units

May 25th, 2010 · 17 Comments

The announcement is at 10 and here’s what I know so far, which was in the Globe this morning

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Transit numbers stay up after the Olympics

May 24th, 2010 · 18 Comments

TransLink is pretty darn happy with itself these days, winning awards for service-in-the-face-of-crushing-Olympics-crowds and other categories. This came out earlier this afternoon. Transit numbers after the Games: You came, you rode, you kept riding While TransLink earned worldwide applause for its performance as part of the Transportation Plan during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Squamish look for way to maximize their land and Vancouver the first big project

May 24th, 2010 · 8 Comments

The 10 acres of land that the Squamish own near Burrard Bridge became an object of curiosity this week, with much talk about the development that they have planned there for some time in the future. Don’t expect anything soon. I talked to other municipalities who have worked with the Squamish and they say things […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized