Rapid Transit Effect on Economy

Metropolitan Toronto: The Transit/Development Connection
388.428 M265 1987 Metro Toronto Urban Affairs Library

From Page 1:

Metropolitan Toronto saw more new construction between 1954, when the first subway opened, and now, than wa previously in existance during the first 120 years of incorporation of the City of Toronto. Since the formation of Metropolitan Toronto the rapid transit system has played an important role in determining the location of aproxmately $30 billion in new buildings - $10 billion along the north-south subway and $20 billiion adjacent to the east-west line. A conservative estimate for the dollar value of future growth in Metropolitan Toronto where rapid transit will be a major factor is $20 billion to the year 2001.

From Page 9:

Almost everyone directly involved in planning the future will agree that rapid transit is a prerequisite for orderly growth and development. They recognize that rapid transit has a profound impact on local and national economies. Transit attracts new development and new business, increases property values and tax revenues, boosts retail sales, generates jobs and improves the quality of life.

SGML CALS Table Model in XHTML

I discovered recently that the CALS Table model is used for tables in HTML 4.01 and XHTML. This is most useful for their original purpose in marking up tabular data, like uwto.org - Transit Facts

This means that <thead>, <tfoot>, and <tbody> have been part of the HTML standard since 1999.

<table>
<thead>
</thead>
<tfoot>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
</tbody>
</table>

A couple of years ago I redesigned my uwto.org site and reformatted any pages that used tables for layout purposes to one using CSS 2.1 stylesheets.

Now that we have CALS stuff to use, I've been experimenting a bit with it. For example, with CALS you can define a header area using and when that table is printed and flows past one page, the browser printer engine willl automatically reprint all the column header and footer labels on each page. This is similar to how you can "lock" a column or row in a spreadsheet and scroll through while leaving the headers in place.

I've also experimented with the <colgroup> and <col> related tags. They're supposed to allow formatting for alignment of numerals. It works in IE 6 but surprisingly not in the more HTML standardized Mozilla/Firefox browsers. Someone posted a hack that uses Javascript but I'd rather not get into programatic ways of displaying web documents if I can help it, excepting a CMS system.

There is a long-standing (7 yrs.!) non-implementation bug report filed as BugZilla #915

Manitoba Hydro Tower

Manitoba Hydro announced this week that demolition has now started for their downtown office tower.

They said the reason why demo didn't start earlier (it was slated for February) was that they didn't want to make a mess of the street while the 2005 Juno Awards were being held.

Install Problems with OpenCms 6.0

I'm still having problems installing OpenCms 6.0 onto WindowsXP. Why can't the group programming this software include a handy/easy self-install script (setup.exe) like common programs do today?

I feel that this software has good potential, but is ??? because not enough people resources are put towards it. It has the potential of Mozilla/Firefox, Apache, etc...

One shouldn't have to manually configure Environment Variables and use RegEdit to set up other varibles. Not everyone can and should be doing this.

Anyways, so far I have:

1. JAVA_HOME to C:\Java\js_2.4.1.07
2. CATALINA_HOME C:\Program Files\Apache\Tomcat 4.1\
3. CATALINA_OPTS d ....
4. Edited Windows Registry to add and modify two items
1. Item 1
2. Item 2

Tha's it for now. The problem is that Tomcat and OpenCMS need to be set to ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) character set, and this should be done when OpenCms is installed.

Maybe if I bug the developers enough.

Error in OpenCms Install

I tried installing OpenCms on WindowsXP tonight. I got the Tomcat program installed. Tomcat complained of an error, and therefore I think that OpenCms won't install properly.

It could be because I have two Java systems installed 1.4.2 and 1.4.6 I need to have just the one available.

I want to get this working. If only the OpenCms people had an install script for XP to make it easier.

Starbucks in Starbuck

Why is there no Starbucks Coffee in Starbuck, Manitoba?

Water, Water Everywhere

I've been tasting the different brands of distilled water produced locally and elsewhere. I've also tasted Superstore's filtered water.

I have a few comments that relate to this...

