Anti Idling Bylaw for the City of Edmonton: After the forum

Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the turn out for the public forum. Most of the people there did seem to be ardent environmentalists who will never, and have never, left their car idle, let alone drove it when they could walk instead. While I understand their points on how the city should go, to a very green future with no idling at all. On the other hand if you try to get an anti idling law passed you need to know that it's important to start somewhere even if it's with a pretty basic bylaw.

The meeting did have an agenda of going through different ideas that a bylaw could contain such as whether it should apply to all vehicles, whether it should apply differently to occupied and unoccupied vehicles, and whether it should apply in all weather conditions. The conversations tended to all flow on the side of having a bylaw and how strict it should be. The majority of people there seemed to be on the much stricter side of the fence, while I was trying to find a more moderate approach. I come down on the idling at a 3 minute restriction (it's long enough without being too long) , no restriction in traffic (it's dangerous to turn your car off in the middle of a road), no idling when the vehicle is unoccupied (you're not in it why is it running) , and no weather restrictions (It's too confusing to run around with a temperature gauge). Though some at the meeting wanted it to be 30 seconds under all conditions even stopped at a traffic light.

The proposed bylaw will be available to the public by the end of the month and a public meeting will follow for people to have their input. I'll post more when it's available.

Anti Idling Bylaw for the City of Edmonton

So the city is considering an anti idling bylaw, agian. Of course with gas prices the way there were a month ago this bylaw wouldn't have really been needed. Now that they're back below a dollar people will be back using their car starters and running the engine while they wait outside. It seems like it would be good to have a bylaw for this issue as I often see cars sitting for 10 or 15 minutes just burning away the fuel. On the other hand how are you really going to enforce a 5 minute or 15 minute limit, so the law starts to sound like a jaywalking prohibition and will only be enforced in extreme situations. Wether the city decides to have the bylaw or not you can have your say in a survey and review some of the documentation that they've complied. You can also attend a public meeting on this issue tomorrow. The location is at the U of A next to the Jubilee Auditorium.

The final public meeting will be held:

Date: Monday, October 27, 2008
Time: 7 – 9 p.m.
Location:
Maple Leaf Room
University of Alberta Conference Centre
Lister Hall (87 Avenue and 116 Street)

West LRT for Edmonton

As the finish line is now in sight for the South LRT the city of Edmonton can turn it's attention to expanding the LRT in a different direction. In this case West. To the West the city could connect the West Edmonton Mall, and many of the communities that have expanded beyond the Henday. Of course this will all depend on wether the city gets around to it. Edmonton has a history of dragging it's feet when it comes to public transit. It spent years planning bus rapid transit before realizing that in the end it's still just a bus. So now that it's set it's sights on a West LRT we can expect the same level speed and agressiveness that took over 30 years to get an LRT to the south of the city. One clear indication of this is the length of time it has taken between open houses and public hearings. Being delayed a number of times the public hearing is now scheduled for June 2nd 2009, more than a year after open houses laid out the planned route. I for one like the idea of an LRT and the route along 87th ave it makes economic sense and it actually goes to places people want to go. Mandel's plan of running it far North and away from his house totally ignores the idea that transit should go somewhere, LIKE THE MALL, and not end up in the middle of nowhere. One way or the other it will likely be 15 years before there's even a chance an LRT train will roll into West Edmonton Mall Transit centre.

Dion to quit, but stay on as leader

It's been said a good number of times that you should give your two weeks and leave. While it may seem like you just want to clean up a few times and have a chance to train the new guy it never seems to work out that way. Sometimes the best thing to do is just leave gracefully and walk away. Dion isn't doing this and it may be just so he doesn't have to deal with the infighting of whoever takes over from him before the next convention. For what ever reason he likely will leave the Liberals mired in their own navel gazing about what went wrong with the election at least until next spring.

1 Election Down, 1 To Go

Well Canada spent 270 million dollars and changed almost nothing last week. Though it will change who's leading the Liberal party. Stephan Dion was just never able to rise above the level of guy you would vote for to stop Steven Harper. It's unfortunate for the Liberals as they have been unable to really inspire any interest in their own ideas. So in the next 6 months or so they'll have another convention and try it all again hopefully with someone who will actually make people want to vote Liberal rather than just vote Liberal because they're afraid of Harper having too much power. It's expected that Dion will resign on Monday and let someone else try their hand at it.

Wanted: Charismatic Person to lead the Liberal party; must be willing to quit gracefully if they fail to become Primeminister.

On the other side of the border the Election is still in full swing with both party's driving hard into the home stretch. It looks from recent polls that Obama will win the election as he's been pulling away from McCain in the last few weeks. McCain's Choice of Sarah Palin was a risky gamble and it was looking like it would pay off for a few weeks. In the end though no one could quite get over the idea that if McCain has a heart attack a week after the inauguration Palin would have her finger on the big red button.

Wanted: Charasmatic Perons to be McCains running mate; must be non controversial.