It used to be simple. Centuries ago, when we needed to get somewhere, we walked there. The wealthy might ride a horse or carriage. Road users negotiated the use of space between themselves informally, if needed. Today, sharing the road has become far more complicated. As new forms of transportation were developed, road space was divvied up among users according to their vehicle type. Recently, a heap of new vehicle types are gaining popularity on our ever more congested roads, motivated by a desire to escape our automotive dependency, and enabled by new technologies. Vehicles range from...…It used to be simple. Centuries ago, when we needed to get somewhere, we walked there. The wealthy might ride a horse or carriage. Road users negotiated the use of space between themselves informally, if needed. Today, sharing the road has become far more complicated. As new forms of transportation were developed, road space was divvied up among users according to their vehicle type. Recently, a heap of new vehicle types are gaining popularity on our ever more congested roads, motivated by a desire to escape our automotive dependency, and enabled by new technologies. Vehicles range from...WW…

Like many boys, I became a car nut in my early teens. I can remember the very first exposure that initiated me into the vast universe of automobiledom. It wasn’t a shiny, sleek car body or throaty exhaust note but a line drawing in an old textbook I found in my school library. The image showed the optimized aerodynamic shape for an automobile. Of course in my youthful naivete I was easily seduced by the idea that a known perfect solution to a problem seemed to exist. Using this ideal shape as a starting point I started sketching my vision of ‘the perfect car’. Hundreds of attempts and...…Like many boys, I became a car nut in my early teens. I can remember the very first exposure that initiated me into the vast universe of automobiledom. It wasn’t a shiny, sleek car body or throaty exhaust note but a line drawing in an old textbook I found in my school library. The image showed the optimized aerodynamic shape for an automobile. Of course in my youthful naivete I was easily seduced by the idea that a known perfect solution to a problem seemed to exist. Using this ideal shape as a starting point I started sketching my vision of ‘the perfect car’. Hundreds of attempts and...WW…

The latest addition to Toronto’s subway network was born yesterday! Six new subway stations were stuck on to the end of line 1 at Sheppard West (formerly Downsview station) and opened to the public on December 16th. If you’re curious about how it came to be, an excellent article by Oliver Moore and Jeff Gray covers that topic here, revealing just how much politics can trump thoughtful planning, even for such a massive project. But my purpose with this post is to look forward, not back. One way to determine the next best subway project to start working on is by looking at the current demand...…The latest addition to Toronto’s subway network was born yesterday! Six new subway stations were stuck on to the end of line 1 at Sheppard West (formerly Downsview station) and opened to the public on December 16th. If you’re curious about how it came to be, an excellent article by Oliver Moore and Jeff Gray covers that topic here, revealing just how much politics can trump thoughtful planning, even for such a massive project. But my purpose with this post is to look forward, not back. One way to determine the next best subway project to start working on is by looking at the current demand...WW…