1. I like the un-taste of Alpine Distilled Water, which is produced right here in Winnipeg.
2. I also like the taste of another brand of distilled water, by ....
3. Superstore's 6-stage RO (Reverse Osmosis) water is tasty, almost distilled-like, if it isn't.
4. Life brand (Shopper's Drug Mart) Distilled Water. Tastes great. But... from the Winnipeg perspective it's trucked 2000 kms to get here from southern Ontario. Not a good thing for the environment. If I was living in metropolitan Toronto this wouldn't be an issue. One thing I like about the Life Brand water is that it creates ice spikes when you make ice cubes from it - meaning the water is the purest you can find.
   

There are a few other waters that I'm questioning though, because I've had a bad jug or whatnot:

1. World of Water DewDrop Distilled Water. I bought a gallon of it this past week and it definitely had an aftertaste to it. Sort of aluminum metallic. I'll give it another try and see if it's any better.
2. Pepsi's Aquafina brand of "pure" "demineralized" water. I sensed beforehand that this is probably just like "spring" water, like Coke-Cola's Dasani. The bottle I bought was from SDM and it had the taste of plastic. I took two sips and threw the rest away.

Workshops vs Town Halls

You know, after re-reading the "Target Workplan" for the Task Force I see that they are going to do it TransPlan style rather than Murray's New Deal style. To wit:

Step 2: City Wide Public Consultations
Purpose:

To determine the Public's views and attitudes towards Transit generally and Rapid Transit for Winnipeg.

Process:

• 10 Public Workshops
• Public Interest Group Interviews
• Questionnaire for Interest Groups and Organizations
• Website Feedback Page

Starting January 2005

They're workshops, not town hals. I guess that means the Task Force has already decided what they're going to recommend this coming Spring.

I participated in the TransPlan 2010 "workshops" in the mid '90s and I can tell you that I find them less democratic than using "town hall" meetings as a model. Why I say that is that in the workshop model, you have 6 or more people at several tables. The facilitator will give brief introductions to that phase, then will instruct those at the tables to work on a compromise plan -- in this case for rapid transit for Winnipeg. Yet, what happened in the TransPlan case is that the people who put TP2010 together were, largely from the pro-highway Streets & Transportation Department.

I want this Rapid Transit Task Force to be different. I think almost everyone would agree that last year's town hall meetings on "the New Deal for Winnipeg" is the way to go. It let's people speak directly to the panel, and not to a chance group of people at a table, who may have vested interests in *not* building rapid transit. Who's to know that one of us could be sitting next to a highway planner (from the province?) who doesn't want rapid transit here.

Is it too late to change the direction of the Task Force and hold 10 Town Halls instead?

Rapid Transit Task Force

Next month there will be a set of Town Hall meetings relating to the (Winnipeg) Rapid Transit Task Force.

It's going to be a very busy time just keeping up with all of it, which ends at a Council meeting next June or July.

I'm supporting a modified Norman Wilson type alignment ? basically a University Line, Portage Ave., connecting the Airport and the North End.

By this Spring the Task Force is to release its Draft Report, which will likely recommend Light Rail Transit for Winnipeg.

I'm sure that LRT will attract widespread support during the Town Halls and when the Final Report is released.

University Line

At grade from University Transit Terminal, then under or over Pembina Hwy. at Bison Dr. then northward at grade to Jubilee following the CN Letellier Subdivision. After crossing the Jubilee Bridge area, the LRT would use the CN Main Line to Confusion Corner (Corydon/Pembina/Osborne). From Confusion Corner the LRT would travel under Donald St. south to Lombard Ave. & Main or would travel under Osborne St. then on Memorial Blvd. to Portage Ave.

Portage Ave. Line

The Portage Ave. Line would swing westward (continuing underground) along either Portage Ave. or at grade along Graham Ave. and become the Portage Ave. subway. Phase I or II would end at either Polo Park or at Assiniboine Park. There would be a continuation of the Portage Ave. line, to a station at the Airport. From the Airport the LRT can finish up in the McPhillips St. area.

