sasha on the street

It is Christmas day today and I just wanted to send out a reminder to respect the roads. Environment Canada predicts that the entire country will be blanketed in snow for the first time since 1971, which means we need to respect the roads.
Here are some simple driving tips to make sure you arrive safely [...]

Over the last 24 hours there has been some exciting announcements on 680 news with respect to accidents and trucks.
Drivers Should be Held Accountable in Bad Weather
This was the statement from Police Chief Julian Fantino (here). He stated that he believes and the statistics support that 40% of accidents in poor weather conditions are due [...]

Earlier this week I wrote about the need for good infrastructure with respect to the trucking industry. The other part of the equation, about 70% of the road users, is commuters. For all the people that commute to work everyday on the highways, having a functioning highway system is paramount.
The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario [...]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the joint OTC/ITEconference on urban streetscaping. Most of the speakers were from the City of Toronto but the first presentation, one of the better ones, was from the City of Markham. The best presentation of the day was by Phil Weber of Ourston Roundabouts.
What is Streetscaping?
Streetscaping is any [...]

I was recently part of a discussion about the countdown signals at intersections. Designed for pedestrian’s they count down the seconds for one to cross the street. Some intersections are based purely on a countdown clock (i.e they start a fixed time and countdown to zero), some are based on sensors in the road (i.e when [...]

In what seems to be a never-ending series, Toronto had another devastating truck accident last night. A transport truck carrying copper piping tumbled from an overpass on to the highway below crushing 4 cars, injuring 4 people and killing 1. (Versions and pictures of the story can be found here, here and here).
Knowing the victim makes [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Want to save money on your next vehicle purchase?
Not only are there incentives from the car companies but now there are incentives from the Canadian Government.

You can save up to $2000 on your next new vehicle purchase.
Introduced in 2006 the ecoAuto program is an incentive to get Canadian’s to drive more fuel-efficient cars. Not [...]