tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18780721178281422742024-03-13T14:39:12.803-07:00Victoria - The Sustainable CityNews,discussions about Victoria and the Capital Region and the issues that affect us. My area of expertise is in active transportation, particularly cycling and walking. My recent term on Victoria City Council also keeps me interested in local issues that come up at City Hall and around the region.
I'm running again for council and the regional district. Hope you find a reason to offer support.John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-90828380505544877732015-09-25T15:43:00.001-07:002015-09-25T15:47:10.480-07:00Pick Up Sticks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The conundrums of Victoria's cycling network.</span></b></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Spent a couple of hours earlier this week kicking around
ideas at the city's Technical Advisory Committee for another iteration of the
bicycle network plan.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some didn't quite get the concept of an advisory committee -
council makes decisions and committees provide advice to help shape the
projects that will fulfill the direction set by those elected to do so. It's not the place of committees to revisit
those decisions, but to add value to help ensure that projects fulfill the
vision.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Facebook, however, is a place for some discussion.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While I agree with the "all ages and abilities"
concept, there is not a lot of understanding of how that works in practice on the
ground. Some are content to repeat the
rhetoric when confronted with issues of engineering and design that they have
no grasp of.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Victoria does not have a grid pattern transportation network
where we can displace traffic to parallel streets that serve common
destinations. We have pick up sticks.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There was some resistance to the focus on expensive cycle
track projects at the expense of neighbourhood fixes that are essential to
network connectivity and completeness.
Both, however, will be useful evolutionary steps to increase the
attraction of cycling as a transportation solution. Care, however, must be taken to building
solutions, not symbols.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The two way track on Pandora is a case in point. While it mimics projects found in other
cities, it will not function as its most ardent supporters believe. With multiple intersections, all of which
will likely need to increase signal phasing by 50% of existing cycles, stop and
go traffic along a short section of a single route, and trip generators and
destinations that are narrowly focused, it is unlikely to draw the orders of
magnitude growth some are forecasting.
It most certainly will not be an extension of the Goose, where bicycle
traffic is mostly free flowing and faces few delays. The Goose is a river, downtown is a delta.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Paired facilities along Pandora and Johnson would make more
sense, reflecting existing patterns of demand more so than the assumption that
some advocates make that people will choose dysfunctional routes if you just
give them more protection. Cyclists, the
old nugget goes, are not blocking traffic - they are traffic. They will continue to seek out the routes
that connect them to their destinations, not to a merry go round of facilities
designed by those who know what’s best for them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are numbers of examples of problems created by the
assumption that car trips will simply disappear if we add more and better bike
routes. Some will, but many will still
drive more many of their trip purposes.
Traffic is like a balloon - squeeze it here and it pops out over
there. Victoria's road network is not
designed to absorb displaced capacity and some routes will be badly compromised
by the leakage to other roads.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In my own neighbourhood of Fairfield, bicycles account for
about 20% of commute trips, though not much has been done to the road network
to improve conditions for cycling. A few
signs don't add much to the main attraction - quieter streets, lower traffic
volumes, and the proximity of destinations that support shorter trips.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One notion that is being played out suggest that Cook St. is
an easy target for a road diet, though traffic volumes will suggest
otherwise. Transit and emergency service
providers will not be impressed. Anyone
living on, or using, Vancouver St. will be apoplectic at the traffic they will
have to absorb. Between Fairfield and
Fort St., Cook has no on street parking (except for a few spots north of
Rockland), lanes are narrow, and traffic drains from Fairfield street networks
to feed downtown and other destinations.
Volumes are more concentrated in
this section than they are along other stretches and the city may not be well
served by the imagined quick fix.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Vancouver St. can be more easily adapted as a bicycle
priority street, with a couple more diversions and traffic calming
elements. Numbers of displaced movements
will not be so high as those that would be impacted on Cook. Incremental change, less costly and less
intrusive, is likely to be more effective than a “statement” that will be
expensive and have impacts well beyond the isolated streetscape the more myopic
tend to recognize.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That myopia was likewise present when we were working
through options on the bridge. Those
with a more simplistic view of traffic complexity were convinced that adding
capacity to the Bay St. Bridge would solve downtown traffic problems while
preserving the wreck of the Blue Bridge.
Bridges connect to something; they do not operate in isolation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some of the same soapboxers who continue to fire broadsides
at the new bridge have now realized that the extension of the Goose to a
downtown terminus will demand changes to core routes. It’s a
good thing though, that Wharf and Belleville are targeted for some next level
of fixes. The wheel was not invented
after the occasion of the last election, and we were, going back to the bridge
debate, planning the extension of waterfront routes then. Some historians, apparently, are more
selective with their remembrance of things past.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Douglas or Government?
That’s another point of discussion at the table. It might be emerging from the solution to
some of the friction on city streets will be solved if we get some of the bikes
out of the way of the cars. Again, we
are not blocking traffic, we are traffic.
Plans for Douglas exceed the age of some of those elected. Rapid transit has been talked about since the
‘70s and more recent iterations included, no doubt to the surprise of some, a
two-way cycle track I promoted as part of the design features of a more
sustainable mainstreet. Planning Douglas
in isolation of transit solutions is not a good approach. Better to look at fixes along Government that
stand on their own. Destinations along
Douglas will not be served well enough by facilities along Government.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Haultain is a good target for fixes. We’ve been talking this one up for
years. Most of it is supported by signs
alone and key crossings need better treatments.
At the east end, diversions have worked very well but at the west, Cook
St. is a chasm that needs serious work, and links through to Quadra-Hillside
destinations are lacking.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That brings us to the issue of dollars. While some insist that they are going to save
the world for $7 million that’s a little ambitious. I’ve been involved in designing lots of
projects and secured funding for many of them.
To be sure it’s a generous program, a boost from the $4 plus million
earmarked by the previous council. But
it will not complete a network, especially given the high ticket symbols
proposed for immediate implementation.
Might be wise to tone down the utopian prose and look to take measured
steps. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Piggybacks and partnerships will be key too. The new Capital City project behind the
legislature will draw more bike traffic south, running counter to the illusion
of those who insist Pandora will draw everything from the Goose. Connections and road design along adjacent
routes need to provide robust bike facilities.
Ran into one of the architects for the new seniors housing project on
Hillside at Blanshard Court. Asked him
to draw in some bike lanes along Hillside.
Hey, it’s only a block, but a network will be a sum of its parts, not
imposed from above or drawn in one go.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ll lose some of the battles for more practical facilities,
help where I can to make sense of ambitions to sketch out workable
solutions. Been doing it for years. <o:p></o:p></div>
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John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-24879623600049017952015-06-28T09:54:00.001-07:002015-06-28T09:54:29.861-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #444444;">Gone troppo.</span></h3>
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The city will likely move forward on a two-way protected
bike lane along Pandora St. following recommendations from staff now before
council.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A few quick thoughts, again, on the failures of logic
embedded in the plan.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Emphasis on the preferred option focuses on costs – it’s
cheaper to build to two-way facility along Pandora than it would be to pair it
with Johnson, and it costs fewer parking spots. That’s the starting point for a project
where something other than good transportation design is directing choices.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When the Galloping Goose hits downtown, all similarities to
a continuous, stand-alone trail end. The
Goose is a river of traffic, downtown is a delta. People traveling on bikes will remain drawn
by purpose and destination, more so than a few blocks of separation. Continuous travel will be impossible on the cycle
track – signalized intersections, multiplied by six, and destinations that are
not served by Pandora will mean that cyclists will continue to seek other
routes. The Goose works in part because
flow is uninterrupted, something the city cannot offer on Pandora.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Trip generators are mostly south of the bridge, and those
newly bike friendly on council who have built their success opposing that
project need still to understand that the key fix for the trailhead will be the
harbour pathway, which can serve large numbers of cycling tourists and help
some of those commuting by bike reach jobs and services that are not concentrated
along Pandora. The need to provide
connectivity to other routes will be essential, and the notion that those
traveling by bike will gleefully endure several blocks of stop and go designs,
each with extended delay patterns, just to join the parade, is naïve.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dislocation of traffic from Pandora will affect other
streets, notwithstanding that theoretically they are manageable. Yates is full and Fisgard cannot absorb rat
running around Pandora. Victoria’s
Chinatown will suffer and the intersection at Store Street is a poor location
for new treatments that will be needed to deal with the fallout. There is little excess capacity on alternate
routes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Designs will compromise what we can deliver for cyclists and
erode space for pedestrians. A two-way
track will likely offer narrower space for each direction than paired one-way
facilities would provide, and numbers of existing or planned mid-block crossings
will be lost. If you walk, your need for
space and interest is being sacrificed and fresh opportunities will be
extinguished. Ironically, the
neighbourhoods connected by Pandora count more foot traffic than most anywhere
else in the region as a primary choice for journey to work trips.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Johnson Street, which at this point, carries about the same
volume of cyclists as does Pandora, will be cheated of the higher levels of
service needed to support emerging travel choices. The failure of many advocates supporting the
two-way project is in following the logic of their own rhetoric. We want to reshape our transportation network
to allow more people to choose cycling for everyday travel. This demands that we fix the routes people
travel on. Steering them towards routes
we want to choose for them rests on the idea that cyclists should go to where
we are prepared to build facilities for them, not where their trip purposes
direct them. Those advocates want you to
join a political parade. The notion that
“bikes aren’t blocking traffic, they are traffic”, is lost in the rush to build
a symbol rather than a solution.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Despite my misgivings, the two-way cycle track will work,
though incidental to the choices made rather than the overt epiphany some are
expecting to be a result of the investment.
All of the facilities we have built over the last two decades of work on
our cycling network, despite the protests of those who believe history begins
now, have played a role in helping more people to choose cycling, more
often. Every new piece of the puzzle
solved adds more bicycle trips to our traffic mix, even those that, much to the
consternation of more ideological advocates, are little more than paint and
route signs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Whatever happens along Pandora, it will have similar
impacts, though the two-way cycle track remains the wrong solution in the right
place. We do need better facilities
across downtown, but we would better served if the choices being made were
based on sensible traffic engineering rather than more calculated political
choices pursued by those in a rush to get in front of the parade.<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-70504387558440644582015-06-05T23:31:00.001-07:002015-06-05T23:31:10.619-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Small mercies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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New sections of the E&N trail, a commuter cycling route
that runs parallel to our hopeful railway across the Capital Region, are
completing final touches to connect the path through View Royal to the Colwood
overpass near Thetis Lake at Island Highway.
Here the trail meanders on to the Galloping Goose before reappearing in
Langford at Savary School.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the final touches here is most certainly unwelcome.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Few will notice it, fewer still will pay it any heed, but
signs instructing cyclists to dismount and walk through a pair of crosswalks
don’t meet the test of good design. They
need to be removed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The trail is already a minor street, soon to be a major
conduit for bicycle travel. It has
always been intended to serve that function.
Much of the early funding was secured on the premise that it would help
convert commute trips from cars to bikes – I helped write the formulas
essential to a successful application.
The dismount protocol runs contrary to the trail’s purpose and needs to
be dropped.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is likely nothing in any safety analysis that would
likely point trail managers to raise a panic over cyclists crossing an access
road (to the Adams Storage property off Island Highway, where trip volumes are
low, access to the main route is stop controlled and sight lines are adequate,
if not completely ideal). A few metres
further along, where Island Highway and Burnside Road meet below the Colwood
Overpass, the crossing has been designed for cyclists to ride through (I did consulting
work on the project and we shaped the streetscape to allow a ride through median),
movements are controlled by traffic signals, hardly a situation where dismount
instructions are needed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Precedents are everywhere on the Goose and Lochside
Trails. No crossings remain where the “dismount
and walk your bike” approach has been sustained. Those that were in place were dropped years
back and local bylaws enacted to endorse the concept of bicycles as traffic,
not as rolling pedestrians.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Use of the E&N trail has ramped up significantly with
every new emergent segment, impatient cyclists finding their way round barriers
and sections under construction. Even as
the new signs have gone up, none have paid any attention whatsoever to the
harebrained instruction to dismount along a hurried route. Whatever for?<o:p></o:p></div>
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If any road users notice the signs, and mercifully they are
small, the protocol might seem absurd, though some few may whine a familiar
refrain that brands cyclists as scofflaws intent on bending the rules to suit
their arrogance. It breeds disrespect to
impose a requirement that no one will observe.
