Some day we'll all regret this & we'll hold hearings & rend garments & pledge "never again" & we'll be just as full of shit as we were last time.

Can’t win.

If you don’t subscribe to Dan Gardner on Substack, you should. His post today is as important as anything he has written, and the audience is those progressives who would normally easily agree with him. This one might be more challenging but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth considering.

I don’t make a habit of listening to speeches out of Davos, but this is genuinely one for the history books: a clear-eyed acknowledgment that the old international order was partly a fiction and is now a lie, and a call to act collectively to build resilience and sovereignty in the face of hegemony.

Congestion pricing after one year: How life has changed. (Gift Article) How life has changed in the New York area, according to data on traffic, transit and the responses of 600 readers.

The success of congestion pricing www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

#smartcities #curbmanagement #visionzero #urbanmobility | Automotus 🚦 Smart curb management in action: Hoboken’s CLEAR Program 🚍 🚲 74% reduction blocked bike lanes 🚏🚍50% reduction in blocked bus stops 📦🚚 68% reduction in loading zone violations We’re excited to hig...

Let's get this in Jersey City ASAP!

🚦 Hoboken’s CLEAR (Camera-based License plate Enforcement for Access & Response times) Program 🚍

🚲 74% reduction blocked bike lanes
🚏🚍50% reduction in blocked bus stops
📦🚚 68% reduction in loading zone violations

www.linkedin.com/posts/automo...

The method to Mark Carney’s madness The memorandum of understanding with Alberta might look like surrender. Look closer

Mark Carney managed to trade a pipeline that will never get built for meaningful progress on industrial carbon pricing and electricity interties — both of which will get more wind and solar built.

Remember when people thought he wasn't good at politics? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/27/o...

Take a look at the report from Metro Vancouver, using real HH cost data. There are suburban communities here where transportation is the largest share or even with housing costs. In those places, better transit will be the quicker and cheaper path to reducing cost of living.

3) Paul Martin spent more or less an entire year preparing Canadians for the 1995 budget. One gets the impression that Carney thinks that he's done all he needs to do with that one nohingburger speech he gave earlier last week. Again, an unsual style of message control.

Things I keep hearing about/thinking re: November 4 budget.

1) Decision circle is allegedly incredibly small. Like, Carney and Sabia licked in a room small. Good for preventing leaks/making hard decisions. Absolutely terrible if you want anyone in cabinets/caucus to explain cuts to Canadians.

Check out this report from Metro Vancouver which paints the same picture in this region (Item E in this agenda): metrovancouver.org/boards/Regio...

In some communities, transportation is the largest line item, and in all others, it is the 2nd largest. Check out the recent Metro Van report, "Housing and Transportation Cost Burden Study Update." Better transit also improves affordability. Item E in this agenda: metrovancouver.org/boards/Regio...

'It's practical common sense': Metro Vancouver can't solve cost-of-living crisis without addressing the cost of getting around For several suburban areas, people spend more on commuting than on housing

“Metro Vancouver can't solve cost-of-living crisis without addressing the cost of getting around.” | Important new report on the cost of housing + transportation in Metro Vancouver. (Hint: the cost of transportation is big driver in unaffordability). vancouversun.com/news/metro-v...

Transit agencies do this a lot and the responses are pretty clear: a free bus that doesn't show up isn't useful. Of course, a fast, frequent, reliable AND free bus is better than one that isn't free, but lower income transit users mostly say that good bus service needs to come first.

What transit experts generally tell you is: the highest use of scarce resources is making transit service more *frequent & reliable*. That's what actually boosts ridership.

Everything else -- free point-of-use fare, electric buses, fancy new trolleys, architecturally fancy stations -- matters less.

very clear explanation from @davidzipper.bsky.social about why fast buses are better than free buses slate.com/business/202...

Since we are discussing free transit again, let me tell you why I'm sympathetic in theory but skeptical in practice.

It's not only about the trade-offs between service increase and fare money or the questionable decision of targeting only buses.

It's more broadly about redistributive policies.

To conclude, the reason I'm not a supporter of generalized free transit is because I think that other redistributive policies on housing and education are more important.

Especially in a country like the US, with no universal healthcare and a ludicrously expensive higher education system.

Congratulations to the Capital Regional District Board for creating a regional transportation agency for Greater Victoria. Welcome to the club! www.crd.ca/news/regiona...

As you know, elevated metros aren't a huge issue in most of Metro Vancouver: it is the default (thank god). But there are still critics, so new defenses are always needed. Your point #2 is not one I have seen used here, and it is brilliant! (and similar to the rationale for bus lanes)

Failed B.C.-Alberta transmission line holds lessons for a national grid The cross-border intertie has never met capacity, offering lessons on what stands in the way of the Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan for an east-to-west grid

Failed B.C.-Alberta transmission line holds lessons for a national grid

Mayors’ Council Chair Brad West & @metrovancouverorg.bsky.social Chair Mike Hurley were in Ottawa talking to new Housing and Infrastructure Minister @gregorrobertson.bsky.social (a former MC Chair!) about the importance of local housing-supportive infrastructure like transit, water and waste water.

Transit advocates need to grow our power to the point where we can create big problems for elected officials if they *don’t* save transit.

Lessons from the 2024 Transit Service Performance Review | Movement TransLink’s 2024 stats show huge growth where service is increased and huge declines where service is cut If true, this means transit investments can reduce congestion and boost affordability almost i...

A summary of our thoughts on the 2024 Transit Service Performance Review. More to come! movementyvr.ca/lessons-from...

Globe editorial: How to end the free ride of street parkers Car owners should pay full freight for their use of city streets, or cede the space to public transit

"Some residents are pushing back on a plan to create transit priority lanes on a few of the city’s busiest surface routes ... a version of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) that might be dubbed NIMPS: not in my parking spot."
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...

Speaking just to the comments on "why not amalgamate?!" I would suggest perusing the extensive academic research on this subject - led by UVic's Bob Bish (i.e. "Local Government Amalgamations: Discredited Nineteenth-century Ideals Alive in the Twenty-first"). No need to reinvent the wheel.

Trump Sued for Holding States’ Disaster Relief Hostage Donald Trump is increasing pressure on states that refuse to join his war on immigration.

Trump is holding hostage the emergency disaster relief and transit funding of states that don’t agree with his immigration demands, according to two lawsuits filed by several states this week.

Great thread. So many gotchas out there right, but housing policy is complex and ever changing which you underline well here.

As we're finally witnessing in 2025, regional governments at the state level in the US or the Provincial level in Canada are taking region-wide action on housing supply because micro-regional changes do not significantly impact housing markets.

Who was most responsible for Vancouver's housing rents + prices by 2018?

(a) Fed Minister Diane Finley
(b) Fed Minister Jason Kenney
(c) Prov Minister Rich Coleman
(d) Mayor Gregor Robertson

(Reminder: Vancouver represented only 25% of the population of the Metro Vancouver region in 2018.)