Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 (Bill 212)

This bill, if passed (which is looking very likely), will amend the Highway Traffic Act so that:

• The construction of any cycling infrastructure that requires the removal or conversation of a road lane will require provincial approval. So basically if a protected bike lane slows down car traffic by a paltry 30 seconds, the province can step in and block construction. In practice, they probably won't even take city data into consideration before issuing their verdict.
• The recently-installed separated and protected cycling paths on Yonge Street, Bloor Street (photographs here - they are beautiful), and University Avenue will be ripped up and converted back into car lanes.

Ontario, Canada residents - submit your comment to the provincial government at this website. Today is the LAST DAY to do so.

• Creating an account just requires an email address.
• When submitting your comment, be sure to add this letter from the Ontario Traffic Council and this statement from the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, both of whom oppose this legislation.
• Add any other documentation, papers, or traffic studies you see fit.

In addition, this bill also hides some pretty nefarious stuff:

• Limits landowners' ability to challenge the possession dates in expropriation cases. Basically, the province c could say you've gotta move out of your house next week to make room for a highway, and you have no ability to request a delay.
• If a provincial inspector damages property owned by a municipality, this bill essentially says tough luck, the city isn't entitled to compensation.
• Exempts Highway 413 from Ontario’s Environmental Assessment Act and certain provisions of the Planning Act.

I’m curious about flashing pedestrian crossing signs and HAWK beacons.

In my experience, drivers tend to ignore these signs. As angry as I am at the drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians, I think that the blame lies more with the infrastructure than the individual drivers. If one driver fails to yield, that driver is the problem. If every driver fails to yield, then there is a systemic problem.

Everybody knows what a normal Red/Yellow/Green traffic light means. Even beyond the standard usage, the light can be set to flash yellow to be treated as a yield sign, or flash red to be treated as a stop sign.

Why don’t we replace all the flashing crosswalk signs and HAWK beacons with traffic lights?

If California wanted to focus on one city as a test-bed for ideas around urbanism, so they could perfect these before rolling out to the wider stare, which city is best suited for this today?

Is it Berkeley, Pasadena, etc.? I would vote Martinez, given it's flat (better biking) and has access to water, roads, and an Amtrak line.

I am looking for a website where I can easily sketch road plans, intersections, etc. Im looking to be able to 'play around' with roads in my city and modify them (just for fun). Thanks!

p.s It is for a small project/hobby.

Why doesn’t the State buy properties that go on the market and build modern 2-4 family and where possible mixed-use buildings to them rent out at affordable prices? Could be a good revenue stream for the State. Let me why why this isn’t allowed/won’t work/bad idea. Just learning.

Im looking to buy a plot of land somewhere (preferably suburb with single family/dense housing all around) and I want to build a multi family unit like pictured below. Give me all the contacts of architects/construction/contractors that you know.

I live in a big city (high inequality) which has a very small index for trust in strangers. People are not used to connecting in public spaces. Private public spaces such as cafes, restaurants etc. are just so you can go with people you already know.

One of the few places where I feel like strangers could connect is the climbing gym, but it is kinda expensive and by far not accessible to everybody.

Parks are kinda cool, and playing with people you dont know for free is cool, but there is not too much connecting.

I just wish there were spaces where people for all walks of life could become friends and share stuff.

Do you guys have a good example of this in your town?

I was browsing google maps the other day for australia, and I noticed to things about Australia

A) way more bike infastructure in Australia then Canada. While most Canadian cities barely have bike infastructiure. In some Australian cities. Like perth, brisbane and adelaide had good quality bike lanes everywhere. While Montreal only has some good urban neighborhoods with good cycling infastructure. And calgary and edmonton have an okay trail system that goes across the city.

B) there transit system seems better. The Go train line in Southern Ontario from union station to west harbour takes about an 1:20 to go 11 stops 63 km. The mandurah line in perth takes about 50 mins to go 71 km and 12 stops. With higher frequency too. Even the bus lines in the deep suburbs had lots of routes coming every 10 mins.

I find this fascinating given that bith countries are similar excluding the weather. Both low density, anglospherean countries.

Anyone with experience in either country has any input?

For context I’m a 26 yr old white male in LA.

I live in one of those gentrified Greystar 5/1 amenity buildings. Gym, pool, mixed use (minus the fact that the commercial section has yet to be bought), game room etc.

I’m thinking, what if this building rented exclusively to 20-30 year olds. I’m sure there’s a law about age discrimination, but let’s just pretend that didn’t exist (or that there’s some loophole). Imagine what that would do? It would feel like a college campus but for young professionals. I think a lot of relationships would come out of it, kids would host parties and their friends would want to move into the building. Noise complaints would go down I guess since more young people in one place. What do you guys think? Let’s refine this idea together.

I’ve read a number of articles and posts that cities in Poland are replacing buildings that use newer architectural styles with ones considered more traditional. Are there any US cities doing the same, or ones that are restricting the use of newer styles with regulations or lookbooks?

My recent visits to places like Philadelphia and Boston suggest that these cities are allowing these newer styles, and my home city of Brooklyn seems be doing nothing but.

Thanks in advance

It seems these cities were in a bad shape, but that seems to bring about a special social sauce.

New York 70s and 80s
Berlin 70s and 80s
Hong Kong 80s and 90s

and to a lesser extent Goteborg in the 90s

What cities are like this today ?

From an urbanism, economic and social point of view

Hello! Just a little "I made this" post that I thought could interest urban planning lovers. I built a small game where you have to guess a city from satellite images. It's called unzoomed.com

I just launched a US version as well, if you like very neat grids... -> us.unzoomed.com

How well did you score? What can I improve?