Better to design to reflect patterns of use than post impotent signs
that satisfy some hand-wringer concerned about who is using the trail.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While it may seem small, most every detail of design and
delivery of the project has caught my eye over the course of the project
development. It’s one I’ve been working
on for near two decades. Design matters,
and bad design ideas won’t serve the users our new facilities are intended to
attract.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Somebody needs to put their thinking cap on and take out the
signs. And while you are at it, perhaps
you could run some wiring under the sidewalk at the overpass so trail users don’t
have to contort themselves trying to push a button for their turn at the
signal. And when you don’t know what you
are doing, please ask someone who does.<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-55732364930842967482015-02-26T18:03:00.002-08:002015-02-26T18:03:45.195-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Solutions, not symbols</b><br />
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We should be designing bike facilities to make it safer,
more comfortable and more convenient for more people to choose cycling for some
of their daily trips. The obsession with
a two way cycle track design for Pandora, unfortunately, is more about making a
statement than providing a genuine solution to complex design challenges.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The city of Victoria has set aside funds to extend concepts
for a cycle track – a physically separated bike lane – along Pandora between Store
and Cook St. They will host open houses
and discussions with the community on what of three design options they will
choose to deliver on a promise to implement new designs to raise levels of
service for cyclists in the city.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Any one of the three proposals mimics designs already in
place and working in other jurisdictions, though at least one option –
unfortunately that which meets the notional budget more so than the service
delivery objectives, falls short of dealing with one of the critical elements
of effective treatments. It proposes
dropping cycle tracks and creating “mixing zones” at intersection approaches,
where cyclists and traffic will go through a sorting according to their
direction of travel. While Victoria’s
traffic speeds and volumes are much less challenging than they are in many
larger cities, the potential conflicts suggest that this design will fail the
test of delivering significant improvements to meet the needs of “all ages and
abilities”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Predictable red herrings are raised about travel delay and
increased emissions, but changes to street design are never a zero sum
game. To improve conditions for one
travel mode (in this case cycling), will almost always have an impact
(sometimes real, sometimes perceived), on someone else. To keep whole the level of service or
capacity for drivers simply misses the point.
The objective in any bike facility is to compromise, to some extent, the
attractiveness of driving, and to make it more appealing to choose
cycling. The premise that it will
increase emissions is not supported by the weight of evidence. To the contrary, anything that makes it
easier or more convenient to drive grows emissions. The analysis embedded in the report focuses
on incidental emissions while ignoring the benefits of trip conversions
generated by positive evolution of a more balanced network.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of the two cycle-track options, a vocal few are insistent
that only a two-way cycle track is supportable, dismissive of the paired
one-way designs that probably make more sense in the Victoria context. Research is cited to support the obsession,
but without understanding the concept or the real findings of the research. While there is a correlation between some
two-way facilities and greater increases in travel along those corridors, I
could find little in the report that suggests cause and effect. Some of that
shift can likely be associated with context and trip generation patterns that
have nothing to do with facility type.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Victoria, unlike many North American cities embracing new
designs for cycling, has no effective grid pattern, an important element of
facility design. Where there is
something of a grid, downtown, the available space parallel to Pandora, along
Johnson, provides an effective paired couplet opportunity that better serves
destination travel patterns in the city.
The availability of better facilities do shift some trips, but more so
route choices for existing cyclists than they do to generate shifts from other
modes. What is most important is to
provide complete and effective connections between origins and destinations or “trip
generators” – home, work, shopping, services etc. Like so many drivers who miss the point of
traffic system design, some voices in the cycling community now insist that
facility design alone will generate dramatic change, as if trails and cycle
tracks, like aimless roads, are simply perpetual motion machines rather than
essential connections for people traveling with a purpose and a destination in
mind. The best facility in the world
will not provide much appeal if your destination is not found along the
“chosen” corridor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another emergent theme is that Pandora will be “the
extension” of the Galloping Goose on the downtown side of the new Johnson St.
Bridge. One of the premises of the
flawed logic is that because movements to other routes are not well served at
the bridgehead, Pandora is the logical choice since it will offer the path of
least resistance. For those majority of
trips that are destined for places other than those few found along Pandora, or
north and away from downtown, what does it matter if the complex movement is
executed at the bridge or a few blocks to the east, or wherever that change in
direction must take place? Designs in
other cities show well enough that complex intersection treatments can be used
to accommodate the types of movements critics insist cyclists will not make at
the bridgehead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While some compromise of vehicle movements will accompany
whatever design is chosen, the objective is not to create failure simply for
demonstration purposes. In case anyone
forgot, roads remain public rights of way meant to offer options, not lectures,
on travel choices. The variability of
cross-sections along Pandora has not been thoroughly analyzed for the purposes
of the current proposal menu. Very
little surplus space is available west of Douglas, and any displaced traffic
would move at first blush, to Fisgard, which has no capacity to absorb
additional volumes. Many of us may not
choose to drive, but many more will, and they are citizens too. Reducing auto dependence, for better or
worse, is a process of erosion, not obliteration.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A host of design challenges associated with a one-way cycle
track are likely manageable, though they will have visible and significant
impacts, both in compromising vehicle travel and in offering better options for
cyclists, and those benefits will be no better served, certainly no worse, than
the symbolic flag raising of a two-way separated facility, which poses more
difficult compromises for system functionality, not just for cars, but oddly
enough for cyclists and pedestrians as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The cost of the two-way fix exceeds even the one direction
cycle track by enough to fund several projects like Pandora and Johnson, all
the spot improvements the city has contemplated, and then some, the city’s
share of changes to Esquimalt Road, completed some years ago, three times the
budget of all the speed zone signs that people didn’t want to spend on real
solutions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lately a new theme is also emerging to suggest that it is the
value of the two way design will affect only one street. That’s an appealing fiction, but fails to
hold up under scrutiny. Only Pandora
will be affected, apparently, though if your route or destinations draw you
towards Johnson, you have now been abandoned by advocates who a different
agenda. Complete streets are out, they
want to choose for you, like so many others, what route you should take. For other users of our transportation
networks, the diversion of traffic will affect many other streets, most
ill-equipped to handle the extra volumes looking for alternatives. Signal timing that affects cross-streets,
pedestrian movements and create issues for transit, emergency services and
other transport needs will be given short shrift.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t rush to “demand” a two-way cycle track as that
pre-determined choice that must emerge from the public process (why bother?)
now proposed by the city. It may emerge
as the politic solution, less likely the right engineering solution. At the very least, for those who want to
engage in that process with a more open mind, make an effort to understand,
rather than cherry pick, from the research, and recognize that the choices made
will not emerge in a vacuum. They will
have real world, practical impacts on the ground, here, at home, in
Victoria. Any and every thoughtful
student of engineering will understand that everything is context sensitive, and
even those designs that we steal or borrow from other locales have to be
adapted to our unique situation. We need
solutions, not symbols.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-79870472802416386962014-11-05T14:49:00.000-08:002014-11-05T14:49:17.358-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Old news in no news . . </h2>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gx2-6SVLWo8/VFqfRXrjW4I/AAAAAAAAARE/dBUJ5KZLkNg/s1600/20110815400%2B061.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gx2-6SVLWo8/VFqfRXrjW4I/AAAAAAAAARE/dBUJ5KZLkNg/s1600/20110815400%2B061.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Candidates continue to talk about "forced" increases in the budget for the Johnson St. Bridge. Like other "new" information, the facts present a rather different picture, and one that has been available readily enough in the public realm.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For most of the term of the current council, I've been attending meetings where project teams have been reporting on progress of the project or bringing scope change requests to the table. Some of the changes have indeed, added to the cost of finishing the bridge. None, however, have been force fed to those making choices, though those who have lost those votes might believe otherwise. Certainly those candidates who have their own agenda, and who have, if at all, observed from a distance, will likewise represent good decisions as a road to ruin.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A case in point, and there are a few big ticket items that are similarly missing from the spin cycle, is those new features that could not have been anticipated when we chose to opt for replacement over a more risky, if not futile, attempt at refurbishment of the existing bridge.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sometime after our referendum the federal government announced a new shipbuilding program. It will bring new work and bigger vessels to a variety of yards on the west coast, and our own Point Hope will take on some of the projects and leverage new investments in their operations. A new graving dock with 250 new jobs attached to it has been in their plans and, with the new contracts and a new, more secure tenure on their property (another story that needs sharing), they are planning to add value to Victoria's marine industrial economy.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The prospect of larger vessels sailing through the channel between the bridge piers demanded some substantial changes to elements of design, not the least of which will be fendering to offer protection of the asset should a larger vessel encounter troubled waters or otherwise get a little too familiar with the bridge. Engineers recommended, and a majority of council agreed, that adding fenders to the piers would be useful, if not essential, to protecting the city's investment from harm. Those who imagine themselves as opposition, rather than just a minority voice at council may continue to simply say no to anything associated with the new bridge, but that would be foolhardy, to say the least. A more skeptical observer might even suggest that in so doing, the critics misread their role on council and, instead of paying attention to getting the city's work done, continued to fight a referendum long ago lost.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Council could have chosen to ignore the advice. No one was forced to adopt any of the changes. But that would have been foolhardy, if not irresponsible. Those new costs were added to the budget, in public, after a full debate and follow the vote of the majority of those elected. Nothing forced, nothing hidden, nothing resembling an overrun. Just a clear choice made to protect assets and ensure the city's investment would enjoy the same protection any business or homeowner would want for the durable goods or operating equipment they need to run the show. Truth be told, those costs will be covered well enough by the new assessments and new jobs being brought into the city.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Had I been at the table, and I'm always paying attention, I would have made the same choice. Don't trust your city with those who would sell you short to look good on paper. It's penny wise and pound foolish.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-29643905334346086222014-10-29T21:58:00.000-07:002014-11-04T23:19:37.391-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Myth busters and missing links . . .</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y-EaL0X-ST0/VFHE78zngII/AAAAAAAAAQ0/qw4xKRrgL8g/s1600/2703201174%2B048.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y-EaL0X-ST0/VFHE78zngII/AAAAAAAAAQ0/qw4xKRrgL8g/s1600/2703201174%2B048.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
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<div style="text-align: right;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
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In the wake of a convenient “release” of information about
costs of the new bridge, some of the facts missing in the story line may help
to paint a more complete picture than that offered by those with a more pointed
political agenda.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Today’s big myth:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was never a $35 to $45 million dollar project. Those figures were provided in the condition
assessment completed six years ago, proposing a notional budget for a drab, off
the shelf bridge to replace the existing structure. The report spelled out, by the way, that the
numbers provided should not be used for budgeting purposes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Council of the day chose a more complete project – one that
included on deck bike lanes, an expanded bridge to accommodate the Galloping
Goose trail, another, fixed bridge connection to link the Goose to and from the
new E&N rail trail, a cantilevered sidewalk to provide better levels of
service for pedestrians and those with mobility challenges, and a road
realignment to dispense with the “S” curve, which generated an average of 40
reportable collisions a year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Council also looked for a project that would allow the
current bridge to remain open until completion of the new crossing to keep
traffic of all sorts flowing between downtown and points west, critical to the
health of the city’s economy. One could
imagine that those choices would provide a rather different cost picture than
those thumbnail estimates.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Journalists covering the story or provincial ministers privy
to any city request for funding might have been at least exposed to those
rather different project scenarios, even if the implications didn’t sink in. Self-inflicted forgetfulness is always a good
strategy, I suppose, but the facts have been there all along.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Council also responded to the less than enthusiastic public
response to creating a replica of a cookie cutter highway interchange with a
structure that would provide a more aesthetic gateway to bookend the city’s
harbour. Past generations of city
builders did as much for our heritage; we owe it to future generations not to
devalue our city by dropping big box suburban sensibilities into the heart of
Victoria.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That project concept, at the very least, was very clearly
presented to the public, vigorously challenged by those attached to the old
bridge, and, despite protestations to the contrary, Victorians had their say,
and voted their approval in a referendum by a substantial margin. The former Minister, to be fair, lives far
enough away from the bridge that she wouldn’t have a had a vote to cast in that
referendum, so perhaps wasn’t paying attention to the details presented to
those who did.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More myth busting to follow.
