Post Panamax Gantry Cranes - Port of Saint John

The Port of Saint John is undergoing a modernization. Part of that involves upgrading to these post panamax gantry cranes.

NB Power–Car Charge Station

I saw this outside of NB Power in Fredericton.  NB Power’s website goes into some details about their relationship with electric vehicles here.

According to the all knowing internet, the Chevrolet dealership in Saint John has a car plug in station. I wonder if SJ Energy would consider installing one.  Alternately, SJ parking commission might have an opportunity to install a charge station in their new garage.

View of Harbour Bridge work

Mile One–April 7, 2013

Mile One Interchange

Getting ready to cross Rothesay Avenue.

Mile One exit– April 1, 2013

Crosswalk idea for Westmorland Road

I was in east Saint John today and drove along the section of Westmorland Road that runs between the McAllister Place Mall and the power center anchored by Walmart.

 

This is an area that has a relatively long stretch without a cross walk.

It is also an area with lots of pedestrians and jaywalkers. In part, this is because there is a bus stop at the mall that gets folks close to Walmart, as the crow flies but not as traffic markings allow.

I’ve posted about this issue before.

There may be a desire to accommodate needs of pedestrians and drivers in solving this. When I visited the UK I saw a crosswalk solution that might be useful for such a wide street. I have sketched the idea below. Not being an urban planner, I’m not aware of the name of this type of crossing.

Creating a pedestrian activated crossing that allowed for a pedestrian to cross all the lanes would require traffic to be stopped for a long time. This may be shunned by a city of drivers.

While my sketch puts the crossing in an arbitrary place, the idea is to have pedestrians cross to an island in the centre of the street (which would be protected by barricades or fencing) and then to activate another light that would allow them to cross the remaining lanes of traffic that go in the opposite direction.  This way, the time that each direction of traffic is disrupted is limited and pedestrians will have a safer way to get across the street than their current jaywalking strategy.

(Aerial photography is from http://geonb.snb.ca/geonb/)

Councillor sees potential in Main Street

Country 94 news has a short article about a proposal by Councillor John MacKenzie to promote development of Main Street (north) by slowing traffic and making it more appealing to pedestrians and cyclists.

Link: http://country94news.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2013-02-18T04:24:00-04:00

Obviously buy in would be needed from developers, but creating a more walkable community is a good idea in my books.

Mile One Interchange

A few cranes working on the One Mile Interchange.

Justice Complex Bike Racks

Mile One Interchange progress

Photo from November 17, 2012:

Moncton Bike lockers

I was in Moncton and notices that they have bike lockers in the parking area near City Hall. These are a great way to encourage cycling as they provide and extra level of security to commuters.

Courtney Bay rail development

It’s impressive sometimes when a development takes place and really demonstrates how large an empty lot is.  This is a photo of the Courtney Bay adjacent rail yard that has been very active lately.

Article on bias against cyclists

Slate published an interesting article entitled “Why you hate cyclists” that discusses the impact of the affect heuristic where cyclists are judged based on the extreme cases of cyclist behaviour.

My favourite line from the article:

“If the present trends continue, we’ll see asshole bicyclists like me become an even smaller minority of bicyclists as a whole.”

Mile One Interchange–Sep 12, 2012

This large piece went up over the last week or so. It really changes the landscape at the intersection of Rothesay Avenue and Russell Street.  It will be interesting to watch as they span the roadway.

Municipal Bus Service in smaller communities

When I visited the UK earlier this year I noted a couple of interesting things about transit.

First, inter-community transit (even between small communities in rural Scotland) was affordable on private bus lines. I recently heard a talking head on some radio show suggest that this is due to subsidies. Perhaps subsidies are something needed to maintain an inter-city bus service.

Second, very small communities have municipal transit. By small I mean communities with under 5,000 people.  A ride on one of these buses wasn’t dirt cheap, but it was an affordable way for me to get around without a car. Again subsidies are probably at play.  Perhaps though, even without major subsidies communities like Rothesay/Quispamsis could be serviced by buses (possible revenue opportunity for Saint John Transit).

If we as a community and province value transit services, perhaps we need to go beyond a user-pay system. A situation of subsidizing transportation infrastructure for certain parts of the population has already been embraced by our governments, with the tolls being removed from Harbour Bridge (which is now maintained by a private contract) and the Province committing to remove the fee from the Grand Manan Ferry (which is run by a private firm).

In a community where most who can afford to own a car do choose to drive, it may be hard for decision to rationalize a bus subsidy. Perhaps we need to give more power to the car-less as citizens in making transportation decisions.

Cycling from the uptown to UNB

When I was studying at the Tucker Park Campus of UNB I ventured to the school on my bicycle a fair amount during spring and summer sessions. I lived on the east side and would face the challenge of Foster Thurston or, time permitting, would cut through Rockwood Park.

I’ve biked to the campus from uptown a few time since moving to the urban core (though not as a student with a backpack and a schedule).

I’m interested in the proposal to better link the uptown and the university (along with other north end communities).  Right now a student cyclist would be using a mishmash of streets and routes, some more appropriate for safe travel than others. It will be good to see a more unified route intended for safer travel.

Route One Interchange – April 3, 2012

Photo from Rockwood Park:

Mile One Interchange

Photo update:

Troubling transit situation

With transit already struggling, it might be easy to see why they mightn’t like what I have to say in this post.

I know that running a bus service must be expensive, with multi-million dollar buildings to support and so forth. It seems a shame to me that bus service has been cut in this city, reducing the liveability of Saint John.

Worse than that though, the Province is cutting transit pass subsidies for methadone patients.  This is a bad move, that should be reversed.  The savings are minimal and could lead to significant social costs.

However, if the Province does go ahead with this regressive move, the Transit Commissions (or city halls) in Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton need to step up and offer bus passes for free.

The incremental cost of an additional passenger on a bus is minuscule.  The cost of people being given free bus fare would only be the cost of a buss pas card (minimal), and the incremental fuel and wear and tear costs associated with a single human on a 20 tonne bus. 

I bet it is a mistake to assume that the transit authorities will lose out on a lot of revenues if they did give out these passes; one has to wonder if everyone who uses the transit subsidy would continue to ride the bus if it were an out of pocket expense.  If no, then this won’t even represent lost income.

Transit may not be profitable in NB scale cities.  I get that.  Still, if no one provides this transit option, the ride may not be taken and the important treatment may be missed.

I don’t claim to know a thing about opioid addictions or methadone treatment, but I can’t believe we as a society, would be willing to let people seeking treatment fall through the cracks because of the cost of a bus ride.