Let Cynicism Unwind

cinoh: Shelter by Kaspar Bossers

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:50:16 -0700

cinoh:

Shelter by Kaspar Bossers

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:49:13 -0700

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:42:04 -0700

legollection: Guinness World Record for longest LEGO railway...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:46:34 -0700

legollection:

Guinness World Record for longest LEGO railway ever #4000meters #lego #guinnessworldrecord

VITA map drafts Here are a couple of earlier drafts of my...

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:21:04 -0700

VITA map drafts

Here are a couple of earlier drafts of my Victoria transit map (final map is here, in case you missed it).

Top photo: very first save file, from June 2011. Take a train to Costco! Also there’s line that somehow goes from Richmond to Shelbourne. Early versions of my map also had a rapid bus service running down Blanshard.

Bottom photo: This is closer to the final map. The two differences are a line that runs down Shelbourne and a line from UVic to Esquimalt. I thought Shelbourne might be a tougher sell, because I think you’d need more property acquisition and there might be issues over Bowker Creek. The UVic to Esquimalt line I still like; I only removed it because it duplicated parts Line B in the current map. I might do an update with a Line F: one that runs down Foul Bay Road, connects to the Line C spur at Bee, and then branches off and terminates and Dockside Green.

owlturdcomix: I’m not an anthropologist or...

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:02:54 -0700

owlturdcomix:

I’m not an anthropologist or anything.

http://i.imgur.com/Tz3e8fr.png

colchrishadfield: With deference to the genius of David Bowie,...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:13:32 -0700

colchrishadfield:

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.

Huge thanks in the making of the video to the talented trio of Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran and Andrew Tidby, plus Evan Hadfield and all at the CSA.

tastefullyoffensive: Ryan Gosling won’t eat his...

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:23:47 -0700

tastefullyoffensive:

Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal

[ryanwmchenry]

I enjoyed this way too much.

kemotional: frakintosh: sam: cosmopolitanism: nationalpost: ...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:10:16 -0700

kemotional:

frakintosh:

sam:

cosmopolitanism:

nationalpost:

Here’s what Canada’s new $5 and $10 polymer bills look like

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield showed off Canada’s new $5 polymer banknote from space on Tuesday.

CANADA IS SO COOL WE HAVE A SPACE BILL OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST THING OUR COUNTRY HAS EVER DONE.

I want to be paid in all fives from now on. Thanks.

Canada’s money has space on it.

What are we even doing out there, America?

I feel like all you guys who are commenting on our space bill are missing the lead. WHICH IS THAT THERE IS A GOD DAMN TRAIN on our 10s. TRAINS FOR LIFE!

THEY SHOULD’VE USED THE TURBO TRAIN!

Photo

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:38:06 -0700

I'm going to be on the CBC (!)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:39:08 -0700

Somehow the CBC knows about my transit map, so I’m going to be on Radio 1 at 5:50 tonight. Listen to me mumble here.

Also the map has its own site now: owenlett.com/vita.html

photographsonthebrain: Jenn Ackerman, Frozen Congrats to Jenn...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:53:04 -0700

photographsonthebrain:

Jenn Ackerman, Frozen

Congrats to Jenn on her great feature in NYTimes LENS blog

Look what came in the mail. More transit nerdery! (Also: a...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:33:33 -0700

Look what came in the mail. More transit nerdery! (Also: a non-Eleanor Instagram?!)

polychroniadis: Añaza, Tenerife. Photographed by Ylenia Arca.

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:03:52 -0700

polychroniadis:

Añaza, Tenerife. Photographed by Ylenia Arca.

europavintage: berlin - stadtautobahn by hansaviertel on...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:02:25 -0700

europavintage:

berlin - stadtautobahn by hansaviertel on Flickr.

Fantasy Map: Victoria Integrated Transit Authority Update: This...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:58:00 -0700

Fantasy Map: Victoria Integrated Transit Authority

Update: This project now lives here, with a fancy image zoomer thing,

Introduction: This is a fantasy/proposed transit network for Victoria, BC, Canada. I’ve been working on this off-and-on since the summer of 2011. It’s been a long process because I’ve tried to make this work not only as a nice looking graphic, but also as a maybe, somewhat, kinda plausible and functioning transit network. No destroying entire neighbourhoods and no monorails. However, with that in mind, I should mention I have absolutely no background in urban or transit planning. I have a few transit books and I follow @humantransit. So if you do this for a living and I’ve just made your head hurt, sorry.