Stay tuned.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-30722669387269929602014-10-29T10:15:00.001-07:002014-10-29T10:15:10.843-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Every vote counts . . . </h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d947kFfZYqE/VFEbe0jWeHI/AAAAAAAAAQk/2vblKhB2CFk/s1600/20141021091%2B015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d947kFfZYqE/VFEbe0jWeHI/AAAAAAAAAQk/2vblKhB2CFk/s1600/20141021091%2B015.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Transit is a big issue in the Capital Region, and nowhere are the challenges more acute than in the bus bays and along the routes that connect students between home and their studies at the University of Victoria. Pass ups continue to be a problem, and students have been left by the side of the road watching full buses pass by.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Flashback a few years and some of the problems were more entrenched and some issues that might be behind us were very current.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When I sat on council from 2008 to 2011, the province appointed those nominated to sit at the Regional Transit Commission. I was picked by Victoria's Mayor Dean Fortin to the seat at the table, but the province, governed by a Liberal government unsympathetic to councillors who also happened to hold an NDP card dragged their feet for more than a year before the mayor's persistent harassment had them relent and finally file the Order in Council necessary for me to fulfill those duties.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For students at the University in particular, the appointment couldn't have come at a more perfect time. At the city we had been working through our "Late Night, Great Night" strategy, one element of which was trying to ensure options for those who traveled between homes at residence or around the region with all that downtown has to offer. Just as critical was the need to find students holding jobs in our bars and restaurants a safe ride back home after a late night shift.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
More suburban sensibilities that held the balance of power at the Commission were dragging their feet. They weren't prepared to spend a nickel more to improve service, and didn't care much, it seems, for the needs of a growing student population whose transportation choices didn't fit in a driveway and a three car garage.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The issue came to the table again at the first meeting after I took my spot and the UVic students society were there to give voice to those frustrated by the slow pace in evolution of transit services.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When the vote came to extend late night service to UVic and other neighbourhoods around the capital where student populations are high, my vote made all the difference. I cast in favour of the service expansion and late night buses started rolling around the capital.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Transit is still feeling the pressure of a growing university population and will likewise be challenged by new projects that will add more students to Camosun College. The governance model still lacks for more robust local control. We need to wrest control of local transportation decision making from the province, where no expense will be spared throwing money at cars and trucks to save lower mainland drivers some commute time, but precious little ever finds its way to Victoria and the Capital Region, where our problems may be smaller, but no less frustrating, and our choices to transport ourselves may not always sell cars for Liberal backers.</div>
<div>
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<div>
A regional transportation authority has been talked about for years, and more needs to be invested in walking, cycling and transit to catch up with the travel choices of new generations and move us towards a more sustainable model.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A single vote made all the difference when it was needed. Every vote counts, every time.</div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-50869040702963899732014-10-13T22:45:00.002-07:002014-10-13T22:49:43.872-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OH4wHa1dJwY/VDy4ICat1qI/AAAAAAAAAQU/kXykYNwHVfY/s1600/IMG_1379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OH4wHa1dJwY/VDy4ICat1qI/AAAAAAAAAQU/kXykYNwHVfY/s1600/IMG_1379.JPG" height="120" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Johnson St. Bridge project, Victoria, BC</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The view from here . . </h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Contrary to not so popular opinion, Victoria’s Johnson St.
Bridge project continues to move forward.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Construction on site is moving at a brisk pace and, despite
the critics, many local elements are falling into place. Bascule piers have been dropped in, roads
realigned and underground work that should have fallen into separate budgets
have also been completed on the downtown side.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be sure, no small amount of ink has been spilled of late
as elements of the project run into turbulence.
Cost and design issues are the subject of disputes between contractors,
constructors and distant fabricators who have, at least, agreed to eat their
costs and focus on delivering the product they were asked for. Some asks remain unresolved, though the city
remains in possession of a contract, and disagreements may be sorted out
between private sector providers who can look for compensation on their side of
the ledger. The city shouldn’t have to
pay for their missteps or private disputes.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some on council remain committed to more posturing than
problem solving, and the loss of some staff midway through the project left
some key controls unattended to. Not a
cause for celebration, no doubt, though most had the good sense to follow through
with interim project management recommendations to right the course of the
project when it became apparent that private contractors couldn’t solve issues
on their own.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All in, the time contingency, at least, remains intact, and
funding agreements with the federal government will be met, even with projected
delays. Do it fast or do it right – I would
choose the latter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The challenges identified by the project manager, at least
for those who attended council sessions where issues were reported out, are
serious enough, though none fatal to the delivery of a bridge supported by a
majority of council and endorsed by democratic referendum before the last
election. The very specific comments of
the city’s latest hire prescribed less panic than those who are elevating their
rhetoric in the run-up to election day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cost dissection is a challenge for those determined to
advance their own version of the math, but the reality is that nothing of new
costs represents a bad investment or an easily foreseen circumstance such that
finger pointers can claim out of control inflationary pressures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Protection of a secure data line feeding info to the
military was purposely left off the table until a private sector player decided
that that project could proceed, as long as the city paid the freight. Not a stretch to suggest that the risk of
higher costs for damaging the line would have exceeded by far the agreement to
pay for the work. Even more problematic
might have been the potential liability headaches the city could have faced if
the old bridge were to collapse in an earthquake. Damage to that line might have been a drop in
the bucket in the overall scheme of things, but no doubt well in excess of city
costs to move the line to accommodate the new bridge.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Extra dollars invested in protecting your investment from
larger vessels now likely sailing into the shipyard after a new federal
contract was awarded to various suppliers is also a good deal. The long term business plan now emerging for
Point Hope will return millions in new jobs and tax revenue never possible with
the old bridge. As the saying goes, the
city should be run more like a business.
On this one, at least, the business case is about as solid as it gets.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are those who will deliberately misrepresent scope
changes as costs eating up contingencies, but that is not quite accurate. For those on council who can do the math,
choices made were deliberate adaptations to changing circumstances, not
blindsides generated by mismanagement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a steep hill to climb back to the council table, as
some have noted, though more are looking forward to a new bridge, and it is
coming, than some of those who are convinced otherwise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I expect that, should I be so lucky to win a seat, I’ll have
the opportunity to pay more attention to the job at hand, and spend less time
looking for my next career opportunity.
Always up to the task.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-16252913454027605712014-10-13T12:27:00.002-07:002014-10-13T12:28:30.221-07:00Thanksgiving Goose<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d3uSve8NTvI/VDwnTSrzx8I/AAAAAAAAAP8/Hu6HD7v5gu0/s1600/20141010391%2B171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d3uSve8NTvI/VDwnTSrzx8I/AAAAAAAAAP8/Hu6HD7v5gu0/s1600/20141010391%2B171.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<br />Dissecting the Goose</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Friction along the Galloping Goose and Lochside Trails
connecting Victoria and its neighbouring municipalities is not a new issue and
solutions have been the subject of ongoing discussions for years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The recent interest generated by Victoria’s council debate
is a good time to bring real solutions back to the table. Many of those ideas critics are convinced are
new have been analyzed already and most will offer little relief.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The free associating on costs of widening versus separated
trails makes no sense. No research that
I have found supports the conclusion that building two trails is cheaper than
widening a single trail. Most often,
costs of separated trails will be higher and, in the case of the Goose, some of
those will be considerable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The more problematic “solution” touted by some of those
offering advice is a change to protocols on the trail and have pedestrians walk
facing bicycle traffic. This needs to be
discarded, and quickly. We need to find
fixes that work, not chew over failed strategies that will offer no relief for
the very real discomfort trail users are experiencing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Multi-use trails across North America use a tried and true
pattern of directing all traffic – on foot or on bicycle – to stay to the
right. It is a simple approach that creates
two directions of travel, albeit with differing speeds. Cyclists are obliged to pass safely and
responsibly and pedestrians need to be mindful that they are sharing a corridor
busy with faster moving bicycle traffic.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Insisting that people walk facing bike traffic creates
patterns that creates needless complexity and elevates risk.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, the protocol would create four streams of traffic
where once were two. The need to pass
either slower moving cyclists or pedestrians using the trail demands that those
passing now negotiate their way through two traffic streams traveling in
opposite directions in the space they need to pass. Picking their way through that chaos is more
dangerous and more complex than having to find space to pass any traffic, at
whatever speed, moving in one direction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beyond the problems of potential collisions in a complex traffic
stream, faster closing speeds for those moving in opposing directions dramatically
increases the consequences of every unintended impact. The speed differential between quickly moving
cyclists and slower moving pedestrians is certainly a concern in a hit from
behind collision, where someone walking at 5 or 6 km/h is hit by someone moving
at 20 km/h or more. Imagine, however,
that instead of a differential of 15 km/h, the point of collision occurring at
an effective acceleration of perhaps double that figure. It’s not hard to imagine that injuries
emerging from such a collision will be much more severe than those occurring at
more modest speed differentials.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scheme, doesn’t work anywhere else, so why would it work
in Victoria?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A more effective fix is nothing new. I’ve been pestering the CRD for some years to
widen the trail to accommodate growing volumes of trail traffic. The city, following studies on patterns of
use, has finally paved a section of the trail south of the Selkirk Trestle,
where an experiment with crushed basalt failed to draw more than token use by
those traveling on foot.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where the rubber hits the road, or the trail to be more accurate,
is north of the Selkirk Trestle, particularly through Cecilia Ravine. The trail is a tight three metres wide,
hemmed in by rock bluffs that buffer the creek and a steep grade up to the
Gorge – Burnside neighbourhood.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Blasting out rock or elevating the trail will no doubt be
costly, but the alternative design that would create a separate trail for
walkers could only be done alongside the creek, eroding sensitive riparian
habitat and escalating costs beyond those conceivable for widening. For reasons of directness and personal
security, many on foot would likely remain on the main trail in any event. This is one of a couple of key sections where
extra width will be critical to accommodate growing numbers of trail users.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Past the Burnside Road overpass mural, the trail widens out
to four metres, and most users can likely tell you that friction between
walkers and cyclists is much reduced.
Space for passing is more generous, and cyclists have more room to give
pedestrians a wide berth. A shorter section that reaches the Saanich
border needs some extra width also, but it will be easy enough to grub out a
base and add some pavement on the flat topography available.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next section between Tolmie and the Switch Bridge over
the Trans Canada highway is also too narrow.
Intersections were rebuilt to
support new traffic protocols - cross-streets face stop signs while the trail
has the right of way. Trail traffic
volumes are higher than those roads and the right of way assignment follows
typical transportation hierarchies for major and minor thoroughfares. Here, the trail is the major traffic carrier. Contractors constructing the intersections
made a mistake when designs were in early stages and again I had to go back to
the municipality to have them corrected.
New curb and gutter replicated the 3 metre cross section and had to be
torn out and rebuilt to 4 metres.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Along this stretch of the Goose, a separated pedestrian
tread could be built - a more comfortable arrangement that is useful where land
is available and topography supportive.
It might mean acquiring a bit of private land to create a buffer between
cyclists and pedestrians but the physical design is achievable. None should be confused by the unsupported
notion that it will be cheaper than simply widening the trail, but it would
provide a much more appealing option for all users.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again in Saanich, where the Lochside tracks north beyond the
junction with the Goose at the far end of the Switch Bridge, extra width is
badly needed. Raising the trail grade is almost certainly
needed to allow for extra width through the large culvert designed to
accommodate trains of days gone by, and the rest of the topography is likewise
tight, but widen we must. CRD numbers
are startling. Year round averages
indicate more than 7,000 trips a day travel the Goose and Lochside, perhaps 50%
higher in fair weather, and volumes are growing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The city and the CRD have known for years that the trail is
becoming victim to its own success and badly needs an update. Many other projects, from repaving crumbling
sections to adding bathroom facilities at locations where longer distance
visitors need relief, are two pressing issues.
