Sunday, October 28, 2007
The American way of life is a blessed one?
"That's a big no. The president believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one." -White House press secretary Ari Fleischer on whether President Bush would call on drivers to reduce their fuel consumption
Monday, October 22, 2007
Air pollution decreases on Yom Kippur in Israel
Once a year, on Yom Kippur, Israel shuts down for this holiest day of the year. Most streets and highways are closed to vehicles. Places of entertainment are closed, radio and TV broadcasts have gone off the air It is quiet, and the air is clean. For the non-observant, on that day, the streets become the preserve of children on wheels. It is also an opportunity to measure reductions in air pollution in response to greatly reduced traffic. It's a country-wide carfree day.
Daddy! Mommy!" The traffic lights are madly blinking stop! Go! Stop! Go! And of course, no one is taking any notice. The birds are calling to each other above the roof tops. Caw caw!! Chirp chirp!! Wooooo wooooooo goes the dry north wind. You can even hear crickets by the usually bustling beachfront promenade. it is all quite delightful.
Biking on the Ayalon Freeway facing south (Isabel Maxwell)
Sounds of the City
By Isabel Maxwell October 14, 2005
6.30am on this Thursday morning -- the sounds of Yom Kippur ---- s i l e n c e. Not one car... but the whispering wind in the blue, blue sky. It is a gorgeous day. Soon enough will come the first sounds of the "Bicycle Festival" as this holiday has come to also be known by the more secular population of the city, who use the occasion to take to the streets on human-powered wheels. But right now, at this dawn hour, not only the usual traffic noise sounds are gone, the energy of the streets feels completely different -- than that of the middle of any night for instance. It's the quiet of a city taking stock.
Soon enough the streets are filled with bicycles and skaters and parents getting their first real exercise in a year, puffing after their children -- all excitedly in the middle of the streets talking animatedly, riding higgledy piggeldly, laughter of the older children and shrieks from the little ones as they taste their new found freedoms testing out the roads they have never been allowed to go near before -- "
Daddy! Mommy!" The traffic lights are madly blinking stop! Go! Stop! Go! And of course, no one is taking any notice. The birds are calling to each other above the roof tops. Caw caw!! Chirp chirp!! Wooooo wooooooo goes the dry north wind. You can even hear crickets by the usually bustling beachfront promenade. it is all quite delightful.
11am. I roll my own bike out and head north to see a friend near Bene Brak. The long stretch of Rokah Boulevard, usually filled with streams of hurrying cars and taxis honking their horns without relief, is totally empty except for all the bicycles and roller skaters with their dogs panting galllantly along on leashes, trying to catch up.
Report: Air pollution 100 times lower during Yom Kippur
By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent
Air pollution in Jerusalem and the Dan region was 100 times less on Yom Kippur than on ordinary days, when cars are on the roads, air pollution monitors from the Environmental Protection Ministry found.
By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent
Air pollution in Jerusalem and the Dan region was 100 times less on Yom Kippur than on ordinary days, when cars are on the roads, air pollution monitors from the Environmental Protection Ministry found.
According to the figures released by the ministry Sunday, levels of nitrogen oxide in the Dan region over Yom Kippur were two to 12 parts per billion - but when the holiday was over, the figure rose to 205 parts per billion. In Jerusalem, the numbers declined from 250 parts per billion in the afternoon before Yom Kippur to between two and 12 parts per billion during the holiday.
Nitrogen oxide is the compound emitted by vehicle exhaust pipes and is one of the prime urban pollution indicators. One component of this kind of pollution, nitrogen monoxide, is considered particularly dangerous to health, causing chronic and even fatal respiratory conditions.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Ministry released figures for 2006, which indicated that some areas of the country exceeded World Health Organization pollution standards for ozone in the lower atmosphere. One of the causes of ozone pollution is the release of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere.
Air pollution in Jerusalem and the Dan region was 100 times less on Yom Kippur than on ordinary days, when cars are on the roads, air pollution monitors from the Environmental Protection Ministry found. According to the figures released by the ministry Sunday, levels of nitrogen oxide in the Dan region over Yom Kippur were two to 12 parts per billion - but when the holiday was over, the figure rose to 205 parts per billion.
