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jedwinmok.com
Transport Planner & Researcher https://youtu.be/vAygH6SZg28?si=fXwloOQPhGbbudOW
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Last comment: The fact that Jonathan English who has now written up *two* coherent regional rail plans (arguably two more than Metrolinx) and released them to the public isn't running Metrolinx is crazy. I think that neither feature "GO" branding is interesting. urbantoronto.ca/news/2012/07...

submitted 19 hours ago • 2 comments

Point 2 is the mother of all problems in many Canadian transit projects: the scope is unclear and keeps moving And that's because there is a misunderstanding about what "planning" is for. It should be the process where you recognize the needs, devise scenarios that can meet these needs and pick one

submitted 19 hours ago • 4 comments

One of the most insightful things I've read in weeks: "How the Anglosphere's Planning Department is YIMBYism’s Main Obstacle" It's telling what gets studied at a site level (shadows), and what doesn't (economic impact, homelessness, etc.) Read here: substack.com/inbox/p...

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Finding solutions is good politics. Going for the compromise is classic Toronto mediocrity & status quo. This city will never move. We will drown in car drivers who insist nothing changes.

submitted 22 hours ago • 8 comments

It's a depressing time in Toronto - a city that once had the continent's most ambitious city-building initiative. This transformation had 3 KEY PILLARS: 1. RapidTO 2. GO Expansion 3. Ontario Line Two pillars have been watered down beyond recognition - DEVASTATING for the region. Here's why: 1/🧵

submitted 23 hours ago • 3 comments

if you want world class urban mainline, you need to adopt practices of world class urban rail networks. management at MX is too scared to change the operating model that they've grown comfortable in - satisfactory, schedule-padded, "99% on-time" commuter rail. www.thetrillium.ca/news/the-tri...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day ago • 12 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 1 day ago • 10 comments

Zohran YIMBY arc let’s gooooo

submitted 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day ago • 9 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 2 days 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 2 days ago • 2 comments

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

submitted 2 days 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 3 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 3 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 3 days ago • 6 comments

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

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments