Slow and Steady Wins the Transit Race?

In the wake of the very, very delayed Metro Line LRT project, We have now learned that the newer and grander Edmonton Transit Valley Line, Will travel as slow as 30 Km/hr, (Global News Story about slow LRT).  It feels like every time Edmonton tries to get more people to use transit, or provides a new way for people to get around that they just can't quite deliver.  This project was supposed to be a shining beacon of great P3 (public, private, partnership) transit and a great way to get from Millwoods into the heart of downtown.  Now I wonder if anyone will take it if it has to go so slow.....  Hopefully the City of Edmonton can find a solution to this otherwise..  the train may look more like this....

Anyways, I'm a big believer is good transit, and especially fond of LRT and train service.  I just hope that city council can see their way to making sure this isn't the Turtle Train and ensure that it is actually a rapid transit solution that will get people out of their cars and using transit.

Excessive Idling Bylaw

So after months of work and public meetings the City of Edmonton finally got together an excessive idling bylaw. The bylaw has plans to limit idling to 3 minutes in temperatures above minus 10 and to use public reports to catch violators. However after some debate the city has decided that it will opt for education over enforcement and shelve the bylaw for the forseeable future. I guess we'll continue to see the parking lots full of empty vehicles all chugging away so that drivers don't have to get into a chilly car.

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.

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.

Store Closing Everything MUST GO!!!

I hate to repeat myself but... sometimes there are titles that just seem to be too good to let go of. Dell will close it's Edmonton Call centre in the next 6 months with the loss of 900+ jobs. Dell, it appears, has run up against 2 problems, neither of which it had any real control over. One is the tight labour market in Alberta which has made it difficult to hire and retain employees. The other is the launch of Windows Vista or XP Millennium Edition which has made it difficult to sell PC's. Though to be fair to Vista the fact that computers bought 5 years ago still do 90% of the things a computer bought today do has made a new computer a tough sell. I know my next PC will be a Mac for ease of use and cuteness, besides if I want to play lots of games I'll just fork over 300$ and buy an XBox. But I guess that's life you get hired, you work, then the company/industry goes bust and you move on. Basically if I was one of the other Edmonton Call centres I'd back a truck up across the street from Dell and start taking in resumes. Good Luck to All from Dell It's sad to see the place close.