In Jerusalem, the numbers declined from 250 parts per billion in the afternoon before Yom Kippur to between two and 12 parts per billion during the holiday. Nitrogen oxide is the compound emitted by vehicle exhaust pipes and is one of the prime urban pollution indicators. One component of this kind of pollution, nitrogen monoxide, is considered particularly dangerous to health, causing chronic and even fatal respiratory conditions.Last week, the Environmental Protection Ministry released figures for 2006, which indicated that some areas of the country exceeded World Health Organization pollution standards for ozone in the lower atmosphere. One of the causes of ozone pollution is the release of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Street car was desired in York Region of old
Streets near Old Town Hall such as the Main and Botford streets area (left) used to offer streetcar rides in the early 19th century.
Oct 15, 2007 08:18 PM
Newmarket street car service? It's been done before
Newmarket street car service? It's been done before
By: Sean Pearce
It’s perhaps a little ironic, seeing how many commuters are forced to crawl along highways or cram into buses on a daily basis, that Newmarket once possessed a streetcar route into Toronto.
No, that’s not a misprint. According to the town’s own website, in 1899 a set of electric railway tracks came up Yonge Street and curved over towards Newmarket’s Main Street via what would today be Cane Parkway.
The terminal for Newmmarket was at the Railroad Hotel, later known as the King George Hotel, at Timothy and Main Streets, although later on it did move a little west and a new terminal was built on Botsford Street across from the Old Town Hall. Amazingly, the tracks then continued northward up to Sutton West.
It can be problematic at times these days to even catch a bus up that far.
The so-called radial was quite the phenomenon for tourists from the big city of Toronto to the south.
Many Torontonians came up for the popular Newmarket Farmers’ Market held each Saturday in the town and, according to the town of Newmarket’s website, a North York Agricultural Fair was held here each September that also brought a great number of weary urbanites out for a bit of country charm.
The streetcar line also had other uses and was sometimes utilized to ship freight, such as fresh produce, down from the area and into Toronto.
The line was at first operated by the Metropolitan Railway Company from 1897 to 1904, before being acquired by the Toronto and York Radial Railway Company.
The TYRRC operated the service for a further 18 years until it was acquired by the City of Toronto and operated by Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario as the Hydro Electric Railways: Toronto and York Division in 1922.
As the automobile continued to gain traction as the faster way for folks who could afford it to get around the fortunes of the streetcar line began to sour.
A better network of roads and highways and cheaper automobiles also contributed to a sharp decline in the service’s usage.
Ultimately service beyond Richmond Hill was discontinued in the early 1930s and in 1947 the tracks running from North Toronto to Richmond Hill were torn up as the automobile was clearly ruling the road.
Remember that the next time, when you’re caught in traffic, and you’re wondering if there isn’t a better way to get to the city.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Green Party's Vision for transportation
The Green Party's full vision can be found here
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy/visiongreen?origin=redirect
Railroads – re-establishing the national dream
Canada’s national rail systems are in decline. We are the only country in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with no national transportation strategy. While Europeans have highly efficient inter-modal connectivity, with high speed rail linking downtown cores to airports, with bicycle lanes allowing people to move around cities safely, efficiently and pollution-free, with streetcars in the downtowns and even rural areas serviced by bus and rail, Canadian communities are increasingly stranded. Nothing links our downtowns to airports other than a stretch of gridlocked traffic. Even along the Windsor-Quebec corridor, passenger rail is increasingly infrequent and outmoded. In much of Canada, rail routes that once moved thousands of people are abandoned. Edmonton to Calgary, Saskatoon to Regina, Halifax to Sydney have all been axed, despite their profitability.
Vision
Sir John A. Macdonald understood that to be a nation, to have a sense of shared identity and common purpose, Canada needs effective east-west links in communications, in energy delivery and in transportation.
To renew this “national dream” today requires a complete overhaul of our rail system for both passenger and freight. It will mean shifting cargo containers off highways and onto freight trains, driving the development of freight distribution nodes (off-loading containers onto local trucks) along new “green corridors”.
The rail system changes will include a separate line for passenger trains. At the moment, freight owns the tracks and controls the traffic signals. Passengers are at the mercy of freight. New high-speed commuter trains will almost halve the travel time between Toronto and Ottawa and Toronto and Montreal to about two and a half hours. With downtown-to-downtown service, the train will be faster than the plane, especially when security and other airport delays are factored in. Reducing air travel will reduce greenhouse gases and remove the need to expand airports or build new ones, including the Pickering airport near Toronto. Better rail service will take cars off the roads between major cities, reducing air pollution, congestion and loss of life in traffic accidents. An improved rail system will make Canada more economically competitive and provide thousands of new jobs.
