jedwinmok.com - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I find the "abundance" debate very 'americo-american' to use a French expression. But I agree that way too often, part of the left fails to recognize that the public sector as it is today in some Western countries is the worst enemy of the cause of a more interventionist government.

submitted 1 hour ago • 5 comments

Things that make me most pessimistic about urbanism in North America: 1. Gov’t attempts to pause/remove bike infrastructure (TO, HFX, Edmonton) 2. Building code hostility to family-friendly dense housing 3. Transit construction costs 4. Urban NIMBYism making walkable neighbourhoods more exclusive

submitted 1 hour ago • 3 comments

One of the most consequential transit Youtube videos has just dropped:

submitted 2 hours ago • 0 comments

It’s fine to criticize things like the technical issues but some opposition to the REM is so over-the-top. “The train Montreal never wanted”? It’s an automated metro that’s far cheaper per KM than regular metro extensions. Sounds great to me. “Privatized”? It’s owned by the public pension fund.

submitted 16 hours ago • 9 comments

Saying the “REM’s non-compete clause will wreak havoc” while calling for “adequate funding so public transit services don’t have to compete” is a fundamental contradiction. Does the author want an integrated transport network or an inefficient one that is tied to jurisdictional fiefdoms?

submitted 11 hours ago • 3 comments

Weird take that Montréal's transit system is going to be ruined by the stipulation that other agencies don't compete with the REM. In an efficient urban transit system, buses are coordinated with your high capacity rail system, not in competition with it!

submitted 17 hours ago • 4 comments

for some reason BART is trying to scrap recommendations to improve project delivery. this is insane! why are transit agencies fighting against international best practices? instead of getting into abstract arguments on “abundance” we should be focusing on building concrete state capacity!

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Network Rail doesn't get a lot of love, but they've managed to find ways to squeeze a lot out of their very limited funding by focusing on the blocking-tackling basics: 'How do we boost average speeds? How do we improve accessibility?'

submitted 21 hours ago • 2 comments

It's interesting to contrast South Wales Metro Project's priorities (electrification and basic stations accessibility) with Ottawa's Trillium line modernization (faregates and architectural features).

submitted 21 hours ago • 3 comments

“Many advanced countries – South Korea, Finland, France, Spain and others – build the same or better transit at lower cost, and often much lower cost. Canada tends to tie itself in knots in various ways, so that we end up spending more but getting less.” www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

We’re setting the record straight on dedicated lanes. Red lanes on Dufferin and Bathurst will make our travel faster, safer, and more accessible. They will also help cut congestion and reduce pollution. Read this thread to get the facts ⬇️ 1/5

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

Sometimes my impression is that "normies" believe that our out of control construction costs are the result of some gross malpractice or, worse, blatant stealing by a few bad actors, so we can just get rid of those and, bam!, we get cheaper infrastructure! Unfortunately, that's not how it works.

submitted 6 days ago • 8 comments

One issue I've been facing recently is the disconnect between design engineering and estimating on projects - designers have no idea how to estimate costs, and estimators aren't connected to the day-to-day of the project so lack context on their estimates

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

The one (1) neighbourhood that 1970s progressive urbanism actually built. Now NIMBYing bike lanes.

submitted 8 days ago • 7 comments

Pedestrian Observations: S-Bahn and RER Ridership is Urban pedestrianobservations.com/2025/05/30/s...

submitted 8 days ago • 7 comments

Keep thinking that most of the potential benefit of GO expansion (assuming it's still mostly happening?) will be wasted if we don't build more urban infill stations to go along with the double tracking and electrification.

submitted 8 days ago • 7 comments

Toronto NIMBYs are referring to the removal of parking lanes (to be converted into bus lanes) as “expropriation” and asking you to imagine cutting down 100 year old oak trees.