It would be nice if the work we need to do didn’t have to wait for the
sharp focus of an election campaign to generate the urgency we are witnessing
at the council table or in the editorial pages.
The solutions are easy enough, we just need to get shovels to the ground
to make them happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-72123362940329099432014-10-09T21:28:00.001-07:002014-10-09T21:29:07.589-07:00Campaign 2014. Putting sustainability back on the table<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sn-fVrm0L0U/VDddHlSMXWI/AAAAAAAAAPs/Z1FbUQ5OKwY/s1600/2010_072615082009420015000062.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sn-fVrm0L0U/VDddHlSMXWI/AAAAAAAAAPs/Z1FbUQ5OKwY/s1600/2010_072615082009420015000062.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aiming to get back to work</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For the last few weeks I've been putting together another run at Victoria City Council and The Capital Regional District Board.<br />
<br />
I've been hard at work in the community on issues over the last few years, but I've thought that the council table has missed my voice and the region needs practical approaches to some of the major issues and challenges we face.<br />
<br />
People have been positively encouraging and I'm honoured to have their confidence. I hope that their support translates into the thousands of votes I will need to bring back my commitment to the city and help us build a more sustainable future.<br />
<br />
Getting coverage is challenge in a city where the media is focused on the mayor's race and many other local politicians are working on their own campaigns. If they cover one, they have to cover them all and they sometimes lose track of how many people are out there in the field.<br />
<br />
Getting my issues out there and giving voice to those in the community who are looking to the future means taking matters into my own hands.<br />
<br />
I'll be profiling my agenda and the issues that our community is bringing to the campaign here on my blog and on handy, quick response facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/voteluton<br />
<br />
I did put out a news release, always a little longer than some, I guess. Local issues are hard to cover in a sound bite, a news clip or a quick paragraph printed in the back pages of the city daily or the neighbourhood weekly.<br />
<br />
Here's the release they missed, but I hope you don't. There is a lot of work to be done to build a sustainable city, and I hope I am up to the task. Looking forward to the campaign, the energy I get from working the issues and the task of convincing a busy electorate to take time to think about their future and that of their children and getting out to vote.<br />
<br />
Keep your eyes on this site to find out more. Always have lots to talk about.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Immediate Release<br />
October
2, 2014<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Luton aims to put
Victoria back to work as he enters council race<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Transportation consultant and former city councillor will
contest for a seat at the table for the November 15 municipal elections in Victoria. He is also putting his name forward to
represent the city at the Capital Regional District.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luton said that he will put his experience working on
council and in the community back to work on the opportunities and challenges
Victoria faces in term ahead. “Victoria
has a new sustainable transportation plan”, said Luton, “but we need to put our
plans into action”.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luton also says that the city’s many other plans need to
move from the table to the street. “Livability
is key to our appeal as a destination for visitors and for new economy businesses
increasingly attracted to the Victoria lifestyle. “<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He points to new developments around the Legislature, land
swaps that create new options for a people oriented waterfront and the need to
“right size” parking requirements as practical challenges a new council will
need to address on development and transportation issues.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the same time, Luton said that we have to get back to
some fundamentals in the city and across the region on issues like homelessness. “We’re seeing seniors struggling, our
shelters oversubscribed. We can’t solve
those issues with reckless budget cuts or solve everything with barn raisings
and bake sales.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regionally, Luton says the sewage debate needs to move
forward. He supports a fully public
model, saying that more privatization undermines transparent, accountable
management, and threatens the essential public ownership of our water
resources.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luton says that pressing infrastructure renewal has to be
funded by building a more vibrant city that brings people, jobs and services
downtown. “New developments we gave the
green light to created more options to live and work downtown and allowed the
current council to keep taxes affordable.”
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He says that the region needs someone at the table
experienced with diverse transportation solutions that respond to changing
times and addresses the fundamental challenges of climate change. “When I last served on council and the
transit commission I tipped the balance to provide better services for students
and our “Late Night, Great Night” strategy”.
He says his energy is needed to help push regional transit solutions
critical to the city’s new economy.
“Transportation is clearly an area where an integrated regional model
makes sense. We need to build a model
that responds to local, regional needs as a counterweight to provincial control
of strategies and priorities.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luton has been endorsed by the Victoria Labour Council and
is working to earn the support of citizens and community leaders in the weeks
leading up to the November election.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For further information:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Luton at 250-592-4753 or 250-886-4166 (cell)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://johnluton.blogspot.com/">http://johnluton.blogspot.com</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/voteluton">https://www.facebook.com/voteluton</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-29765655335911515442014-08-23T23:09:00.001-07:002014-08-23T23:09:24.005-07:00Crosstown Traffic: Bike trips and the Johnson St. Bridge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mOMEY9A9C4U/U_mBf9Z2F9I/AAAAAAAAAPc/tSGMbkt1t9s/s1600/20140822315%2B099.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mOMEY9A9C4U/U_mBf9Z2F9I/AAAAAAAAAPc/tSGMbkt1t9s/s1600/20140822315%2B099.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Beer discussion.<br />
<br />
While bike facilities will draw traffic, they must serve destinations that are trip generators for cyclists, and most will have not much tolerance for out of direction travel, unless for some compelling reason.<br />
<br />
Recently published research suggests that those facilities not so purposeful will draw occasional or recreational use but are less likely to fundamentally alter travel choices to grow cycling significantly.<br />
<br />
The discussion revolved around connections to the Johnson St. Bridge, a project that at its inception aimed also to improve conditions for cycling across a weak link in the regional cycling network. Many other deficiencies pointed to a new bridge over any attempt at refurbishment. Strong support from the cycling community and my own efforts to ensure, at the time, the most practical and achievable facilities on the bridge for cyclists and pedestrians, helped to confirm the decision made by council.<br />
<br />
Some challenges were understood but not so far easily solved - I could only push so far to incorporate everything I might have wanted on deck and in the surrounding road network. None were sufficient to support the folly of delay or ill conceived rescue work aimed at preservation of a museum piece over a functional centrepiece of our transportation infrastructure.<br />
<br />
Still, there are some now who, because they didn't get everything, may have just as comfortably settled for nothing. They would do a disservice to those many who will find the new bridge light years ahead of any levels of service hitherto enjoyed on the icon of the old blue bridge, (which, of course, was black for the first decade I was riding east from home in Vic West.<br />
<br />
I took the morning a few days back to conduct my own count and observe the patterns of travel on the "delta" side of the bridge - where streams of traffic disperse travelers around downtown like so many rivulets depositing what the river of traffic has streamed into the core.<br />
<br />
3 of the 445 cyclists I counted over an hour passing through my observation post were not wearing helmets. There's $75 worth of lost revenue for the police who can't, it should be noted, be everywhere all at once.<br />
<br />
Including those leaving town - against the predominant flow of morning traffic, 13 distinct destination streams were found, though most heading outbound were coming from the south along Wharf and not so many along Pandora (a route that will show higher numbers, no doubt, when I go out again to record the afternoon patterns.) Still, that is a lot of different boxes to check and analyze. Keeping up with the count (and, as always, snapping some pics to illustrate the story), kept my fingers busy.<br />
<br />
Of those heading into town, more than half headed south immediately upon exiting the bridge, another third continued east, though their end points could have taken them perhaps both north and south into downtown as much as they might have been headed to other destinations served by Johnson St. as it cuts through the city.<br />
<br />
The pattern speaks to the pressing need to connect more effectively the new Goose that will spill bike traffic into downtown when the bridge (not to mention the E&N trail) are complete. That will be a new project, as will new concepts for Wharf and harbour pathway connections will be as next steps take shape. Wharf has no easy fixes, which is partly why it does not top the priority list for new investments the city's bike plan envisions. <br />
<br />
A separated cycle track on Pandora is at the top, and two designs will be assessed, though destination travel analysis would indicate that a couplet with Johnson is a more complete network approach than the two way fashion statement some would prefer. Engineering challenges will be daunting enough given the inconsistencies in available right of way along the corridor, though it will still be worth extra work (and extra money) aimed at conceptualizing the two way option. Understanding that trip patterns will be at least as important as the symbol provided by a two way cycle track must inform the analysis. I am less certain than some that the two way concept is the silver bullet. It has many blemishes.</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-65879813780269486592014-04-22T11:15:00.001-07:002014-04-22T11:15:22.685-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Nothing to see here . . </h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A sparsely attended meeting of Victoria’s council sitting in
committee heard from project managers on the progress of the Johnson St.
Bridge. Those coming to watch a train
wreck were no doubt disappointed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recent reports notwithstanding, budget and time lines appear
to be on track and critics are muted by the steady onslaught of the
uncomfortable facts. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The question had to be asked again, though answered more
than once or a thousand times, about maintenance of the old bridge. While wrestling through the forecasts for
touching up paint or recoating the bridge, the point seemingly had to be made
that, had old blue been painted more diligently, it might have lasted
longer. The answer, as always, has been
as consistent. The old bridge, was state
of the art, 90 years ago, using plate steel and rivets to create the structural
members the define the structure. Consulting
engineers in attendance, like those that had come before, schooled the studiously
uninformed, that the design rendered any scheme to coat surfaces between
plates, at best, irrelevant, and, for all intents and purposes, near impossible
in any event, at least in situ. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As those who have followed the project and who understand at
least the basics of metallurgy, the existing bridge, despite some initial
hopefulness, has never been a good candidate for refurbishment, whatever the
scheme. The steel is so compromised by
the rust and corrosion of a salty environment and the damp winters of the wet
coast that almost nothing of the original bridge would remain after the rust might
have been scraped off, lead paint and all, into the water below.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The same voices who began their term insisting that an
iconic bridge was too rich for Victoria are now as insistent that no expense be
spared to ensure that the trail crossing that will connect the E&N trail to
the Goose and the new bridge has all the architectural panache of the bridge
project they once insisted would serve as well if it were a replica of the
Spencer Road overpass.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Different storylines emerged that counter the recent and
familiar noise from other critics.
