sasha on the street

Transit City. Metrolinx. Promised money from Government. All of this is supposed to help the ailing TTC system. But aren’t there a few things we can do in the short-term that are inexpensive and would improve the system.
Here are some of my suggestions:

Paying with Plastic: We live in a plastic society. Rarely do I carry [...]

Yesterday the official announcement came through in Ontario that legislation would be put forward banning cell phone use in vehicles. Officially it will be voted on as Driver Distraction Legislation such that not only cellphones and smart-phones are included but also portable DVD players, laptops and personal gaming systems.
Ontario follows behind Quebec, Nova Scotia, and [...]

My friend Natalie is obsessed with roundabouts. And why not? They improve road safety, keep traffic moving more efficiently and reduce both air and noise pollution.
North America has been slower to adapt the roundabout, our focus has been the signalized intersection. But in Europe the roundabout is widespread.
Ontario is about to start construction on its first roundabout [...]

Harvesting season is over here in Southern Ontario, another year of delicious fruits and vegetables has passed. This year I decided to try and grow a few vegetables in my garden, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, peppers and zucchini. At the end of the summer I ended up with mostly zucchini, they had taken over my [...]

Podestrian = pedestrian + mp3 player.

Apparently people are listening to music so loud that they cannot hear the approaching traffic. Or they have the headphones that cancel out the background noises, which again make it difficult to hear approaching traffic. Plus with all the new smartphones (blackberry, palm, iPhone, etc) people really are not intune [...]

I recently opened up my notes from the TAC Conference back in September and was inspired. Too often do we attend something and never again reflect upon it. While organizing my desk the other day I found my notes and decided to spend a few minutes with them.
The notes I was re-reading were from the [...]

I think a healthy city is sustainable city.
For the past 7 weeks, and for much of the summer, Toronto hosted many running and outdoor festivals, including two marathons (The Scotia Waterfront Marathon and The Toronto Marathon), a full weekend walk (The Weekend To End Breast Cancer) and many other 5 to 10 kilometer races (CIBC Run for the [...]

When I took my new job in the spring one of my goals was to use my car less frequently and travel by ‘green’ means, whether that was by public transportation, carpooling, biking, etc.
Lately it has become more challenging with the weather, but more importantly because I’m beginning to fear my own personal safety.
On Wednesday night [...]

BBS, what’s that? Bus-Bypass Shoulders. What that means is that during peak congestion hours on highways buses have the right of way on the shoulders and can pass slower moving traffic. Back in August I wrote an article for Traffic Technology International on the benefits of BBS. (It can be found here).
Last week I had the [...]

Today is the Canadian Thanksgiving Holiday Monday so my class has been cancelled. I decided to postpone my blog on last weeks class until today as a bridge between the gap in class. This week were tasked to read much of Vanderburg’s book Living in the Labyrinth of Technology before we head back into class [...]