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

Sometimes I hate being right. In my thesis I ID'd conservative management as one of the pillars of the iron triangle that underlays the political economy that has mostly prevented us from transitioning to a modern regional rail model in North America. itineranturbanist.wordpress.com/masters-pape...

submitted 3 hours ago • 0 comments

I think abundance is important because so many government agencies are captured by boomers who are simply incapable of imagining a better world (in this case, operating a frequent regional rail network). And this is in Canada! It’s not just an American issue.

submitted 9 hours ago • 8 comments

I am increasingly of the view that this is the main problem in project delivery - no-one trained and empowered to give an answer

submitted 4 hours ago • 1 comment

Halifax mayor's motion to pause bike lane contracts fails 🚲 A win for inclusive and sustainable transportation, but also a frustrating waste of time from someone who ought to know better. Thank you to everyone who spent the weekend speaking out, and to council for making the right call. #BikeHfx

submitted 7 hours ago • 10 comments

A depressing but unsurprising story of the DB-Metrolinx divorce I don't know who needs to hear this, but if Canadian politicians want to improve in the fields where we aren't a frontrunner (e.g. transit ), they need to get rid of the current class of managers and their backward-looking culture

submitted 8 hours ago • 9 comments

Zohran YIMBY arc let’s gooooo

submitted 17 hours ago • 18 comments

Every time we talk about contracting strategies to minimize risk instead of focusing on how agencies don't have the planning expertise to understand what they're ordering ... we're basically debating how best to put pimple cream on a cancer.

submitted 11 hours ago • 1 comment

If you're reading this, especially if you live in Etobicoke, North York, or Scarborough, please use the link in the quoted post to let your councillor and the Planning and Housing Committee know that you support sixplexes in Toronto.

submitted 11 hours ago • 0 comments

As a Dutch person, who likes to complain about the state of Dutch rail, imagine calling up DB and having their ideas being a bridge too far. And yes, I've ridden the Go trains and it's an absolute embarrassment. I fear the day I have to again. What a wild read.

submitted 11 hours ago • 1 comment

I’m asked often why we can’t just hire contractors from best-practice jurisdictions to deliver our projects. You can, but you need a competent public-sector client (an “informed buyer”) who is willing to listen.

submitted 11 hours ago • 0 comments

“Sources say Deutsche Bahn pushed for ambitious, European-style changes, while some of the Crown agency’s leadership resisted, insistent that things work differently in Canada.” Goddamn it.

submitted 11 hours ago • 8 comments

Sometimes it feels like rail cost estimation, especially in California, is just throwing darts at a wall. www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...

submitted 1 day ago • 9 comments

Sometimes, "banning cars" does not mean banning them outright from a street or a neighbourhood, but rather restricting some of their movements via local and neighbourhood-level circulation arrangements—sometimes quite sophisticated ones.

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Yes Pedestrian Streets do work. Pilot complete! h/t @spacing.bsky.social @uoftcities.bsky.social @torontopublicspace.bsky.social #OpenStreets

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

This is a big nothing burger over some legalese. REM is separate legal entity. Clauses are needed in the contract to make them work with other transit agencies for a cohesive network of feeder buses and metro lines. It's a two way street....

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

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 2 days ago • 7 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 2 days ago • 6 comments

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

submitted 2 days ago • 2 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 3 days 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 3 days 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 3 days 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 4 days 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 3 days 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 3 days 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 7 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 7 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 8 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 8 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 9 days ago • 3 comments

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

submitted 11 days ago • 7 comments

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

submitted 11 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 10 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 12 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 14 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 15 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 15 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 17 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 18 days ago • 11 comments