Rob's Ramblings

Certain elements in the Vancouver media are trying to create opposition to the plans for the Hornby bike lane.  Critics often claim that Vision, the current political party in power, has pushed forward bike lanes in an "aggressive" manner with a disregard for public process. Ironically as the NPA leaning blog CityCaucus.com points out , the previous NPA government actually created more bike routes during its tenure. Some of these were simply bike routes that shared the road with vehicles.   But there were many actual bike lanes that gave a distinct strip of pavement to bikes.  Many were downtown and some removed parking and/or lanes for motor vehicles.  Examples of bike lanes introduced before Vision took power include: - Burrard Street - Hornby Street - Pacific - Carrall Street - Homer - Richards - Pacific - Beatty - 41st - 49th But from what I remember in most cases there was LESS pre-construction communication and public process for these cha...

With recent announcements of investment in cycling infrastructure some are predicting economic disaster if Vancouver reduces the number of light duty vehicles on the road.  The table below compares transportation modal share in Vancouver with other selected cities. All of these cities have significantly less personal car use than Vancouver.  In many cases it is less than half.  Are these cities suffering economically? city country walking cycling public transport private motor vehicle Vancouver Canada 12% 4% 25% 58% Metro Vancouver Canada 11% 2% 13% 74% New York City US 8% 1% 54% 32% Bern Switzerland 11% 11% 54% 24% Zürich Switzerland 8% 5% 63% 25% Copenhagen Denmark 6% 36% 29% 26% Berlin Germany 30% 13% 26% 31% Stockholm Sweden 15% 7% 43% 33% Dresden Germany 24% 17% 21% 38% Helsinki Finland 12% 6% 40% 41% München Germany 9% 8% 41% 41% Aarhus Denmark 7% 27% 19% 43% Bilbao Spain 23% 0% 34% 43% Frankfurt Germany 11% 7% 39% 43% ...

Today Enbridge announced plans to file for approval for a pipeline that would allow them to ship petroleum from a BC Coast port.  As part of the announcement they tried to reassure BC residents about the risk of spills by toting the safety of the double-hulled tankers that would be used at the port.  They ran advertisements in major newspapers also promoting the safety of double-hulled tankers. Meanwhile a double-hulled tanker off the coast of Singapore was damaged on the and is leaking crude oil equivalent to 18,325 barrels.

As construction starts on the Dunsmuir separated bike lane it might be helpful to remember a Norwegian study earlier this year found that building cycling infrastructure was one of the most cost effective ways to fight climate change.

A group of local residents occupied a construction site for the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) for several hours on Sunday and unveiled a large banner reading "Climate Action Now." The action came on the heals of news that BC was the only province to see substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions during 2008, the first year of the carbon tax implementation. The SFPR is part of the massive Gateway Program which even the proponents admit will increase ghg emissions by over 170,000 tonnes per year. The action along the SFPR alignment coincided with the annual pilgrimage to Burns Bog . rob_'s ramblings Technorati Tags: stopgateway , delta , climate change , vancouver

A large sign reading "Farms not Freeways" has been erected along highway 17 in Delta, BC. Residents of the area joined forces with the Council of Canadians and GatewaySucks.org to put up the sign. It is located near the route of the South Fraser Perimeter Road.  It is estimated that over 200 acres (90 hectares) of farmland will be lost by this project.  It is part of the larger Gateway Program which will increase greenhouse gas emissions by over 200,000 tonnes per year. rob_'s ramblings "Farms not Freeways" billboard - Harold Steeves Speaking Out

With the continuing warm temperatures in Vancouver, VANOC has had to resort to drastic measures to keep the snow at Cypress Bowl, the local snowboarding and ski venue.  They have said that they may use "snow hardening" chemicals to help prepare the snow for the games.  And this has local residents expressing concerns about those chemicals. VANOC has ignored requests to identify which chemicals they will be using.  They have claimed that this measure was included in the provincial environmental assessment for the venue.  However, I was unable to find any mention of snow hardening or preserving chemicals in the assessment. Generally the chemicals used to prepare ski and snowboard courses can include sodium chloride (salt), calcium chloride, urea, ammonium nitrate , and potassium nitrate.  Some of the chemicals used can be bio-accumulative . A swiss study found that water in streams fed by treated ski runs had much higher concentrations of salts than background levels measured...