Routine maintenance and schemes for replacement of load bearing
mechanical elements of the bridge are designed into the management plan for the
future of the new bridge, not, as some might have it, a sudden and surprising
change to the lifespan project for the bridge, which remains at 100 years. Proxies at the table were left looking for
minutiae around how bearings might be replaced or paint touch up work might be
arranged. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The use of one sort of grouting or another to sandwich steel
surfaces subject to loads and friction were revealed as likewise commonplace, well protected from the
elements encased within the structure where operational requirements
demand. Nothing to see here, and not so
much to report, more than that most all of the 4,000, give or take a few,
movable bridges across North America are using much the same elements of
design. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Engineers put paid to the notion too, that the mechanics of
the bridge are untried or untested. They
went so far even as to share that the key elements of rollers and bearings,
racks and pinions and the like were so commonplace as to be available off the
shelf, should one or another piece require replacement. That too, is designed into the bridge. Due diligence will require maintenance, maybe
repairs, perhaps replacement of some of those movable parts that will wear over
time. Unlike the current structure, however,
everything is designed with maintenance and durability in mind. The old bridge, not so much.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rail service, as much as we would have liked to include it
in the first go round, is protected, at least conceptually. The right of way remains and, should a
revival demand a downtown station, the logistics of approaches from the west
side will be easy enough to construct, even as those most attached to bringing
the train into sight of the city centre decry the expense of public space
design that might require some rearrangement should a station be required or
tracks need to be laid.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More practical approaches might be explored where a new
station location that harkens back to the ‘70s, when rail served, more practically,
deeper into Vic West. Locations have
more generous space that might be afforded a station, parking would be more
readily available, transit connections could be designed, and local development
would be anchored by passenger rail or long haul commuter services. Not that the rail is operating yet, but the
prospect of revival, however shaky, would best be served by functional
realities more so than political posturing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of the noise around design milestones and the impatience
with those elements still incomplete revealed some stark contrasts in
approaches. The public realm west of the
bridge that will reclaim land currently supporting the dysfunctional S-curve is
rightly unfinished on paper. As much as
the concepts of land use have been driven by community desires for more park
space, it remains most crucial that the public be involved in the more detailed
design that can follow the more immediate need to finish the bridge and road
connections that will service the new crossing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Further on up the road, or the trail, so to speak, the
E&N rail trail continues to emerge alongside the increasingly decrepit
track bed, though many of us still hope the train will be rescued as
promised. It will connect to the project
and, truth be told, I would rather not have detailed design completed without
having a good look at both functional design and architectural expression. I’m uncomfortable enough with the continue
characterization of the link as a “pedestrian” bridge, when it will also serve
commuter cyclists and other wheeled travelers who will require different kinds
of geometrics than those needed for foot travel alone. I’m sure everyone involved understands this,
but it needs to be spelled out as a design driver as the project proceeds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Road links and fresh works connecting Harbour Road across to
the Ocean Pointe Hotel are already in progress, and the ramp down to the road
from the current E&N trail piece are fenced off for the next several
weeks. More effort could have been made
to design better detour arrangements and more pointed communications, but it
will be very short term, and the promise of dramatic improvements to cycling
facilities that are central to the new bridge will draw more traffic despite new
ideological skepticism emerging among some in the cycling community.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Something new will be emerging as city staff and project
consultants work through the change order demanded by the contractor hoping to
squeeze more money out of their fixed price deal, but that wasn’t ready for the
council gabfest. No doubt it will be
fuel and fodder for the naysayers who aren’t much interested in the facts in
any event. While some may be journalists
in their day jobs, they’ve lost any sense of objectivity on this project,
leading the charge in opposition whilst pretending to be mere reporters. Guess you have to give them credit for being
consistent.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Project team members turned aside questions that had been
raised about the ethics of designers assessing the changes. They reminded council that their r
professional credentials demanded that they provide accurate and fair
information, and that anything they turned in would be run through city staff
and were subject to audit, in any event, by federal funders who have a lot of
skin in the game and have, thus far, found everything in order.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Me too. I read all
483 pages of the report and voted yes for a new bridge. Didn’t forget also, to read page 484 too –
that’s the one where the referendum results showed the voters of Victoria made
the same choice. Haven’t seen anything
new that indicates it was the wrong one.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-64438371526214968512014-02-25T15:03:00.000-08:002014-02-25T15:19:17.768-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Jobs sailing in to Victoria</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There's not a lot to support in the province's decision to
abandon the Capital Commission and sell off key assets to finance operational
debt. This trade of lands for those the
city owns at Point Hope, however, is one of those exceptions that make good
sense. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During my time on council I was also pressing the case that
we sell Point Hope the leased lands to give them certainty for at least some of
the investments they had then mapped out. I
hope they proceed with the graving dock they planned that would allow more and
larger vessels to come into the yard, creating new and better jobs than I am
expecting from the more shaky LNG industry that some operations will service.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There will no doubt be some who strike the match and light
their hair on fire, insisting, wrongly, that the land should be saved for
housing or a park. Both of those
soapboxes are too shaky to stand for long.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the city, the new provincial properties along the other
side of the harbour will help to consolidate the city’s holdings on the
downtown waterfront, and make it easier to advance a harbour pathway project
that has been in the works for years.
That will be a welcome and well used public space that gives hope to the
idea that we can stop providing viewscapes for empty cars and give more of our waterfront back to our citizens.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back on the other side, the Point Hope lands have always
been a liability more than an asset for the city. They cannot be used for housing – too contaminated
from near a century and a half of industrial activity that would make
reclamation uneconomic. For health
reasons, you simply cannot build housing on toxic sites. Why would we ask those who need affordable
housing to absorb the costs or the risks associated with who knows what buried
in the fill?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a park, it doesn’t have a lot to offer – it would be
isolated and less appealing than the new and better park space the city has
already planned into the local neighbourhood south of the new bridge and taking
advantage of land reclaimed from the soon to be redundant “S” curve (a sticky
issue for those that insist traffic calming is so well served by preserving
accident generators).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the shipyard, the lands will be an asset. They can consolidate their property, cap the
site, contain the contamination and keep on doing what they do best - serving dozens of vessels from near and far who check in now again for minor repairs or major work.
Those who might believe it’s but a pittance to fix might cast their eyes
towards the BC Hydro lands where tens of millions of dollars have been, and continue
to be spent, on one of Canada’s most toxic pieces of land. That’s not something the city needs to take
on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Point Hope can take this to the bank – as an owner better
than a leaseholder, to secure the financing they need to build their business
and create jobs you can count. Both the
shipyard and the city also escape the conundrum of the landlord also being the
regulator of the lands and eliminate any conflict over the watchdog role.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not to be undersold also is the planning that went into the
bridge project – some elements of design were added late to the plan to allow
Point Hope to pull in bigger, wider vessels.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m sure the deal will be the “focus” of some critics but
this is a good deal for the city and for the sustainability of our community. We need to be a working city too and this is
a big boost for our marine industrial economy.
Our marine highways, despite the efforts of some, aren’t going to disappear
anytime soon, and the vessels that ply our coastal waters need their marine
garage. It’s here at Point Hope and it’s
about to tool up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kudos to Mayor Fortin and the city for making this work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
City news at:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.victoria.ca/EN/meta/news/news-archives/2014-archive/land-exchange-supports-jobs-investment-in-city.html" target="_blank">http://www.victoria.ca/EN/meta/news/news-archives/2014-archive/land-exchange-supports-jobs-investment-in-city.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-15197755987138278472013-06-16T11:20:00.002-07:002013-06-16T11:20:36.945-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Windshield Myopia</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I5QKL8Oa_TY/Ub4BScy3l-I/AAAAAAAAAOY/39PXKn7-nZU/s1600/2010_051215082009420015000052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I5QKL8Oa_TY/Ub4BScy3l-I/AAAAAAAAAOY/39PXKn7-nZU/s320/2010_051215082009420015000052.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
A couple of weeks ago the Victoria Times-Colonist published an editorial proposing that weather alone was pretty much responsible for our high levels of cycling in Victoria. Here's my rejoinder, an op-ed piece sent in soon afterwards, but never published.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Re:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>TC Editorial,
Thursday June 6, 2013, on bikes and traffic safety<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Your editorial on road safety issues suggests that Victoria
has done little to improve the lot of cyclists and that our high ridership is a
happy accident of climate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That doesn’t square with the facts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Saskatoon and Kingston, both cities with harsher winters
also enjoy high levels of cycling and in the U.S. places like Madison,
Wisconsin, and Minneapolis, Minnesota also have high levels of cycling,
challenging the notion that weather alone will generate higher levels of
participation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Victoria, like other cities that have extensive networks of
bicycle facilities, still has work to do to fill in the gaps, but the pace of
change here has been impressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A more
thorough investigation of what we do have will find one of the most well
developed off-road trail systems of any city in North America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few have parallel routes that provide the levels
of service, continuity and connectivity as efficiently and effectively as do the
Galloping Goose and Lochside trails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Counts near 1,000 bikes per hour have been recorded at busy locations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unlike many cities, however, we do not have an extensive
grid system – something that makes easier work of the “cycle track” systems now
being seen in Vancouver or Montreal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even those cities still rely on marked bike
lanes on major routes or traffic calming on quieter streets to support cycling
for transportation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Painted bike lanes do make conditions safer and more
appealing for many and other local count projects have found a significant,
positive correlation between our on-road facilities and an observed growth in
cycling traffic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Local governments and other agencies are looking at
separated or buffered bike lanes for numbers of routes, but they will be constrained
by local context and daunting cost issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Solutions will not be immediate and indeed, our regional plan has a long
term horizon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Your editorial also suggests that we lack for a good
education program to teach people how better to share the roads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is incorrect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than 2,000 cyclists have gone through a
Bike to Work commuter program that is equipping people with the skills to ride
safely in traffic and cycling advocates have worked with local authorities on
enforcement initiatives and better bike smarts for drivers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A blip in collision numbers may make for a good story, but
actual rates show a relatively safe cycling city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growing numbers of people are choosing bicycling
for at least some of their daily travel needs, at least where infrastructure
has been improved and all municipalities are continuing to work on further
improvements to serve local as well as regional needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">While we need to do more, and our regional plans provide an
ambitious blueprint for how our transportation system might evolve in the
future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your editorial misses the very
real progress we have already made, the associated increases in cycling numbers
and safety outcomes that we are building into the fabric of our transportation
system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-9098990291270858042013-06-06T00:02:00.000-07:002013-06-06T00:02:03.744-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
June 2013<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bike Lanes Threatened</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1OeQvE0tx_I/UbAzeQkPBdI/AAAAAAAAAOE/Ro957ly3faQ/s1600/20130605205+200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1OeQvE0tx_I/UbAzeQkPBdI/AAAAAAAAAOE/Ro957ly3faQ/s320/20130605205+200.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">BC Transit is considering options for rapid bus services
along Douglas St., the Trans-Canada Highway, and other main transit routes
serving high demand destinations in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some proposals that will be presented should set off alarm
bells for cyclists in Greater Victoria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Existing bike lanes could be erased for transit priority service - bad
medicine for a transportation system that needs to shift road capacity to more
sustainable choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bike lanes
shouldn’t be sacrificed to coddle the cars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We need to offer alternatives for drivers to choose transit – not try
and push bikes off the road where design challenges are too much for planners
to grapple with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Across downtown bicycling’s share of the commuter market
exceeds 10%, not so far behind transit passenger volumes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like every traveler on our roads, cyclists
are looking for direct and convenient routes to their destinations and, without
an effective grid system, few options to take parallel routes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the same reasons that Blanshard has been dismissed as a
primary rapid transit corridor, cyclists destined for shopping or workplaces
along Douglas will want to use Douglas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They already do, by the hundreds, if not by the thousands, every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They too pay their taxes and deserve no less
access to the streets they pay for than do their fellow citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lately a “complete streets” approach to allocating road
space has gained currency across North America and is rapidly gaining traction
here in Victoria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pushing cyclists off
of a key route by erasing bike lanes runs counter to a policy framework
embraced by both the city and the region and should come off the table.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We are trying to build a more sustainable city, a more
sustainable region and we are working to provide alternatives to an over-reliance
on the private automobile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stealing
space from cycling to speed up transit won’t be successful if it does so only
to keep car capacity whole.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What we are seeing here is a retreat to an old-style of
thinking – some see bikes as a competitor to transit, so they aren’t invested
in providing space, let alone funding, to make more complete streets work in
practice, (if it is seen to be stealing market share).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The real target, (and a much bigger one), are the more than
