| Transit Safety = Building Activity |
Karen Fung is doing an amazing job captaining the SkyTrain Unconference Blog. There's an open in-person meeting on Saturday with Translink. I don't think I'll make it, so here are some thoughts on their targeted issue of Safety.
SkyTrain stops are are hubs that lots of people pass through. Usually when there are many people around safety is not a concern. Problems can arise when a hub has relative down-time (empty except for a few people) or in quiet areas close-by.
The worst case is when you get off a skytrain or bus in a totally deserted area, or with only a few sketchy people and nobody else.
One powerful path to improvement is to build more community and commercial services around our transit hubs. A coffee shop, restaurant or bar right beside a transit hub is a world above a deserted hub in terms of safety.
Vancouver doesn't do this very well. Many large transit hubs are completely devoid of any services. These hugely traveled areas could support a variety of businesses, or serve as excellent locations for community activities if allowed.
Location, location, location! Translink needs to build more sticky activity in its centers. Safety through active community is the real way to improve the situation in and around transit hubs.
Locking the system down with turnstiles or more cops is an easy sound-bite solution, but doesn't address the root of the problem. |
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| Don't tase me-tro |
| Vancouver transit cops tasering people who don't pay their fare. |
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| Walkers are the Oxygen of the City |
I like these posters from the NYC Transportation Alternatives. You can get bigger versions in their gift shop.
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| Transit Camp update from Moose Camp |
It's lunchtime at Moose Camp after some good sessions. I'm quite intrigued by the idea of a Vancouver Transit Camp. That link is just a temporary home on the northernvoice wiki as the idea gathers steam.
Apparently Toronto recently held a Transit Camp that was an open discussion organized by local transit enthusiasts. They were focused on bringing forth solutions (as opposed to whining about problems). They got participation from the city and the TTC and came out of it on a positive road.
Some people here are talking about putting together a GVRD Transit Camp and I hope it happens. Check the Vancouver link above if you want to get involved. |
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| Vancouver's biggest problems |
According to a recent poll (found at CTV), here are what Vancouver residents say the city's biggest problems are:
Homelessness: 24 per cent
Traffic and transit: 22 per cent
Health care: 14 per cent
Crime: 12 per cent
House prices: 10 per cent
Poverty: 7 per cent
Environment: 2 per cent
No surprise that homelessness came in at #1. It's an in-your-face issue all across the city. 72 percent of people also said the problem has been getting worse.
Traffic and transit comes in as a strong #2. Hopefully the BC government's back-asswards highway expansion plans will get scrapped before it makes the traffic here even worse.
It's not all bad though, as Vancouver has also recently been rated the top city for gay tourists. |
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| STM and vending machines merge at last... |
The Montreal buses are now impervious to my old put in many coins of different sizes and they'll assume you payed the correct amount technique.
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