iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

But your point still stands - my understanding is TransLink could raise property taxes to fund whatever level of transit they want. This is something we cannot do in the rest of BC as there needs to be mutual agreement between local government and the province to raise transit funding

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Part of the issue is that the fuel tax brings in less and less money as more people drive electric cars and hybrids.

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More people driving means both more traffic and parking congestion and higher costs for people who now have to drive (driving is the second most expensive cost for a household after housing).

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Vision Zero Vancouver @visionzerovancouver.ca · 02/10/2026

If you rule out a transit funding source (the vehicle levy), that money either has to come from somewhere else (some other form of tax), or you have to cut service. If you cut service, fewer people will take transit. Fewer people taking transit means more people driving

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Reposted by Chris Usher

Since money doesn't grow on trees, funding for TransLink will ultimately come down to taxpayers one way or another. The government's choice is to either pick the least bad way, or to let transit collapse.

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Reposted by Chris Usher

Vision Zero Vancouver @visionzerovancouver.ca · 02/10/2026

More money for drivers, less money for transit. Our "progressive" government hard at work.

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The rule about sixplexes being allowed near frequent buses here is separate from the TOD rules that are supposed to allow midrises at a similar distance to SkyTrain stations

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I meant it as an example of what distance based TOD would look like with very close stop spacings, rather than an example of bus based TOD.

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It ends up looking like this. Shaded are areas within 400 m of bus stops with one or more routes with 15 min or better frequencies (which means sixplexes rather than fourplexes are allowed here in British Columbia) so close stop spacing looks like everything within a distance of the corridor

Map of areas within 400 m of stops of the 14 and 15 buses near the Oak Bay-Victoria border

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In Canada, Ottawa and Gatineau is the first one I thought of. Ottawa is on one side of the Ottawa river in Ontario; Gatineau is on the other side in Quebec. Kitchener-Waterloo (in Ontario) is called The Twin Cities.

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Of the big industrial cities, Manchester and Cardiff were Roman forts.

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There is a decent number of English cities on the sites of Roman forts or settlements, especially if you look to ones that had reached some importance before the Industrial revolution - York, Lincoln and Winchester for example.

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Reposted by Chris Usher

Better Transit YYJ @bettertransityyj.ca · 26/09/2026

If Saskatoon can have bus lanes downtown, why can't we? #yyj #bctransit

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

How much of that was the CPR?

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Reposted by Chris Usher

Brendan Dawe @dawe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Kind of amazing how underappreciated “make the buses go faster” would save service hours, free up bus availability, and actually sell more fares, all of which are positives on a transit agency’s balance sheet

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Reposted by Chris Usher

Livable CRD @livablecrd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Livable CRD Candidate Scorecard, now available at LivableCRD.ca, brings together candidates’ responses to key municipal issues on a single website. The goal is to make it easier for voters to explore candidates’ positions and conduct their own research ahead of election day.

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We're having one election, yes. What about second election?

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The City of Victoria's AAA bike network is 40 km but I would argue it is a better city for biking than Vancouver since Victoria has a seventh the population and a sixth the land area.

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When comparing cities you do want to take the size of the city - either in terms of population or land area - into account

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I do not understand why you would spend the money building a mostly grade separated right-of-way and proper stations and yet run low floor rolling stock on it. If only a city on the pacific coast of North America had built one of those automated light metros.

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I have to assume fishing is one of them.

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Despite the bike infrastructure Victoria has and the general lack of snow we do see drops of 50% to 60% in winter and drops of ~90% when it does snow.

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Reposted by Chris Usher

VST @videostrike.team · 18/09/2026

Are you someone who still wants to signup for this year (DB20)'s VST? Well this is your notice that signups close tomorrow at 11pm (PST), so you better get on it! vst.ninja

vst.ninja

The DesertBus VST Archive

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I admit to not knowing what European standards we allow for rail transport.

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Desert Bus for Hope 🚌 #DB2026 OCTOBER 23rd @desertbus.org · 16/09/2026

Would there be some small gains to be made in Canada accepting more EU standards?

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Reposted by Chris Usher

Many people ask, "What is Desert Bus for Hope?" Others ask, "When are you going to update that video?" Great news:

youtu.be

What is Desert Bus for Hope? 2026 Edition

YouTube video by DesertBusForHope

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There are plans for faster service though.

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There were recently calls to introduce direct service between the airport and downtown. The challenge is how do you do that without making existing service worse if you have no extra funding.

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There is not enough funding to both run more than a handful of expresses to and from the ferries and run services that are useful to the people who live on the Saanich Peninsula. The Peninsula suffers because the destinations are not all along a direct corridor.

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If we relax the service span requirement to 11 pm only on Sundays and consider the common parts of pairs of routes like the 27/28 that interline for much of their routes as single routes, we get this map. Not bad for a metro area of 450 000 in North America

Map of transit routes in Greater Victoria. Thin black lines show all routes; the thick orange line shows the routes with half hour or better frequency everyday till midnight most nights and till 11 pm on Sundays.

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I decided to draw up the 'useful' map for Greater Victoria. For whatever reason service here ends an hour or more earlier on Sundays than on most weeknights (Fridays and Saturdays get later service) so only one route, the 95, meets the strict definition of half hour or better till midnight everyday

Map of transit routes in Greater Victoria. Thin black lines show all routes; the thick orange line shows the only route with half hour or better frequency everyday till midnight.

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I have never been so bored at a sporting event as when my brother took me to a college football game.

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Chris Usher @chrusher.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

It is a useful fiction for any government who does not want to spend money on ferries

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Valheim does have relatively granular difficulty settings so if you find one aspect of the game punishing in an unfun way you can make that aspect easier.

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I have sunk a massive amount of time into Valheim, mostly playing solo, while Enshrouded has not shown up on my radar.

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You are also missing the replenishment ships

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