70% of residents who still choose driving first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chip away at some of their space; make
transit a little more competitive in time and convenience - then you can start
attracting the big numbers you need to fill buses, justify more resources and start
developing the case for LRT again. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stealing capacity at the margins from bicycle
commuters targets a much smaller market, generates ill will among potential
allies, and belies a commitment to sustainable transportation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With more bike commuters, based on population, than in any
other city in Canada, and well beyond most every city in North America, we are
not a good target for reduced levels of service for cycling – rather we need
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to find the option that
helps Transit do their job better, but allows for those of us who ride to
maintain fair access to the routes and destinations we need to get to - just
like everyone else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let Transit know that cutting bike lanes is not on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Check out the Transit future bus “open house”
road show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make sure your council hears
from you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Transit meets on June 27<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
to consider options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t let them take
away what we’ve worked hard to build.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">More at:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.bctransit.com/transitfuture/vrptc_getinvolved.cfm"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://www.bctransit.com/transitfuture/vrptc_getinvolved.cfm</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span> </div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-64700590978823061602013-04-03T12:17:00.001-07:002013-04-03T12:17:08.093-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Bridge Chronicles</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
New installments April 2013</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The crisis of bridge financing is in the eye of the
beholder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accounting idiosyncrasies and
scope changes supported by a majority of council have evolved through reasonable
project timelines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Choices have been
transparent – presented in public to those at the table, mindful of the
expectation that distinct elements of the project and its management require due
diligence at every decision point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Critics need to choose between journalism and advocacy,
though it seems the two are cross-pollinating, with those investigating the
story clearly advocates for an alternate agenda and storyline, and predictably
less interested in the facts that don’t echo their view of history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Costs of the referendum and an alternate design project are
now in the budget, as are scope changes like the project to move Telus lines,
and new features aimed at protecting structures from new traffic that may be
generated by a post-referendum ship building program, among other line
items.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Endorsed as a package, council
dissenters could have asked for separate motions to consider each distinct
accounting change or substantive cost element.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They had a voice, and a vote, not a veto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Council chose, as it should have, to remain “focused” on
value for money and voted to support clear, if sometimes mundane budget
additions to protect taxpayers and the city’s capital investment, though
nothing that could be characterized as inflationary, irresponsible or aimed at
conspiratorial subterfuge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The contractor will be in the water soon enough, even as
those who lost the referendum and continue to lose votes at council, sometimes
by proxy, continue to launch torpedoes aimed at scuttling the project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/8617067696/in/photostream">http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/8617067696/in/photostream</a></div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-73937996956502283432013-03-12T22:35:00.001-07:002013-03-12T22:35:28.550-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last week environmental organizations put out a proposal for a "Better Future Fund" aimed at the next BC election coming in May. It proposed to take the provincial carbon tax and apply revenues to various initiatives to green up our energy expenditures. The biggest chunk they earmarked for transit while proposing other investments in energy efficiencies for buildings and local community initiatives aimed at reducing our carbon footprint.<br />
<br />
The community piece was pretty light on details, and the fund proposal missed the mark on active transportation - nothing in there about cycling and walking which, in many BC communities, are rapidly growing as viable transportation choices for more and more of our citizens and, unlike some of the other proposals, have a much more immediate and direct benefit in individual and community health.<br />
<br />
I put out a news release to point out the missing link here, unfortunately all too typical of those who can't see the trees for the forest. They get the big picture but don't always grasp some of the details of how to get there. The Better Future Fund is still well intended and a good start to an important discussion, but we need to make sure that the practical solutions that we need to help people make more sustainable choices are spelled out in some detail and appropriately funded so that the sticks of the carbon tax are better paired with the carrots of real options for more sustainable lifestyle choices in how and where we live, and in the transportation choices we will be making several times a day, every day.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">March
12, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For
Immediate Release<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Better
Future Fund Incomplete Says Cycling advocate<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
Better Future Fund proposed by leading environmental organizations is a good
recipe for BC’s carbon tax, but it is missing some essential ingredients, says Capital
Bike and Walk Executive Director John Luton.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Dollar
for dollar, investments in cycling infrastructure is one of the most efficient
and effective means of shifting travel choices to sustainable modes”, he
said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Carbon
taxes need to be paired with investments in cycling infrastructure to help
people choose cycling for more of their daily travel needs”, says Luton, “and
the Better Future plan is a missed opportunity to make that point. When it
comes to transportation, there is more than one shade of green”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Victoria
already has the highest mode share for cycling of any city in Canada, and can
do more, but cities need helping funding the capital projects that are needed
to attract a broader demographic than we’ve been able to grow so far. Cycling is
not only a viable choice on its own, but, in larger cities, it also partners
well with the transit that Better Future supporters want to fund, and has a
coincident benefit in individual and community health.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Capital
Bike and Walk has been working with local advocates and others in the province
through the BC Cycling Coalition to develop a vision of what the province could
achieve with new investments in cycling infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says the plan would not only help shift
travel choices to more sustainable modes but would also help BC better compete
with other jurisdictions putting money into cycling tourism initiatives that
are growing jobs and new, sustainable economic modelsy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Quebec
is growing thousands of jobs around their “Route Verte” project; Vermont’s
cycling tourism industry is bigger than maple syrup and locally, businesses and
many BC communities are already building their own strategies to attract green
tourism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Moving
BC forwards to a more sustainable model needs to pair more of the carrots with
the stick of the carbon tax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t
just punish people with new costs – we’ve got to give them a range of options
that will help them make the transition now and in the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need the transit plan, but it has a much
longer gestation period and higher up front capital costs than does cycling
infrastructure programs”, said Luton.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Provincial
investments in cycling have been working, but programs have too often been cut
to meet fiscal pressures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to tie
carbon taxes to program spending that makes good policy sense, and putting
money into cycling is essential to a better future for BC.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For
more information:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
J<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">ohn
Luton, Executive Director<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Capital
Bike and Walk Society<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<a href="mailto:johnluton@shaw.ca"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">johnluton@shaw.ca</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">250-592-4753<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">250-886-4166
(cell)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">BC
Cycling Coalition provincial recommendations at:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://bccc.bc.ca/take-action/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">http://bccc.bc.ca/take-action/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-7036193923177939062013-01-02T21:59:00.003-08:002013-01-02T21:59:29.138-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3>
New bridge, refurbished economy.</h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9zGLj5plXuw/UOUdtQu3HbI/AAAAAAAAANU/ByViZ_qZDUM/s1600/20120924211+003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9zGLj5plXuw/UOUdtQu3HbI/AAAAAAAAANU/ByViZ_qZDUM/s320/20120924211+003.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The recent award of a contract to build the new Johnson St.
Bridge will have some critics looking for a new storyline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pretty clearly the fiction that the deal was
on the verge of collapse was overblown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Construction will start soon and some will continue looking for new
theories to explain away the public process, democratic referendum and a solid professional
design and development process that is moving the new crossing project along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Council critics will be left behind as well, pointing fingers
at the majority who have consistently voted to proceed despite the claims of
sinister intent that are likewise overstated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>More perplexing, though, is a newfound interest in downtown vibrancy possessed
of some of the same voices who are finding the wind at their backs has turned
and their ship has now sailed, and seemingly rudderless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyone who took the trouble to read the economic impact
assessments that weighed a potential refurbishment project against the choice
of a new bridge would have found the impacts to the downtown economy of a
bridge rescue mission unsupportable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Potential losses were pegged at as much as $13 million a year, dwarfing
what impacts they have lately noticed from market shifts to the new Uptown mall
in Saanich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the rush to the burbs is
built on convenient access and plentiful parking, how come they didn’t notice
the gross inconvenience of losing the old bridge for a couple of years?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The only viable means of refurbishing
structural elements and getting at the shaky foundations was deconstruction and
off-site reworking that has, in any event, proven unfeasible).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Certainly business voices in the city were, after initial
apprehensions over costs, quickly convinced of the sound choice embodied in the
new bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They, as well as anyone,
understood the engineering analysis as well as the very real problems of losing
a vital crossing would be for the centre of the region’s economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like most who have had a more practical sense
of the issues, the hair on fire claims that a cover up of a cheap and easy fix
was being ditched by empire builders just didn’t hold water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More so, the recognition that the
functionality of the system design represented in the new road alignments and added
levels of service for cyclists and pedestrians maintained a balance that would
have been thrown off-kilter by lane reductions or other closure schemes
sometimes promoted by dissenting voices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The bridge is an essential connection to the city’s downtown
for many in Victoria as well as for those who live in municipalities beyond our
borders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shutting it down would send them
off to other commercial and retail destinations to avoid the headaches of
getting downtown via other routes that are even today oversubscribed and not
really direct links for many of the trips to downtown businesses in
particular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is that point lost on
the supporters of a “vibrant downtown economy” who have been taking aim at the
bridge project?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Add economic illiteracy
to their sandbox grasp of transportation system design.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As much as some would like more parking, more travel lanes
for their cars, just as there are those who propose to shut it all down and
imagine everyone will walk or bike to every destination for every trip, neither
is going to happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve achieved
something of an equilibrium where extra capacity for cycling and walking trips
will help people make more sustainable choices, but those who choose to drive,
or who must, will keep the level of service they have now, at least as much as
they have had since 1924 when the current bridge was completed. (Transit
services and goods movement would run into their own problems if the “greener”
solutions were implemented).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s
useful to know, however, is that the new bridge also caps capacity at those same
levels for cars and trucks, and this despite the clear signs of fresh new
growth in residential and business development immediately west of the bridge
that will generate many thousands of more trips a day to and from downtown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of that growth will be on foot or by
bike – the bridge already accommodates more than 1 million trips per annum by
bike, some figure larger on foot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both
will enjoy service improvements that will accelerate those numbers when the new
bridge arrives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Word to the wise on that one too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Developments on both sides of the bridge owe
at least something to the new project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The uncertainty of a decision, the very questionable resilience of the existing
crossing and even the lack of cycling and walking features were an impediment
to their moving forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those “concerned”
about the city’s economic vibrancy have now another shaky platform to climb
down from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new bridge is a positive,
not a negative, for Victoria’s economy and it’s time to move on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Next steps will see the start of construction as the city’s
freshly secured contractor starts poking holes in the harbour bottom for new
foundations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will also be the
foundation of a new era in the city’s history and one we can look forward to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-64368425902383586482012-12-31T14:21:00.002-08:002012-12-31T14:21:22.083-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3>
Investing in a more vibrant downtown . . . </h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--CJHG4qh-pk/UOIOQQaQHzI/AAAAAAAAAMw/wKoqk-CvV9A/s1600/20110911131+023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--CJHG4qh-pk/UOIOQQaQHzI/AAAAAAAAAMw/wKoqk-CvV9A/s320/20110911131+023.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Happy to add something more to the discussions about how to
inject some new vibrancy into Victoria’s downtown economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s something that I’ve at least had
something consistent to offer over the last few years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a bit of a contrast to new converts who
have more recently discovered the issue and are looking for new voices and new
ideas to bring to the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notwithstanding
that any strategy will need to be a team effort, requiring everyone on council
to be pulling in the same direction, more or less, it would be as useful to
have some confidence that there is a coherent connection between the “nice
things to say” and the “better things to do”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Talk is cheap enough, but concrete action is going to cost more, both in
real dollar terms and in the expenditure of political capital to support
investments or make decisions that may be at odds with the sometimes confusing
directions offered by the changing winds of more populist positioning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Case in point is the Pandora Green project that our last
council was pilloried for, from both left and right, for being either too
expensive or aimed at disenfranchising those for whom a tent city was, at least