Green Solutions
Green Party MP’s will re-establish Canada’s National Dream and:
- Re-invest in our national rail systems, building more train cars in Canada, and create green transportation and energy infrastructure corridors in key regions.
- Improve rail infrastructure and intermodal connections, increasing joint federal-municipal light rail investments, as well as improving VIA rail service nationwide.
- Work with railway companies to improve rail infrastructure and to restore VIA rail service to all major regional cities.
- Create a national clean freight initiative, using both regulation and financial incentives to improve fleet efficiency and safety.
- Support the trucking industry, reducing pollution through add-on generators to avoid the need to idle to maintain air conditioning and refrigeration, while ensuring the right fit of trucking in a more efficient, rail-based intermodal system.
Urban sprawl means commuters crawl. More roads don’t solve the problem, they make it worse, quickly filling up with more cars. Gridlock means more air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. We have to break this vicious cycle.
Vision
We must build our way out of the problem of clogged roads and smog-choked cities, not by building more roads and bridges and more distant suburbs, but with “smart growth” infrastructure. Excellent public transit and efficient housing in high-density nodes along existing transit corridors will make cities livable and people friendly. The federal government must take the lead in funding the “greening” of Canada’s cities. (For more details also see the section on government: Federal-Municipal Relations.)
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Increase federal funding for pedestrian, cycle and car-sharing infrastructure in towns and cities.
- Double existing funding to stimulate a massive re-investment in public transportation infrastructure in all Canadian towns and cities to make it convenient, safe, comfortable and affordable.
- Make transit passes tax-deductible to encourage workers and businesses to use public transport and provide financial support to provinces that provide free public transit passes to people living below the poverty line.
- Cancel all funding for specific highways and bridge expansions (like the Gateway Program in Greater Vancouver) that encourage urban sprawl, increase private vehicle use, truck transport of goods and consequently increases greenhouse gas emissions.
- Ensure federal infrastructure funding does not go to expanding highways and roads.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
New roads make it easy to ignore public transit
Another road opens in Vaughan, with sprawling, low-density subdivisions under construction as far as the eye can see. Take a drive on Major Mackenzie between Keele St and Dufferin St to see for yourself. How will public transit effectively serve them? Buses will be too slow, infrequent, and inconvenient to attract people away from their cars. And that's an inconvenient truth. -S
October 9, 2007
MCNAUGHTON ROAD EAST
“The completion of the McNaughton Road extension will have a positive effect on our community as it will allow the City to provide the appropriate infrastructure to relieve gridlock through Maple on Major Mackenzie and help attract and retain businesses,” said Mayor Linda Jackson. “The extension is especially important to the redevelopment and intensification of the existing Civic Centre site.”
York Major Holdings constructed the capital work on the City’s behalf in order to accelerate the development of their nearby lands. City Council authorized completion of the extension in April 2003.
“The extension and the development of York Major Holdings’ land is an important part of the City’s strategy with respect to the closure of the Keele Valley Landfill,” said Ward 1 Councillor Peter Meffe. “It will also encourage redevelopment of the secondary buffer zone of the landfill.”
The new four-lane road runs east 1.6 kilometres and connects to the existing
The extension is adjacent to the former Keele Valley Landfill Site. These lands, with an area of approximately 245 hectares, are being rehabilitated under the Maple Valley Plan that includes new parkland and natural open spaces, and some commercial development.
The Record
Thu
New roads make it easy to ignore public transit
Byline: Shelley Maw
As long as we continue to build more roads in
Human beings do not change their ways of doing things until their current method becomes unbearable, and when there is an alternative that is reasonably convenient and affordable.
If we keep making driving easier and more convenient, we might as well save our breath (and our money) trying to sell the idea of leaving our cars at home and taking public transit.
Why do people in this region take public transit? By far the majority of those who do, do so because they don't have an available vehicle. Why do those of us who drive not take public transit? Because it is neither easier nor more convenient. Far from it. Why do many of us take public transit to or in
Forget a new Highway 7 and the proposed 424 bypass, and give us a public transit alternative that is reasonably simple and convenient.
Eventually the traffic nightmares will push us to use it. If you solve the traffic congestion problem, we won't change our car habit.
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