submitted 9 days ago • 6 comments

DC streetcar was so poorly designed: —No dedicated lanes & thus frequently obstructed by traffic —No connection to Metro or even the front of Union Station —No enforced signal priority, slowing trains —No real effort to improve the streetscape —Too many stops (8 stations/2.4 mi)

submitted 11 days ago • 18 comments

This right here is the full business case for frequent, electric service on the Milton, Midtown, and Richmond Hill lines

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

More NIMBY nonsense coming from the "Protect Dufferin" Facebook page including disabling of comments. Their selfish parking needs cannot trump the over 40,000 daily bus riders on Dufferin who would benefit from #RapidTO. Don't forget to complete the survey at toronto.ca/rapidtoduffe.... #TTC #TOpoli

submitted 12 days ago • 6 comments

It’s darkly funny to me when my fellow leftists claim regulations are there to prevent harm, zoning included. The “harm” was defined as poor POCs, folks. Racists defined integration as harm.

submitted 14 days ago • 9 comments

Dorval station really encapsulates Canadian railways in a nutshell: two parallel competing (sort of) private railways, each hosting a public passenger operator (Exo, Via) with separate stations with no direct connection and each with its own parking and facilities for a bunch of daily trains.

submitted 15 days ago • 11 comments

This line by @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social: “Show me a city with a legally protected mansion district near downtown [and subway stations] and i’ll show you a city that hasn’t really taken the housing crisis seriously”

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

The back-and-front-yard land owners making decisions for people in apartments. The way it has always been in Toronto. They've voted against apartments when they were walk ups, they vote against them when they are taller.

submitted 16 days ago • 9 comments

Blind leading the blind.

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

Canada’s New Housing Minister Is Already Saying the Wrong Things: youtu.be/12hJVGJEvCU

submitted 18 days ago • 8 comments

A major Astroturf effort is underway to fight the bus priority lanes on Bathurst and Dufferin Street in Toronto. The Bathurst website was registered by the CMO of grocer Summerhill Market, which has a location on Bathurst.

submitted 20 days ago • 16 comments

So difficult trying to communicate to people that 1) it’s true that Canada/Australia are car dependent 2) they are nowhere near as car dependent as the US, who has uniquely awful public transit. DC would kill for the metro ridership of Montreal, SF would kill for the Melbourne trams, etc

submitted 19 days ago • 38 comments

Cool video for the traffic nerds from @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social Amazing to see how many different light configs there are here. If no waiting vehicles/peds, a phase will be skipped. Bonus phases too, e.g. if no waiting peds then turning cars may get green. www.youtube.com/watch?v=X34c...

submitted 18 days ago • 4 comments

"Some residents are pushing back on a plan to create transit priority lanes on a few of the city’s busiest surface routes ... a version of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) that might be dubbed NIMPS: not in my parking spot." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...

submitted 22 days ago • 9 comments

RapidTO could be Olivia Chow’s Anne Hidalgo moment. Paint bus lanes on every major corridor, Robert Moses style. Call them pilot projects - NO community input until data collection post-implementation. Toronto has the continent’s best suburban bus network. Make it the envy of the world, overnight!

submitted 19 days ago • 3 comments

The City needs to ram these through with extreme prejudice. Within a few months the squawking business owners will realize it's all fine, their businesses haven't cratered, and their employees more reliably get to work on time.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

something that these businesses on bathurst don't want you to know is that one of toronto's largest hospitals sits on bathurst. not only is street parking more important than 35k+ transit users, it's also more important than ambulances getting to hospitals on time & saving lives, per their claim

submitted 19 days ago • 2 comments

I like how the French implement cheap daylighting of intersections without relocating the drainage line, simply by installing a small, raised curb extension detached from the sidewalk, accompanied by bollards to deter the most daring drivers. Hostile architecture, but for cars.

submitted 19 days ago • 18 comments

The Dufferin & Bathurst bus priority lanes are the only way to break the transit death spiral in Toronto. They must happen & the mayor needs to make sure they’re a raging success. Mission critical as future fixes rely on their success. My column this week. Pls read n share.

submitted 20 days ago • 14 comments