05.27.07
Posted in Transportation, Vancouver, Books
at 10:44 pm
Almost all of these readings are old, dating back to my initial forays into understanding transportation. They’re listed in the order I read them, from newest to oldest. Most of the content is just quotations I found interesting, with a few comments. Many of the comments no longer reflect my current thinking; take it with a big grain of salt. If you’re an author of one of these publications and object to the (admittedly extensive) quotations I’ve included here, please let me know.
- Stephen Goddard. Getting There: The Epic Struggle between Road and Rail in the American Century, 1994.
- Robert Cervero. The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry, 1998.
- Hugh McClintock. Planning for Cycling: Principles, Practice and Solutions for Urban Planners, 2002.
- Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy. Sustainability and Cities, 1999.
- Boris Pushkarev and Jeffrey Zupan. Public Transportation and Land Use Policy, 1977.
- John Punter. The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design, 2003.
- Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy. The Land Use-Transport Connection, 1996.
- Anthony Downs. Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion, 1992. (Also includes Still Stuck in Traffic.)
- John Roberts. Quality Streets: How Traditional Urban Centres Benefit from Traffic Calming, 1989.
- Jane Jacobs. The Nature of Economies, 2000.
- Jane Jacobs. Cities and the Wealth of Nations, 1984.
- Eric Miller, David Kriger and John Hunt. Integrated Urban Models for Simulation of Transit and Land Use Policies, 1998.
- Mike Davis. Dead Cities, 2002.
- Fotheringham and Wegener. Spatial Models and GIS, 2000.
- Mark Garrett and Martin Wachs. Transportation Planning on Trial, 1996.
- Jane Jacobs. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961.
- Paul Moore and Terry Thorsnes. The Transportation/Land Use Connection, 1994.
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02.22.06
Posted in Transit, Computers, Toronto, Vancouver
at 5:30 pm
Last August, I put together a transit map for Vancouver using the new Google Maps API. I recently went through and updated all the code, switching it over to XML for the geographic data. Using that backend, I’ve now put together a Toronto transit map. So far, I’ve only got the TTC on there - GO bus and train routes would also be valuable, of course.
It was an interesting exercise to put together. I now understand why I never use the northern part of the Spadina line: north of St. Clair West, it runs directly under the Allen Expressway, which kills the life around those stations. When transit and freeways compete, freeways usually win. I also now see the folly of the Sheppard line: I think it’s too close to the 401 to compete. Additionally, since it’s north of the 401, it’ll never be able to capture much ridership from anyone living south of the 16-lane freeway, even though there’s probably more potential for dense development on the south side, closer to downtown. It’s interesting to compare the station density in Toronto and Vancouver: the Toronto stops are much, much closer together than the Vancouver stops. The new Sheppard line is similar to Vancouver station spacing, though.
And incidentally, I’ve also updated the Vancouver transit map to include the two routes that’ll be finished in 2010: the Canada Line (a.k.a. RAV / Richmond-Airport-Vancouver) that will replace the 98 B-Line and the Evergreen Line that will replace the 97 B-Line.
I’d like to allow others to add a transit layer to maps on their web pages. When I last used Housing Maps to view CraigsList listings on google maps, I found myself desperately wanting a transit overlay. I think it’d be possible to write a Mozilla addon button that just added a transit map to whatever webpage you’re viewing… I’ve just got to figure out how to do it.
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08.08.05
Posted in Transit, Computers, Vancouver
at 12:10 pm
I’ve put together a Google Map of Vancouver Transit as a test of the new Google Maps API. I’m a big fan of this technology, and I really hope they keep adding to it. I think it could do for map publishing what HTML did for text publishing: democratize and simplify it. Very cool.
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