then, a convenient soapbox on which to stand in defense of our street
population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of our council, at
least, was focused on a coherent and consistent strategy to aggressively pursue
funding and property opportunities to increase access to diverse housing and
shelter options for our most disadvantaged citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s still a better, and actually a cheaper,
solution for everyone than the tent city debacle that plagued what is now
Pandora Green only a couple of years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Homelessness is still a problem enough, but the opening of a
new shelter and another project to rescue bankrupt hotels is now paying off, in
some measure, in the provision of supportive housing for some of those most in
need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the afflicted neighbourhood
along Pandora, the disappearance of the boulevard squat has been a welcome
relief from the downward spiral of disorder, and the new plaza and boulevard
improvements are creating a more livable environment for both the more
transient users of Our Place to the more permanent residents living in
apartments and condos dotted around Harris Green.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the longer term, the revival is also
likely to attract more local business investment that is as likely to pay for
the costs of the project through increased assessments, contrary to the hand
wringing of those who have, as always, decried the expenditure of public funds
unfairly extracted from their pockets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other fiscal dividend may still have a long gestation as
we try and realize the savings that will emerge from a strategy that shifts
management of what was an increasingly intractable policing problem to a more
appropriate social services model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Police calls to the area dropped by more than 25% soon after the
completion of the project and, along with the housing and other supports we so
desperately need in our community, the longer term prospects for at least
containing the growth in policing costs should emerge from investments that
work in concert with one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Making
downtown and nearby neighbourhoods more attractive and reducing the impacts of
difficult social issues is going to be key to sustaining, if not reviving, some
of our economic vibrancy in Victoria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s a lesson that should be understood by the councillor
now promising to make the downtown economy a priority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scoring political points by looking for ways
to cut the city’s investment in affordable housing made for a good few news
stories, but it was never a good strategy for building a healthy downtown
economy dependent at least as much on presentation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise, her campaign video trashing the
city’s investment in Pandora Green probably made friends and influenced votes,
but I hope the councillor will be so good as to at least rethink, if not climb
down from that particular plank, or prank.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Making mileage with the grass-roots community was good politics then,
but there’s a new year coming and a new parade to chase, even if the more
comprehensive and coherent collection of plans and policies built to emphasize
downtown density, new economy industrial zones and other more substantive
approaches to economic diversification are in play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teamwork, it seems, is less appealing when
it’s all about being a new voice, a different voice, an independent voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ll be watching to see what’s under the Christmas tree next
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s bound to be something fresh,
or at least half-baked, again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-41450068159342926592012-12-31T10:23:00.003-08:002012-12-31T10:23:44.676-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
New look for an old problem</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E-6T48ULhcI/UOHX3uM4KkI/AAAAAAAAAMc/V8KYp17HA7E/s1600/20121003213+111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E-6T48ULhcI/UOHX3uM4KkI/AAAAAAAAAMc/V8KYp17HA7E/s320/20121003213+111.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nouveau bean counters have kept quiet about a recent parks
project that emerged in James Bay, a neighbourhood near to downtown in
Victoria, BC, though numbers of other park projects have borne the brunt of ire
over the expenditure of tax drawn funds aimed at greening the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fisherman’s Wharf Park underwent a transformation over a few
years, turning a patch of grass, and not much more, into a first rate,
interactive playground and, towards another end of the field, a more extensive
and expensive project of rain gardens and other features designed to replace
conventional storm water management utilities with a more naturalized and
effective system to gather up the overload of winter storms and filter the
water before it finds its way back into the nearby harbour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The very visible and stunning project was welcomed by
neighbourhood activists, but found some dissenting voices among those whose more
basic objective is to prevent the spending of tax dollars on anything they can
see, let alone a seemingly superfluous window dressing project aimed at
presentation, more than effective management of the city’s always too generous
budget resources or physical assets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Moving the project ahead over the term of the last council
was no easy feat, with some eyebrows raised over costs associated with the
improvements, while at the same time willfully blind to the benefits delivered
by new approaches to managing some of the more fundamental services of urban
infrastructure that cities remain responsible for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many are, at best, unfamiliar with the maze
of pipes and other utilities hidden underground – the ones that carry the water
to our taps, take away the waste after it’s been flushed away, or the hundreds
of kilometers of storm sewers that are there to channel the floods of wetter
seasons, draining the roads and carrying water away from our buildings and
houses so we can continue to function as a city more than a swamp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Victoria, as in many other cities, those pipes are aging
in place, and not very well, with some of our own system 100 years old or
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where breakdowns occur, the cost
of digging in and replacing pipes is an expensive and repeating emergency that
has to be dealt with, and the slow but steady replacement of the unseen
infrastructure a dauntingly costly exercise, the magnitude of which is grasped
by few enough of our neighbours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
the unseen deficit of infrastructure, once built by previous generations and
that we are now seemingly resistant to repairing or replacing as the bills come
in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was reminded last year, of how little appreciated the
assets held by the city contribute to our quality of life, or how cities deal
with the routine and mundane impacts of our weather patterns, even as the
climate evolves towards something more ominous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why waste money on planting more trees, I was asked by one critic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I offered that a tree was a very good
investment, actually, not the least for its ability to suck up huge quantities
of rainwater that might otherwise find its way, unhappily, into your basement
if the rest of the system was overtaxed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We do happen to live in a city where it rains, at least on occasion and
sometimes heavily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Storm water systems
can only manage so much and sometimes must rely on the natural environment to
pick up the slack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The new park design is more complex, but likewise substitutes
manufactured underground utilities with a more sympathetic and natural design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s one that can handle the storms and provides
the added benefit of filtering toxins out before the water returns to the
ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s open and it’s simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a system were to clog up or break down, it
would be accessible and serviceable, though the need is so much less likely to
arise since it better mimics natural ecosystems than a drain grate and pipe
buried under ground, asphalt or concrete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are no valves and mechanical features to malfunction, since those are
likewise taken care of by natural design – the landscape is its own safety
valve, absorbing or storing water and slowly letting it percolate back into the
water cycle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looks expensive, but
apart from the initial capital works, the system maintains itself much more
cheaply and the initial costs are not so different, really, than those we pay for
the infrastructure you cannot see.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The new Fisherman’s Wharf park opened in the fall of 2012,
with, ironically, some on the new council in attendance, including those who
are lately looking hard to find new targets for cost and service cuts, claiming
to be focused on the essentials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of
the discussions at council seem to have been aimed at parks, greenways, bike lanes
and other facilities viewed as “nice to do”, over what cities “must do”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That shows at best, a lack of creative thinking
and a short-sighted approach to how cities manage assets and
responsibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Longer term costs are
an issue as much as immediate capital challenges, and, truth be told, some of
the costs can be covered through the increasing assessments associated with
rising land and housing values in a neighbourhood much improved by the addition
of a beautiful and natural park that provides the same essential services anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We need to start looking forward to the future, not back
into it keeping our eyes firmly fixed on the past, and one which, in so many
ways, may not have worked so well in any event.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-81191241429898868202012-11-09T17:19:00.003-08:002012-11-09T17:23:24.007-08:00Blue Bridge Critics Falling Down, Falling Down . . . <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C8TB7NKGnto/UJ2mR8oyP0I/AAAAAAAAAMI/-IQxtWGz3QE/s1600/20121003213+032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C8TB7NKGnto/UJ2mR8oyP0I/AAAAAAAAAMI/-IQxtWGz3QE/s320/20121003213+032.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><em>Above: Geotechnical work for the new Johnson St. Bridge was underway in October of 2012 as city staff worked through competing bids for the construction project that will start soon. Rumours of the imminent demise of the project are unfounded.</em></strong></span><br />
<br />
Op-eds in the Victoria Times Colonist have played out some of the tit-for-tat around Victoria's Johnson St. Bridge project. Suffice to say the latest piece, similar to other agenda driven commentary, makes scant use of the facts. The Request for Proposals process is now complete and technical evaluations are taking place that will inform a recommendation to Victoria City Council which, myths notwithstanding, will make the final decision on the award of a construction contract.<br />
<br />
Here, for your reading pleasure (or otherwise), are some rejoinders to the last op-ed on process and product.<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Process<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The process
has always had flexibility for numbers of tasks and business negotiations, but
always understood has been the completion dates for partnership funding and the
construction schedule afforded by fisheries windows. Extensions
have been sought by proponents, all three of whom remain interested in winning
the project, hardly indicative of a desperate for a deal scenario. Budget
limits are understood, whatever the contract language, and that is shaped by
specialized legal counsel rather than any direction aimed at fleecing
taxpayers. Project elements, particularly specific scope changes that add
new responsibilities and associated costs have been presented to council, in
open forum, and endorsed by majority votes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the outset
of the bridge decision process, Ross Crockford was concerned that the process
was moving forward too quickly. What’s changed?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Detailed
design and construction optimization have always been in the hands of the
successful bidders, just as indicative design is, and remains, under the
direction of the city’s consulting engineers at the MMM group. They’re
responsibility is to ensure delivery of the bridge as proposed to council and
Victorian’s in the successful funding referendum. Evaluations of
optimization strategies or details of design will be conducted, as they should
be, by expert engineering staff and consultants who are responsible to council
and the public to ensure that the bridge delivers on the fundamentals of design
and function outlined during the referendum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Recommendations
will be forwarded to council, where decisions will be made. Councillors
will no doubt have access to information, in confidence, to protect proprietary
business interests, as they would with any project in Victoria, or any other
jurisdiction receiving multiple, competitive bids for any contract or
project. The awarding of the contract will ultimately be at the
discretion of council, and reported on at public committee and council
meetings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The inference
that this approach to decision making on proposals submitted to the city is
unique to Victoria or to this project is not credible.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Product<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
fundamentals of the bridge are sound and the storyline that continues to be
promoted of an untested design unfounded. The technology is well
understood and refinements will be proposed to ensure functionality for a
unique bridge, as it would be for any bridge project. There are few
bridges anywhere that are <u>not</u> sensitive to their setting, context and
unique construction challenges. The single leaf bascule at this location is
an appropriate solution. Securing the deck mid-span is a less optimum
design than a resting span on one side for good engineering reasons, whatever
the traffic above.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The save the
bridge campaign pressed by Mr. Crockford has sought to preserve a single span
structure, making his claims on this issue less credible, if not hypocritical.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">New comparisons<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Comparisons
have been made with a Miami project, another strategy that failed on so many
indicators in the promotion of the “No” vote during the referendum
campaign. Like the many bridges that were offered up during the counter
petition and referendum campaigns, this new example similarly fails to provide
a credible comparison. <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Critics will find what they like and leave out the facts that don't support the storyline.<strong> </strong></span></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Miami is at
the very low end of earthquake risks and codes will be significantly
different. The seismic resilience of our own bridge is at the highest end
and the cost differential for our project is only the incremental difference
between our lifeline bridge designed to withstand an earthquake at an 8.5
magnitude (to offer to most commonly understood reference), over a less robust
6.5 event, quite different from a concept of bringing a bridge with no seismic
resilience to even a modest, if not full code compliant structure. The
city settled on the maximum code available to meet a variety of
objectives. The cost comparisons on that element of the project are not
credible.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cost
comparisons are, in any event, out of date. The Canadian dollar was 5
cents below the U.S. dollar at the time of completion of the Miami project and
inflation would also have to be accounted for. Florida is also a
“right-to-work” state where wages are suppressed by legislative construct,
reducing some input costs, but also exposing users of this particular
procurement model to risk factors associated with higher injury and fatality
rates, as well as questionable quality and timeliness of project delivery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Miami
project also excludes numbers of other features and incorporated numbers of
other projects that were added, and endorsed, for the new Johnson St. Bridge
project. They include road-works on approaches, particularly on the west
side where road design has been found to generate an accident profile; elements
of a harbour pathway project that will link to the bridge and other networks
for cycling and walking; a separate bridge and trail piece to connect the new
E&N rail with trail with the Galloping Goose and a terminus for both
trails; as well as public art, bumpers to protect against vessel traffic,
movement of a secure data line and other unique elements to our project..
None of these are provided in the “accounting” comparisons made between
Victoria’s project and Crockford’s latest example.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Free association<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While Mr.
Crockford characterizes the city as “desperate” for a deal, it seems Victoria
is more likely in the driver’s seat. With three competitive bidders all
eager to win this project, the city is not facing the prospect of relying on a
single bidder who can dictate price. The suggestions that city council
will act as a “rubber stamp” can’t be taken seriously. Final decisions on
contracts always rest with council, and with this project in particular, there
have often been divergent opinions on the choices before both the current and
previous council. Ross Crockford likes to characterize any decision with
which he and his media sponsors disagree as a “rubber stamp” decision.
