Erik de Vries
@erikwdv.bsky.social
Bikes, dad jokes, urbanism, and cats. Occasionally beer and baseball. Victoria and Ottawa are home.
The Save Our Saanich platform is a fantastically consistent compendium of “I’m not against this good thing, but not in this, or any other achievable, way,” across every area of municipal policy: housing, transit, taxation, social services, policing, or zoning.
Some compelling insights here into a behaviour pattern I have always had trouble understanding: people who object disproportionately, and oddly personally, to others who choose ostensibly slower and higher friction ways of getting around and living. medium.com/@cody.little...
We Don’t Have a Culture of Convenience in North America. We Have a CULT of Convenience.
And you can tell the difference by what happens when you question it.
medium.com
Whoa, looks like local developers just got 8% less greedy. cheknews.ca/victoria-apa...
Victoria apartment rents fall nearly 8% as B.C. rental market continues to cool
Apartment rents in Victoria have fallen nearly eight per cent over the past year as rental prices continue to drop across British Columbia, according to a new report.
cheknews.ca
Kudos to the City of Victoria for building out its AAA bike network ahead of the closure of the Galloping Goose. I had been dreading my afternoon ride to Burnside from to collect a dishwasher part, but the protected route covered all of Government, Gorge, and Rutland.
Getting from one place in the Ottawa suburbs to another place in the Ottawa suburbs be like
My letter in @timescolonist.bsky.social today. "People who live in places where walking and cycling are safe and pleasant, and casual socializing is easier, tend to be more resistant to misinformation and extremist politics." #yyj #bcpoli #urbantruth
The City of Ottawa posted the raw speed data from before and after Doug Ford banned speed cameras and the effect is so obvious it's not even necessary put a line marking when that happened. This chart shows the percentage of drivers going 15km/h or more over the posted limit.
After due consideration, the angry bike hating community of Saanich has determined that the logical solution to this impasse among its members is to require cyclists be insured, licensed, and road-taxed.
You can’t just turn to some chat forum and say something like “hey, anybody have a good, reliable sourdough recipe?” or “tips for raising tomatoes on my balcony?” without a deluge of randos giving you contradictory but elaborate answers that cost thousands and take years.
This logic leads inexorably to the conclusion that we should just stay home, probably in the basement. Everything carries some risk. Want to fly? Nah, I’d rather be alive so I’ll stay home. Want to go for a swim? Nah, you could drown. Nope. Build safe infrastructure, use it, and enforce the law.
StuartL49@bsky.social@stuartl49.bsky.social · 5mo agoWould you rather be alive? No bike is winning against a car. I don't know how many times I nearly got run over. It's a fact. People in cars don't see bikes. Even the good drivers are looking to avoid other cars. We're collateral damage.
Car dependency is so destructive. As employers move back to 100% in-office presence, employees who relied on their cars to fill the gaps left by hollowed-out transit, less (and worse) child care, and high housing costs are already at their limit. The “before COVID” world isn’t there to go back to.
Maybe we shouldn’t be opening the question of whether to build a school up to public consultation at all.
Justin McElroy 🇨🇦@jmcelroy.bsky.social · 5mo ago19 years after it was first conditionally approved, all levels of government have finished signing off on the necessary steps to build a school in Vancouver’s Olympic Village. A final year of debate and planning was required to raise the number of floors for the school from 3 to 4.
Watching the Olympic opening ceremonies as a dutiful husband. I enjoy the sports, but dread the opening, which clicks in at over four hours. The Canadian uniforms look like they’re dressed as 1970s maple syrup bottles. 2/10.
Look, I know everything is going to heck in a heckbasket, but spring training starts in six weeks.
One thing I'll never not find funny is how so many "trust the science" folks will quickly dismiss out of hand, without reading it, any study that finds that high housing costs reduce the birth rate.
A group of local whiners held this tiny project up for seven years because it would slow down their drive by a minute.
Ben MacLeod 馬志斌@benmacleod.bsky.social · 8mo agoThe Allan-Harvard diagonal diverter, approved in 2018, held up at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia by a legal challenge until 2023, was finally completed today. 🍾🎉 #BikeHfx
They might as well just use stock photos of the public meetings for this. They all look exactly the same.
Sam@samd.bsky.social · 11mo agoI think that the reason “abundance” resonates with me is that I have spent all of my adult life in deep blue cities, stuck dealing with this type of NIMBY boomer democrat that your average Bluesky/Twitter poster never comes across unless they’re actively going to community meetings or on Nextdoor
Why the city continues to entertain these stupid and obviously bad faith arguments is beyond me.
Oh, this is what happened in Ottawa! A single bus route was replaced by an LRT, value-engineered to within an inch of its life, that meant two outdoor transfers to downtown instead.
@carlcm.bsky.social · 9mo agoSeattle used to have a lovely express bus from downtown to the airport and a couple of airlines would even let you check your bags at the bus stop. Then they built a train that took 2x the time and let you out kilometre from the terminal. After that they ended the bus service.
The very predictable and oft-heard answer — that people who can afford to fly are so rich that they don’t need transit — is outdated and irrelevant. Transit is good for everyone: it lowers traffic and reduces greenhouse gases, irrespective of who is using it.
Jeremy Caradonna@jeremycaradonnayyj.bsky.social · 9mo agoStop the presses! Next week, the Victoria Regional Transit Commission will consider the option of creating a one-seat (direct) ride from downtown Victoria to YYJ and on to Swartz Bay. This would be achieved by altering the 72 line and re-routing it to YYJ. Thoughts? Would you take the bus to YYJ?
This so much! Parents (usually mothers) in car-centric areas are forced to chauffeur their kids around. It also means they emphasize predictable, scheduled activities (like sports leagues) that cost money. Youth mobility gives kids freedom, saves money, and reduces the unpaid-labor burden on women
Tom Flood@tomflood.bsky.social · 9mo agoJust preaching my message of "wanting to do less more often" we all have our reasons.
Ottawa 2.0: there’s still a bit of non-privatized green space you can use for 3.0.
I’m sure this feels like it matters a lot but I’m just wondering how somebody reading this in 1925 or 1825 or 825 would respond.
It’s a predictable pattern. Suburban and rural (mainly) voted to spend more, get less, align themselves with private interest to fund a project that doesn’t affect them, delivering lower value at the expense of urban quality of life and wrecking women’s pro hockey in the capital.
Ottawa Citizen@ottawacitizen.com · 9mo agoHow council voted on key amendments to Lansdowne 2.0 ottawacitizen.com/news/how-cou...
Why I will oppose amalgamation in Victoria, example #296. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...
Council approves $418.8 million plan for new arena, north-side stands at Lansdowne
The multi-million-dollar Lansdowne 2.0 plan passed its final test Friday, as Ottawa City Council voted 15 to 10 in favour of proceeding with the plan to build a new event centre and north-side stands ...
ctvnews.ca
On the one hand, I’m glad I was able to get the shingles vax - it’s a very painful disease that is more likely to hit you as you get older. On the other hand, I woke up feeling like I had the worst hangover in history. Hot tip: schedule it before a day you can take off work.
Whatever happens tomorrow, on Sunday I will be looking up the reporting day for pitchers and catchers.
