Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 05/09/2026I like how it suggests taking the Pat Bay to the ferry, but helpfully directs you along Elk Lake Dr to avoid spending _too_ much time on the highway 010
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 15/08/2026the Canada Line is often characterized as disruptive (by critics) or cheap (by proponents) thanks to a secretive P3 structure, but is imo better understood as the government of the time being agnostic about construction techniques and consciously making trade-offs to reduce costs 0101
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 15/08/2026Recently found myself reading the judgement for one of the Cambie merchant lawsuits and was struck by just how much shorter the disruptions were for the CL. This one business experienced 3 years of general disruption, and only 8 months of actual cut-and-cover work. www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/d... 051
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 03/08/2026As a side note, this is an example where Vancouver urbanism is unambiguously worse than Calgary: trail networks in the suburbs here are much more discontinuous and often consist of adding a shared-use sign to a sidewalk 070
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 03/08/2026likewise, despite its reputation amongst urbanism circles as sprawl-hell, Calgary's trail network is genuinely quite impressive and continues to get built out alongside new subdivisions (dark blue = trails/protected bike lanes) 131
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 03/08/2026Royal Bay in Colwood, BC comes to mind as an example of a developer that tried to do bike-friendly (and generally much nicer) sprawl and (imo) mostly succeeded 1101
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 16/07/2026this was a compelling piece right until it argued that expropriating property from lumber barons is illegitimate 100
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 11/07/2026A BC example of how a genuine design competition opened the floor to younger, smaller design firms and yielded a novel solution: (from David Stouck's biography of Arthur Erickson) 000
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 09/07/2026Don't worry though! The latest edition excludes data from before 1990 020
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 29/06/2026Biked out to the Barnston Island inland ferry, a truly delightful experience 030
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 25/06/2026I am maybe old school - and I haven't tried _that_ many systems, including bixi - but my favorite bikeshare program I've ever used was Antwerp, where the bikes were light, nimble, and extremely reliable 120
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 15/06/2026Spending my day off messing around with the USGS LIDAR model for Mt Baker, something I wish the Province would collect for some mountains in BC 100
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 27/04/2026There's a neat project coming to Oak Bay council tomorrow: it's a historic revitalization of the old Lawson Residence at 960 Foul Bay combined with a large townhouse project to fund the revitalization work. Here's staff's *supportive* recommendation of a project that's been in the works for years: 120
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 19/04/2026visited Whytecliff Park for the first time neat little place, if somewhat undercut by the fact that some great views are obstructed by mansions 010
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 13/04/2026Unfortunately Vancouver's addiction to mini traffic circles makes a fair comparison impossible (afaik OSM doesn't distinguish between traffic circles and full-on roundabouts) 020
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 13/04/2026Building on this thread with a visual to show how much more uncommon roundabouts are in the Netherlands than many people assume (it sure surprised me when I visited!) 140
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 12/04/2026New Burnaby Lake overpass looks fantastic (also saw a beaver) 0120
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 02/04/2026Not sure about Canada as a whole. In British Columbia (inc. Victoria and its suburbs) the 'standard' new curb is a 150mm barrier curb. But there seems to just be a ton of different legacy stuff out there 120
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 02/04/2026Your threads got me thinking about this; I've noticed a surprising number of rollover curb sidewalks in suburbs in the Canadian PNW, and a few that are recently-ish built (subdivisions built in the 70s or so). Definitely atypical, 150mm is very much standard, but not unheard of 310
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 30/03/2026traffic circles make for good stump speeches (this was very fun, learned a ton) 0100
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 30/03/2026However! Their Vancouver office is... here: maps.app.goo.gl/shReHNg3nPzy... 120
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 22/03/2026Never really sunk in that the city of vancouver expects people to bike between general traffic on the left and buses on the right Seems safe 150
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 22/03/2026Now, to be fair, concerns about tree loss aren't _entirely_ unfounded here, but blaming it on Bill 44 multiplex development is disingenuous when the typical development on this street is a single-family home. No need to drag 'plexes into this debate! 010
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 22/03/2026Oddly NIMBY-coded sign for something put up by local government 100
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 15/03/2026They're still flexible actually! They just look very solid 100
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 15/03/2026while I am fanatically in favour of quick-build safety improvements, it's nice when cities spend a few extra bucks to buy nicer bollards that _look_ more permanent, or use precast concrete components for traffic calming examples from victoria + new west 141
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 08/03/2026oh no, this is just a really annoying gap in the spirit trail that CNV hasn't been able to fully fix there's two route options, neither of of which are great (I cut through the mall lane because it's quicker, but crossing brooksbank sucks) 100
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 08/03/2026...partially. Officially the Spirit Trail now gets you to Burr Pl (purple) past that you need to take Mt Seymour Pkwy (green) which is decent, it's parking curb protected and then you can take a hodgepodge of local streets/pathways (orange) to get to Deep Cove 100
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 08/03/2026"Parking Charity" remains my favorite distillation of this argument 000
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 08/03/2026not really the top issue in the city right now, but it would sure be nice if there was a separated bike route through Jericho that was: - separated from all the pedestrian crowds during the day - lit at night 3101
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 27/02/2026The seismic risk you have to design for in Kelowna is already significantly lower than it is for Vancouver! (for what should be obvious reasons) 010
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 17/02/2026"The District is prohibited from holding a public hearing on this rezoning application pursuant to section 464(3) of the Local Government Act" You love to see it, folks! 2101
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 16/02/2026CanViz is super cool, great work @jensvb.bsky.social canviz.mountainmath.ca 0124
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 10/02/2026The lack of rain protection at the Bute St plaza really sucks, a pergola that lets you get soaked is the epitome of no fun city imo 150
Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 08/02/2026til one early plan (2002) for the Canada Line involved boring the whole thing, *under* a future M-Line extension Also a Nelson station sure would have been nice for me personally www.projects.eao.gov.bc.ca/p/58851099aa... 0100
