Can I insert images just by relying on Flickr URL’s? Tap and Barrel Bridges is the new temporary home of “Hyperion – Titan of Light,” a stunning outdoor sculpture by local artist Benjamin Lumb! “Hyperion is composed of 5ton bundle of crushed rebar ripped from the concrete walls of a demolished Vancouver building that now emerges from its own concrete foundation. Pulsating neon is woven throughout the twisted rebar emulating its form while a chain rachet is bound tight around its center storing static energy within. A giant ship chain encircling and appearing to float around the piece is begin ..read more

Today I got a largish email from Jarret Walker, who I greatly admire. This blog post is just a cut and paste of much of what he sent me. I will be asking for a review copy of his new book and that could also lead to a review here in due course, but even without reading I would recommend you look at his offer of a discounted price. There was going to be a picture of the cover here but WordPress tells me that at 123kb it is “too big” Our big news for 2024 is the Revised Edition of my book Human Transit, which goes on sale February 6.First published in 2011, Human Transit is one ..read more

There is a move afoot at Vancouver City council to abolish the Parks Board. I got an email asking me to attend a meeting opposing this. Actually I am not at all certain that this is quite as terrible as some may think. No other city in Canada has an independently elected Parks Board. If everyone else seems to cope without one, why do we need one? The current Parks Board has made some very unfortunate decisions which have caused people to question their motivation. The one that pops straight into my mind is the removal of the dedicated bike lane in Stanley Park. They appear to have a strong pre ..read more

Light rail line 15 started operating on October 21. It runs between Itäkeskus in Helsinki and Keilaniemi in Espoo for 25 kilometres and 34 stations enhancing travel between east and west. Unfortunately the Press Release I got and the links I have so far been able to find all showed up as 403 Forbidden. I am hoping that by replying to the email containing the Press Release I will get a link that actually works. Its opening was a year earlier than originally scheduled.  Eleven new bridges have been built and several more have been repaired, with three of these widened. In addition, the proj ..read more

This is a media release that I am simply going to paste in full. It is, I think Good News, and we need as much of that as we can get right now. It is also Canadian. Researchers from McGill University and Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM) have found a new approach to making inexpensive batteries that can not only hold large amounts of charge but also recharge quickly. Their work focuses on improving lithium ion batteries, rechargeable cells that are used in electric vehicles, power tools, phones and more. “The work that we’ve done at the CLS is going to open up the door to be able to make ..read more

This is a copy of an email I received today from Leadnow. Comments are closed. If you require further information scroll down. This is a longer email than we normally send you – as part of our response to the anti-trans rallies across the country yesterday, we are sending out some educational resources. If you want to see a list of actions you can take, scroll down to the bottom of the email. When I came out as non-binary to my parents, I did it in person. They did their best to be supportive. But I could also see confusion on their faces – so I wrote them an email later on ..read more

change.org sent me a notice about a petition written by Carmen Scott. I won’t be signing it, mostly because the case she makes is very weak indeed. Oppose the Restrictions of Bill C-18 states “Who is impacted? A News Blackout on Social Media: Every Canadian, from students in Vancouver to retirees in Halifax, is now in the dark. As of June 1, 2023, Meta, the corporate giant behind Facebook and Instagram, has begun phasing out news availability for all its users in Canada. This means that not only will Canadian news outlets no longer have their content visible to their local audience on the ..read more

Bombardier BiLevel coach VI 44 units 37 original units, 7 added in 2010 This is a cab car – with a driving position for westbound runs I have lived in Vancouver for over twenty years, and some of those I spent working for Translink. Of course I have seen WCE trains but never ridden on one. I have actually explored ways in which I could have achieved this earlier but none seemed to be practical. It is effectively a one way, one purpose line – inbound from Mission to Waterfront weekday mornings, outbound in the evenings. This pattern of Commuter Rail seems to peculiar to North America. As ..read more

They were going to close it anyway, but the recent derailment now means that is not going to re-open. That means there are now only two working SkyTrain systems – Vancouver, which is getting all new trains to replace the Mark 1s, and Detroit. I know I have never visted the latter but I did use the Scarborough one – just not very often. It wasn’t particularly useful when I lived in Scarborough but there were occasions when I had to be in Scarborough Town Centre and then go on to downtown. Or, I suppose, the other way round but that seems not to be the case. Anyway, when I saw the news it struck ..read more

If you spend time answering surveys you will know that much of the time people need to have some incentive to spend time answering a bunch of questions. The rewards are often small but tokens of appreciation. They currently use Aeroplan (Leger) or Air Miles (Rewarding Your Opinion). The latter is especially useful if you have had an AirMiles account for some time and have been getting closer to actually using your points – because during COVID you couldn’t, and since then the probability that you might actually get the flight you wanted, at the time you wanted and got back in good order has be ..read more