The current Lombard Concourse could become Lombard Station, or part of it. There seems to be sufficient width for trackage, platform and ticket booth here.

Tram Routes

The Rapid Transit Task Force mandate includes metropolitan wide rapid transit, but it should also include on-street transit services. There are several cities worldwide that are (re)installing tram/streetcar services. Between the 1890s and mid-1950s streetcars opeated in Winnipeg. Some of the routes included Corydon, Ellice Ave., Main St., Academy, Stafford. The Task Force should include the (re)installation of tracks along some of these streets and use similar vehicles operating in Austria such as the Bombardier Flexity Outlook

Issues

There are issues relating to alignment that the Task Force will have to deal with.

• When the LRT operates within the downtown area, should it travel along Portage Ave. or along Graham. If Graham then where should the tunnel entrance/exit go ? near the Bay or at Waterfront Drive and Lombard?

• There seems to be a "fork in the road" issue at Confusion Corner. That is, in the past the routing for the University Line continues along the CN Mainline via Donald St. south. The Norman Wilson report and possibly the W.A.T.S. study both use Osborne St. Due to the higher density, it probably makes more sense to route underground via Osborne St. There would be an earlier ROI (Return On Investment) if it were done this way.
  

• After this line is built, how many diesel buses will Winnipeg require? We currently have 535. Rapid transit will make some routes moot, and having the buses reassigned to feeder bus service (for which buses serve a purpose) will mean fewer buses on the road.


• There are a lot of so-called Express bus routes to/from St. Vital, and they get good ridership. They will probably want easy access to a rapid transit line. The citizens of St. Vital may be best off though if the University Line were to connect with St. Vital via Bishop Grandin to St. Vital Centre. This project could be included in a Phase II or III.


• At one time I considered operating the Portage Ave. Line as at-grade contraflow (reverse direction in lane). However this probably won't work as "true" rapid transit as the rail vehicles would still have to stop for traffic signals. Subterranean seems the only way to go.


• Some transit routes which currently experience low ridership will no doubt become much more crowded as feeder buses to the rapid transit Stations. These routes would be:
  
  
  
  
  • 12 William
  
  
  • 29 Sherbrook
  
  
  • 71 Arlington
  
  
  • 95 Morley-Kenaston
  
  
  
  

XHTML 2.0

I've been reading about the future XHTML 2.0 standard.

I like some of it, like the <section> and <h> elements because it's closer to the DocBook standard.

But first we have to get more people marking up for true XHTML 1.1, using .xhtml as file extensions and application/xhtml+xml as the MIME type.

XHTML 1.1

I came across a document at the W3C which says:

This document summarizes the best current practice for using various Internet media types for serving various XHTML Family documents. In summary, 'application/xhtml+xml' SHOULD be used for XHTML Family documents, and the use of 'text/html' SHOULD be limited to HTML-compatible XHTML 1.0 documents. 'application/xml' and 'text/xml' MAY also be used, but whenever appropriate, 'application/xhtml+xml' SHOULD be used rather than those generic XML media types.

I should have known...

When I put in the correct MIME type of application/xhtml+xml for the web documents on uwto.org, and renamed the extension to .xhtml, I found that some pages wouldn't display because there were some markup problems and the pages were being processed as true XML, rather than HTML 4 "tag soup".

The thing that keeps me from going totally with XHTML 1.1 right now is another article

which states that Google doesn't have the capability to index .xhtml page yet. This article was created before Google updated its index to capture 8 billion documents, as of November 10, 2004, up from 4 billion.

Rapid Transit

The past year has put rapid transit back on the discussion table in Winnipeg.

Last year Glen Murray was Mayor, and he pushed for BRT which wasn't rapid at all.

Then Glen decided he wanted to go to Federal politics, and ran in the June 2004 election, which he lost.

Sam Katz became the new Mayor of The Big 'Peg, who said that he intends to review the plans for BRT and personally has stated that he prefers LRT instead ... and I truly believe Sam is finally the man to bring rail transit back to us.

First Past The Post

This is my first RSS-based blog post.