Ahasan

I strongly believe in platform screen doors in Metros, but nearly all literature around it is WHY it should be installed. but it is the HOW that realizes the dream, and I stuffed this post with as much history and details as I can to help visualize how such a thing can be realized

From Seung's Substack post: Seoul Metro policeman Yoon Byung-so holds his wife’s photo and cries as he stands where she last stood before her fatal push at Hoehyeon Station (source: https://www.fmkorea.com/best/1155895790)

When Seoul's courts sided with Yoon Byung-so, a widower who had lost his wife due to a platform incident, they set a precedent:

If someone falls off a platform and loses their life due to a train, whether intentionally or not, the railway operator does bear some responsibility for their death.

How Seoul Metro Installed Platform Screen Doors Everywhere The political history of a safety equipment

Platform screen doors (PSDs) in Seoul were fundamentally a political issue. Once political support was secured, financial and engineering barriers quickly gave way.

Loved this piece by @seung.bsky.social explaining how 200+ stations received PSDs in <10 years.

www.substack-bahn.net/p/how-seoul-...

Guys have we mentioned there is total cash prize of $2000 👀🤪🤭

$1000 - Judge’s Choice
$500 - People’s Choice
$500 - Most equitable

Meanwhile for Douglas St in Downtown Victoria, with over 60 buses per direction per hour during peaks, it's taken a decade for planning work to actually start, a year for a lackluster 10%-conceptual design to show up, and likely will take years longer for anything to happen. We can do better.

Interesting, can you add the rapidbus and 99 b-line as an overlay please?

A brightly coloured graphic with a snippet from the Vancouver Sun Article about the Housing and Transportation Cost Burden Study Update. A link to the article in the caption or in our bio. Vancouver Sun Graph of Average Annual Cost of Housing and Transportation in Metro Vancouver by Municipality Metro Vancouver can't solve cost-of-living crisis without addressing the cost of getting around While the multi-billion-dollar SkyTrain projects draw the most public attention — and money — there’s another, often overlooked mode of transportation that Metro’s leaders view as a big part of the near-term solution: the humble bus. Movement

It's no surprise that housing in Metro Vancouver is expensive. But it might surprise you that for some parts of our region, transportation costs even more than housing.
1/3

Opinion: Why this TransLink bus exchange in Surrey needs to be relocated | Urbanized TransLink's Scottsdale bus exchange at Strawberry Hill Shopping Centre in Surrey needs to be relocated to a more accessible, central site.

In 2023, Scottsdale bus exchange 🚌 outperformed 30 SkyTrain stations 🚇 in weekday boardings. By relocating it to the heart of the community and building transit-oriented housing, Surrey can unlock even greater potential for both transit and the people it serves.

dailyhive.com/vancouver/tr...

Biked through North Delta again today and I'm still baffled at the number of maze gates they put everywhere on bike routes. Does someone's cousin own a company that makes maze gates or something? Even the railways don't use so many.

Opinion: Here are six North Shore traffic fixes we can implement now While the idea of creating a third crossing is getting a lot of buzz, here are some other options that could be implemented quickly to improve transit and help with congestion

"If a third crossing were to connect to the North Shore, where would the 19,000 vehicles per lane each day go? Will Marine Drive be widened for them? East Keith Road? Grand Blvd? What should be demolished to widen those corridors?"

Thanks @michaelhall.bsky.social!
www.nsnews.com/opinion/opin...

North Shore-Metrotown SkyTrain would see 120,000 riders daily: study | Urbanized The ridership of a North Shore SkyTrain line from Park Royal to Metrotown would exceed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT).

Unfortunately DailyHive did not link to the original study:
dailyhive.com/vancouver/no...

22) “the Canada Line is Under-built”

The Canada Line is not even half full to design capacity. Given recent outcomes the spirit of economy guiding Canada Line engineering is quite underrated

Photo of a Nanboku Line 乗り換え 出口案内 (transfer and exit guide) on a station platform.

The other day, I was telling friends and family how a housewife originated these Tokyo Metro transfer and exit guides, and they thought I was kidding. It used to be a well-known story. If you don't know it, here's a quick summary.

Someone tag McElroy to expedite this 😭

For average boardings per revenue hour, the 3, 20, and 5/6 trolleys are in the top 25. No trolleys appear in the top 25 for capacity utilization, while the 3, 20, and 8 trolleys are in the top 25 for (lowest) cost per boarded passenger.

Some Vancouver bus routes are notably missing from the podium, partially due to services being reallocated elsewhere to address overcrowding. In turn, reduced frequency plays a role in making transit less desirable for riders.

bsky.app/profile/move...

In 2012, @translink.ca released some analysis showing what characteristics are common to the most successful bus routes in Metro Vancouver. I applied that methodology for 2024, and many of the attributes still hold true.

Surrey's South Westminster has "Westminster" in the name 😉

Most North American cities: we should allow cars to overtake buses at stops at any cost. Traffic MUST FLOW!

Great transit cities: we should systematically prevent cars from overtaking stopped buses with median curbs because it's a hazard for alighting passengers and it delays buses.

Thank you!

Cool graph, do you have the source?

YouTube video by Casual Commuter Why Ottawa's Buses are Always Late

Great video by @casualcommuter.bsky.social on how OC Transpo got so unreliable.

Most important point to me is that good public transit can save people money in the long run.
youtu.be/0QKjoO5HWCE

A map of BC census subdivisions coloured by population density with provincial highways overlaid. Density rarely strays too far from the highway network (especially outside Metro Vancouver).

I made a map of population density (CSDs) in BC overlaid with the highway network, the potential of intercity public transit is much stronger than you might expect!

teito7000.github.io/projects/202...

Great article on the origins of SFU Burnaby!

Metropolis did a good thing! They conceded the crosswalk between the bus loop and the SkyTrain Station to people, and blocked it to cars turning right out of the mall parkade. Kudos to them.

Despite its flaws, I still think the O-Train is a great system and will become even better with the extensions. I hope the technical challenges are overcome soon and that funding is established to fix some of the issues highlighted above.

Thank you / merci Ottawa!

10/10

- Closing Line 2 for 4 years’ worth of upgrades while still keeping single-track portions, not adding electrification, and mandating two transfers from the airport to the city centre are all questionable decisions that will likely come back to haunt the line as it becomes more popular

9/10

- The curves near Hurdman station are really unpleasant. Lots of rail screeching at a painfully slow speed. Is this causing the bogie issues? IDK but it feels unnecessary, since the station could've been moved while extending the Transitway to meet it, rather than forcing the sharp curves

8/10

The Ugly 💀

- Despite being only 5 years old, the O-Train is out of service fairly regularly for maintenance befitting a much older system. Beyond scheduled outages, I had the misfortune of being on the train when something went wrong in the eastern end, forcing a shuttle service

7/10