Full size map here.

Full System

This proposed system consists of 5 light rail lines, a single commuter rail line, and modifications to the existing Victoria bus network. For the most part I’ve tried to utilize existing right-of-ways and minimize the construction of new structures. All the light rail lines would be at grade, and mostly mixed with traffic. Some lines/sections would be closer to a streetcar/tram than light rail, but the definitions of these types of system are getting a little blurry.

Line A

This line is very close to the existing Victoria Regional Rapid Transit proposal. I have made some changes though. South of Hillside, I choose an alignment of Government Street. Government Street between Yates and Wharf is almost already a pedestrian mall and I think it would be less obtrusive to put rapid transit down this corridor.

The existing proposal seems to favor the Galloping Goose trail, parallel to the Trans Canada Highway. To me this seems like the best corridor, but I’d be really curious to if they retain the trail or not. I’d love to see the trail kept because if there’s anything I like more than transit, it’s cycling.

The downtown terminus station would involve repurposing the Crystal Gardens. I have no idea if the engineering would work, but it’s such a great building and it seems sadly underutilized.

The Bay Street station would be north of Bay, and a bus loop would be built in one of those car lots between Government and Douglas. It’d be a major transfer point for bus routes and future LRT routes.

Lastly, I think the Wilfert station is probably going to be the least utilized in the entire network (I think it only exists for the casino).

Line B

This would be the second line built. It basically replaces the 4, which apparently is one of the busiest routes in the city. I looked at a bunch of different routes from downtown to UVic. To me, this one was the most plausible. It served multiple regional centres (Quadra Village, Hillside Centre, Camosun College and UVic), Hillside had the widest right-of-way, and the grades seemed the shallowest. I think it would be possible to run this line on its own right of way along most of Hillside, but it would probably need to run with mixed traffic along Foul Bay Rd.

Also I expect there would be a lot of NIMBYism in Oak Bay about this line.

Line C

A crosstown line that replaces the western part of the 6 route. It also historically mirrors some of the old Victoria streetcar network from the earlier part of the 20th century.

The downtown section would run along Yates Street because, again, I think it has the widest ROW. Convert Yates to two-way traffic, and do the same to Fort. It’s probably too late now, but it’d be great if the rebuilt Johnson Street bridge had space for tracks. Otherwise, it’s going to need its own bridge (or tunnel) over (or under) the inner harbour.

There are two eastern spurs, mostly because I couldn’t decide if the Royal Jubliee hospital or Oak Bay Village was more likely to generate more passengers.

Line D

This one is probably the least plausible line. It’d certainly be hard to build in sections.

The eastern end runs along McKenzie, alleviating bus services running crosstown to UVic. McKenzie has a nice wide ROW for most of its length, but it’s also a very, very busy street. Taking vehicle lanes away would probably be problematic. And then getting from Quadra to Uptown is also problematic. The most direct route would be along the Lochside trail, but I really don’t want to destroy this trail either. It would take some effort to keep both the LRT and trail.

I’m not sure if there’d be enough passengers to justify running two lines to the West Shore.

Lastly, the extension to Royal Bay is would be entirely dependant on whether or not Royal Bay actually gets developed. But this would run parallel to the Veteran’s Memorial Parkway.

Line E

This line is the least necessary line, but also would be easy to build if you wanted to build something down the median of the Pat Bay Highway. It’d alleviate some of the passenger load on the 6 bus route at the north end, plus provide connections to buses to the Saanich Peninsula.

Ideally I’d like to see a rail line up the Peninsula, but finding the right route that connected all the population centres was difficult to pinpoint. The old V&S doesn’t serve Brentwood bay and the old Interurban line doesn’t serve Keating X Road.

Line N

Utilizing the old E&N rail corridor, this would be a Train-Tram line. Vehicles would be able to use the street-level tracks in the city, but would operate more like a commuter train otherwise. This service would probably only run during peak hours. The Bastion Square terminus station would be in place of the current Yates Street parkade (unless its cheaper to tear down/repurpose something else nearby).

Frequent Transit Network

Many of these routes already are close to, or already run at, 15 minutes or sooner (though not seven days a week). A few new routes have been created because the rail network has severed some connections. The 5 is the southern portion of the 30/31, the 20 is the western end of the 14, and the 23 is the rest of the 11.

Conclusion

It’s just a dream, but I welcome any feedback/comments/anger via this Tumblr or Twitter.