Urbanism
When the city of Medicine Hat in southeast Alberta decided to opt for a radical approach to end chronic homelessness, there were a little over 1,100 personsexperiencing homelessness, including a little over 200 children, in a city whose population was, at the time, about 61,000. These people were
Urbanism
The reason there aren’t tolls on most roads is that most people consider roads to be a public good. And indeed they are. The public uses them to go places. Get stuff delivered. Have emergency vehicles reach those in need. We don’t make every single person pay a
Urbanism
Every single time anyone mentions the need to remove cars from the roads for the benefit of human beings not in private vehicles you get the same complaint: But how will businesses survive without parking spots right outside their door? World’s. Tiniest. Violin. I’m old enough to remember
Urbanism
When you take transit to go to work, are you using active transportation or not? Some people define active transportation as “anything that’s not riding in a private car”. I’ve used that definition myself, probably more than once. But is it really accurate? Would it not be better
Urbanism
Excerpt from the book by the same name, available on Amazon and also on my website. As I write this the contours of the New Normal are still hazy, except for one thing: Whatever it is we settle on for the remainder of 2020 and a good chunk of 2021,
Urbanism
There was a bit of a storm lately about speeding cameras and I’m flapping my arms saying, uh guys, we need to be talking about cameras on school buses. And patience. My goodness do we need to talk about patience. What, you didn’t know about school bus cameras?
Urbanism
Eldest the other day drew my attention to a story from three years ago that I had somehow, unaccountably, missed. It was about how scientists, looking at data from car crashes including what happens to human bodies and what trauma surgeons have to deal with, had come up with the
Urbanism
An important article from 1973, that resonates very loudly in 2019, starts with comparing the car with a luxury villa on a private beach. The value of that villa is directly proportional to its rarity. If everyone owned a house and a private strip of beach, every one of those
Urbanism
The City of Ottawa was all pleased with itself in the email notice it sent on Friday updating us on the upcoming project to widen Strandherd Drive in Barrhaven. And no doubt it will make some people happy. Especially people who mistakenly think widening a road leads to less congestion.