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jedwinmok.com
Transport Planner & Researcher https://youtu.be/vAygH6SZg28?si=fXwloOQPhGbbudOW
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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...

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.

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

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

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

Zohran YIMBY arc let’s gooooo

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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

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.

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

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....

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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!

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!

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?'

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).

“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...

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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)

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

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

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.

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.