Far from pushing on with a project on the wrong track, the bridge is moving
forward as intended, as endorsed by the council that made the choice in the
first place, confirmed by a majority of new councillors and proceeding to meet
the timeframes set in place to meet the important constraints for fisheries
windows and funding partnerships. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">No amount of
hand-wringing or story-telling in support of a failed agenda will change the
facts. It was a sound decision, made by those charged with making that
choice, to choose a new bridge over the too good to be true fairy tales of a
rescue and refurbishment project. Bids have closed and a contract
will be awarded soon. Watch for more visible signs of the project to
start appearing in the harbour and on the landscape around the bridge
project. Crockford, no doubt, will continue to tilt at windmills.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-88610077487388467102012-10-29T09:57:00.001-07:002012-10-29T09:57:09.513-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Housing on the Block</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Last week Victoria City Council voted to cut funds for affordable housing. The vote will be considered for adoption this week and deserves a second look. It's indicative of a problem with so many governments who see themselves as an investment bank rather than a service provider. Governments don't collect taxes to earn good financial returns, rather they collect them to fund the services and build the assets necessary to sustaining healthy communities. Good on those who saw that difference in the first place. Here's my letter asking for reconsideration.</div>
<br />
Please reverse your GPC vote to cut Victoria's housing programs.<br />
<br />
Clearly we have made a lot of progress in generating new partnerships to expand our supply of affordable housing and new private sector projects are moving forward that will add more market rentals. Still, the job is not finished and the private sector alone cannot meet the specialized needs of disadvantaged populations and the many who remain homeless in our city.<br />
<br />
Victoria needs to hang on to the leverage the city can exercise through funding contributions and partnership programs. We cannot do that through the CRD alone. Ensuring that projects are sensitive to local concerns will still be best addressed when the city has a strong voice at the table, and that voice is strongest when we have the leverage of being a major funding partner.<br />
<br />
Victoria does face financial challenges, just like every other municipality in Canada. It is simply not good enough, however, to wait until other governments return to the housing field to deal with the problems we face today. There are still homeless on our streets and projects that will be needed to house them take time and planning. The respite of a weak economy is not a long term solution.<br />
<br />
Likewise, the obsession with funding challenges is also short term. Many projects initiated by yours and previous councils are moving to planning or are nearing completion. They will add to your assessment roles and help support the services Victoria citizens expect their city to deliver and the assets you are charged with managing.<br />
<br />
Looking for budget efficiency is important to our citizens, but it is not your only task. Housing now and in the future is key to the healthy of our economy, our community and our citizens. It is critical that Victoria remain committed to that agenda by ensuring the resources and the influence the city exercises through our own programs are supported.<br />
<br />
Please make sure that the good work we have started as a community does not stall and rethink the funding cuts supported at committee.</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-73171006862789446582012-10-07T11:30:00.001-07:002012-10-07T11:33:56.217-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Your ship has sailed . . . </h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/8063607537/in/photostream">http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/8063607537/in/photostream</a><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another in the seemingly unending stream of harebrained
letters hit the paper today, floating the fantasy that the city could be better
served by a fixed link crossing in place of a new Johnson St. Bridge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One premise of the letter is that the bridge lifts only for
the occasional sailboat to pass through the channel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quite the contrary, an active and vibrant
shipyard continues to operate at Point Hope and it will be a surprise to some
how large some of the ships are that get pulled onto land via a marine railway
that cost no small sum for the owners of the shipyard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ve added a few spurs so that numbers of
vessels can be anchored in the yard for repairs and maintenance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many are much too large to fit under the existing bridge of
course, and federal regulations would require a clearance of some 185 feet for
a fixed link over navigable waters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
were those regulations to be tweaked to accommodate local conditions, the idea
of a fixed span is unworkable if not nonsensical, and would require the
alienation from productive use of great swaths of land downtown and in Vic
West, eviscerating any of the imagined cost savings proposed by such a foolhardy
project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Point Hope is already one of, if not the largest single
taxpayer in the city, and choking off their business would be compounded by the
disappearance of many smaller businesses that would have to be razed to fit in
ramps and other infrastructure to facilitate a fixed link in support of the “free
flow” of traffic the writer is desperate to pursue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The shipyard is at a most perfect location for their
operations and those others that will continue to suggest the city just move
them out of the centre to a location more convenient to their myopia know
nothing about how Point Hope operates let alone the next phase of their planned
growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A graving dock that would allow
them to work on larger vessels, perhaps even new construction, would fit nicely
into the harbourfront and, in contrast to the complaints of some, contain some
of the noisier operations with a more sheltered facility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The graving dock plan, by the way, emerged after the
referendum on the new bridge, even before a new federal shipbuilding program
was announced, and has required some of the scope changes for the new bridge mischaracterized
as a runaway budget by critics masquerading as media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Point Hope has been a shipyard for almost 150 years, employs
hundreds of skilled tradespeople and supports hundreds of other small
businesses in the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a huge
asset to our local economy in so many ways and, with their more ambitious plans,
will employ some hundreds more, pumping more dollars into a city treasury that
faces revenue challenges most of us are familiar with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Barring the predations of new councillors who imagine that
they have a better idea for the use of the land, or want to promote more
punitive strategies for dollar extraction from the shipyard business, Point
Hope has a promising future that includes many more ships larger than the
limited imaginations of commentators who continue to dredge up ideas I thought
were scuttled long ago. </span></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-33185834622139557832012-10-05T13:30:00.003-07:002012-10-05T13:31:55.164-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
One vote at a time . . . </h3>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Next weekend I will cast a ballot to nominate the person I
would like to carry the NDP banner in a by-election that must be called to
replace my friend Denise Savoie, who retired from office last month after years
of stellar service to the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
heartfelt thanks go out to Denise for all the good work she has done in
Victoria and on the national stage to give voice to the issues and initiatives
important to our community.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I will be supporting a candidate who reflects my values and
priorities and someone who I think can carry forward the legacy that Denise has
built in our community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is most
important to me that in Victoria and across Canada that we focus on the coming
calamity of climate change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
probably the most pressing issue of our time, and we need a candidate for our
times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is no challenge today more critical than our
intractable dependence on fossil fuels to power an unsustainable way of life
that must change, and not just for the reasons of environmental catastrophe that
awaits us if we do not act.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">New Democrats have a long and proud history of tackling the
social and economic issues that reach beyond the comfortable and the well to
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We brought socialized health care to
Canada that is being eroded by those who believe we should return to a failed
private delivery system that would cheat many Canadians of their rights as
citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We have fought for decades for new models of economic
sustainability and equity to ensure that our citizens have decent jobs to
support themselves and their families, and can make a positive contribution to
our country and to our communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We have fought for equality and the rights of Canadians regardless
of race, colour, sexual orientation or the many other differences we celebrate
in our diverse country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No party has
been a more vocal advocate for issues of social just than the New Democrats –
past and present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Canada also used to play a positive role in building a
peaceful world and we have lost our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My father wore the blue beret with a pride that I could celebrate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today we seek military might and export aggression
alongside the rest of the tools of our undoing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We need to be a voice again for peace and reconciliation at
home and abroad, and we need to catch up to many of our partners in other
nations who are working towards a sustainable future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I fear that the only sustainability our
current government is interested in is the outward flow of our resources and
the return of money that will, ironically, pay only for the damage we will have
wrought on the world and ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Health care will not only be pressured by an aging
population who need the contributions of young and diverse flows of immigrants
the Harper government is trying to keep out of Canada (except for those who can
be exploited in servitude).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will also
be challenged by the epidemic of sedentary lifestyles that we have adopted and
new diseases and pests that who need no passport, only a changing climate in
which to thrive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our crumbling infrastructure needs the money that Harper
invests in fighter jets, and climate change will challenge us here too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will be harder to create jobs from denuded
forests, drought stricken farmlands, or to house people in communities flooded
by rising sea levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These threats are
real; the cold war targets we are preparing for are not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We cannot move forward relying on the models of the past,
and we need new, genuine voices for change, for sustainability and for a true
agenda on social justice that recognizes the interdependence of our community
and our environment.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have considered all of these issues and face a difficult
choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have before us exceptional
citizens with diverse histories and a commitment to our community and our
country that demonstrates again that New Democrats have the best to offer the
people of Victoria who want a responsible voice in Parliament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But at some point I will have to cast my
vote, and so, after having listened to those who are candidates for the
nomination, and a feeling that I know all of them well enough to call them
friends, I am casting my vote for Murray Rankin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Murray brings a voice and a record of experience as well as
something new for Victoria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has a
history here, but much valuable experience elsewhere in the province and in the
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe he offers us not just
the best hope to keep Victoria’s parliamentary seat in the NDP family, but also
the best choice to take the issues that matter to me personally and to many in
our community on to Ottawa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will
truly make an exceptional Member of Parliament and I believe he will be “cabinet
ready” in a new government led by Thomas Mulcair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I hope you will join me at our nomination meeting and cast a
vote in support of that hopeful future that I believe Murray will well
represent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s hope we have a
by-election soon so we can get to work filling the big shoes Denise left
behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have much still to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878072117828142274.post-3347738212131616762012-09-18T21:35:00.004-07:002012-09-18T21:35:35.101-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong>The Trade Mission</strong><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J-zWlLNqh2c/UFlLWv6MIwI/AAAAAAAAALw/ayzDVid4Ez8/s1600/20120916125+090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J-zWlLNqh2c/UFlLWv6MIwI/AAAAAAAAALw/ayzDVid4Ez8/s320/20120916125+090.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last week’s trip to Long Beach, California, was a trade
mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I helped staff a display for
Carmanah Technologies, a Victoria based business that specializes in solar
lighting systems for a variety of community and industrial applications. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Carmanah’s new crosswalk beacon system makes it safer to
cross the street, a simple need at probably thousands of locations across North
America where too many cars and too many roads are compromising the urban
environment, discouraging kids from walking to school and creating a host of
other problems in a society becoming too comfortably sedentary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Solar powered systems are a fraction of the cost of
hard-wired systems and Carmanah’s beacons have been well received by the U.S. Federal
Highway Administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The company’s
previous forays into the marketplace connected them with the engineering or
signal systems communities, but the Pro Walk – Pro Bike – Pro Place conference
was a revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people at this
conference are passionate about their work to humanize American cities and make
walking and cycling an option for more people again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know a lot of the people working in the field, from
advocates to practitioners working for cities or states, and some of those who
play a major role in developing standards or approving systems for making
walking and cycling safer and more appealing in the U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conference has always had a few handfuls
of Canadians and international delegates in attendance, and it’s always good to
keep those networks current.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think if
you check with Carmanah, they’ll confirm my impression that I provided a
valuable addition to the team, making introductions and connecting their guy
with the people who are looking for the kind of technology solutions Carmanah has
to offer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Taking Victoria technology on the road to markets that
matter is good for business and I was happy to be part of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carmanah paid the freight – covering my
expenses for the conference, and I think they got a good deal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Previous “trade missions” to previous editions of the Pro
Bike conference helped me do my work in Victoria, and our standard bike rack
design is a result of my first trip in 1998 (the conference was held in Santa
Barbara that year).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The inverted “U”
design is now being used in numbers of municipalities in the Capital Region and
the basic design has been adopted in Vancouver too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our racks are finished and installed by city
staff, supporting good jobs here in Victoria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My next mission unfolded in Philadelphia (2000), where I
starting putting together our bid to bring the conference to Victoria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 2002 when the conference hit Minneapolis –
St. Paul, we had won our bid and, along with other local advocates and a
politician in tow, we put together a great promotion to make sure delegates
signed up to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pro Bike (as it
started out as) had only come to Canada once before, but so many were excited
to come to Victoria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When it arrived in
2004 nearly 600 delegates were here, along with spouses and family, and the
various business exhibitors that populate the trade fair element of the
program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Estimates of economic impacts
for Victoria approached almost $500,000 in local spending (and yes some of that
was on beer).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pro Walk – Pro Bike next hit Madison, Seattle and
Chattanooga, and I made sure I was at all of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Long Beach conference brought the
National Center for Bicycling and Walking together with the Project for Public
Spaces and attendance has hit 800.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
attendance over the years proved a good foundation for connecting Carmanah to
new markets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our conference centre asked
me a couple months back about bringing the conference to Victoria again and one
of my connections from the city of Vancouver will chase me down soon to talk
about bringing it to the big city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Economic development isn’t handed to you; it’s something you have to
work at.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I expect Carmanah will harvest all the contacts made and
realize some successes at selling their technology to cities in need – and who
doesn’t need safer walks to school, a better pedestrian environment, lower
collision rates and better health outcomes, to name a few of the benefits of
making walking safer again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Multiply my experience by the many companies and businesses
in Victoria who export product or expertise abroad – across Canada, into the
U.S. or overseas to established or emerging markets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trade missions are good investments, not just
junkets for the lucky few.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I worked hard (had a good time with old friends too), and
probably added some value to Victoria’s economic prospects while I was at
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be fooled by those that offer
discount ideas about how we can prosper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have to build what we have at home, but we also have to reach out for
ideas and take what we have to offer to a world equally as eager for what we
can share.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
John Lutonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15714906728226432210noreply@blogger.com0