Kigali rolls out extended bus lanes on four routes The City of Kigali will extend its dedicated bus lanes from short queue sections near junctions to continuous lanes, in a move aimed at speeding up public transport across the...

The speed of the bus improvements in Kigali is crazy. 2 months ago there were no timetables services and now they have a network of bus lanes, a fare card, and 5 minute peak hour headways

Why Japan has such good railways - Works in Progress Magazine Japan's railways are the finest in the world. Other countries can copy its formula.

A great article about Japan's rail network.

With the Conservatives pulling support for the new Alto train project, perhaps some aspects of the Japanese private ownership model could gain bi-partisan support in Canada and bring high speed rail to this country.

worksinprogress.co/issue/why-ja...

Singapore’s digital twin – from science fiction to hi-tech reality - Infrastructure Global The world’s first digital twin of a nation has the potential to help create better cities, say Mark Coates and Andrew Foster of Bentley Systems.

A great article that talks about why maintaining open access data helps planning:
infra.global/singapores-d...

This cut to open access data does not bode well for Montreal's new AI planning tools being open access. Limiting access to city data limits the ability for citizens and businesses to understand and contribute to planning decisions.

The Computer Killed the Orange Cone Technology, Digital Twins, and the Future of Planning in Montreal

With construction still impacting downtown businesses Montreal's mayor plans to use AI to help improve planning. In my latest post I talk about one way that AI could be used to help reduce traffic and the number of orange cones in Montreal.
open.substack.com/pub/rafaelcg...

How to build public support for defence spending in Europe Strategies for building a national consensus around higher defence investments and the trade-offs required.

Great post about the challenges European countries face when trying to increasing defence spending.
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www.cer.eu/publications...

'It's the end of the city': Battle over sixplexes continues in Toronto YouTube video by CityNews

“It’s the end of the city. Toronto sucks.”

“This is the beginning of a quiet decent neighbourhood in our city being destroyed simply because it’s on the new subway line.”

Totally normal reaction to a six-unit, three-storey residence being built near transit.

A few years ago, we collectively killed the first version of the REM de l'est, which included an elevated structure. Many were afraid that it would disfigure the city. In Buenos Aires, they built bars and restaurants under this same aerial structure. It's now one of the trendiest neighborhoods in the entire city! It just goes to show that, with a little imagination and audacity, this kind of challenge can be met. A lesson to be learned for future public transit projects in Quebec.

The Mayor of Laval is clearly a little disappointed in the REM de l’Est having been cancelled.

He’s talking about creative ways to use space under elevated trains. Says cities like Buenos Aires can teach us in Quebec lessons for future projects.

(Translation in alt text.)

Subscribe to Thoughts at the End of the Mile An in-depth analysis of local politics and planning in Montreal and other urban cities written by a political scientist fascinated by cities and urban life. Click to read Thoughts at the End of the Mi...

I will be posting about urban politics and city life, with a focus on Montreal. If you're at all interested in local politics consider subscribing and stay tuned for whats next.

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What's next for L'entrepôt Van Horne? Last week I attended an event organized by Mémoire du Mile End about the future of 1 Van Horne, one of the Mile End’s most iconic landmarks.

I just launched my Substack, Thoughts at the End of The Mile, with a post summarizing the development plans for L'Entrepôt Van Horne in the Mile End and talking about community concerns surrounding plans to transform the warehouse into a hotel.

open.substack.com/pub/rafaelcg...

Last week I had the chance to teach a workshop for the @csdc-cecd.bsky.social winter methods school. It was great having the change to share my knowledge of topic modelling with other CSDC graduate students.

I just discovered that Overleaf has go to code location in PDF button and this is the best news of the day!

We hope that this dataset enables researchers to better understand Canadians' occupations influence #canpoli and look forward to seeing the research that this project enables 4.

GitHub - RafaelGottardo/occupations-qualtrics: An implementation of select2 to capture occupations using Canadian NOC codes in Qualtrics An implementation of select2 to capture occupations using Canadian NOC codes in Qualtrics - RafaelGottardo/occupations-qualtrics

This dataset is now publicly available in the C-DEM dataverse and the project has also led to the creation of a Qualtrics module to capture NOC codes for occupations entered in Qualtrics surveys 3.

github.com/RafaelGottar...

This dataset enables the analysis of the voting patterns and political views of any occupational category in Canada. For example, we find that those in occupations that are experiencing layoffs (surplus occupations) were less likely to support right-wing parties in the 2021 Canadian election 2.

In a new @lispop.bsky.social report @sjkiss.bsky.social and I introduce a new dataset which integrates the national occupation classification (NOC) code system into the Canadian Election Study (CES). We coded the occupations of respondents in the 2019 and 2021 CES 1.

scholars.wlu.ca/lispop/5/

This is a very insightful piece covering some of the more unique tactics Trump uses to obscure his democratic backsliding.

How does wildfire smoke affect air quality and your health? Increased prevalence of wildfires has some scientists warning of the short- and long-term effects to our health

How does wildfire smoke affect air quality and your health?
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Zohran Mamdani. Overlaid text reads: Breaking news - Andrew Cuomo concedes New York mayoral primary to Zohran Mamdani

Breaking news: Former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo has conceded to progressive rival Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary for New York City’s next mayor www.ft.com/content/e4b8...