Showing posts sorted by date for query urban. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query urban. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Saturday, April 6, 2024

NYC earthquake MTA subway-bridges-tunnels-closures-delays

 https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nyc-trains-earthquake-mta-subway-bridges-tunnels-closures-delays/

Of course it takes time to assess if there was any significant earthquake damage.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/earthquake-new-york-city-aging-buildings

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-10-most-earthquake-prone-countries.html

https://www.worldatlas.com/natural-disasters/the-12-most-earthquake-vulnerable-cities-in-the-world.html

Urban earthquakes can be the most dangerous & disruptive, simply because of the concentration of people & infrastructure.

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/which-country-has-most-earthquakes

Statue of Liberty heavy shaking during NYC earthquake

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITwm3PVq620

Of course NYC, Boston & Chicago aren't as earthquake prepared as LA, SF & Seattle.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/monterey-county-sheriffs-statue-liberty-earthquake-shakes-new-york-california-4-8/60412551

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/earthquake-videos-new-york-city-area/60411727

Urban Seismology: on the origin of earth vibrations within a city https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-15499-y

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abl3564

https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/26276/new-challenges-for-seismic-risk-mitigation-in-urban-areas/magazine

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-10-most-earthquake-prone-countries.html

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/24/13165

https://www.worldatlas.com/natural-disasters/the-12-most-earthquake-vulnerable-cities-in-the-world.html

Of course the ability to predict earthquakes would be so beneficial.

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/which-country-has-most-earthquakes

Thursday, March 21, 2024

How is technology changing our way to experience cities?

 https://parametric-architecture.com/walking-internet-and-the-cyberflaneur-how-is-technology-changing-our-way-to-experience-cities

Urban technology can be a great thing, as long as it doesn't become used to facilitate a totalitarian nightmare. Thus, human visualization must be never replace by total AI. Unless one wants to have a Borg like world.


https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=AI

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The Slow and Steady Death of the Gowanus Expressway in NYC

https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/2920/the-slow-and-steady-death-of-the-gowanus-expressway

Of course several highways & freeways built between the 1940s & 1970s were bulldozed through neighborhoods. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_278#Gowanus_Expressway

One would be hard-pressed to find such expressways that were bulldozed through upper middle-class or wealthy neighborhoods. 

 http://www.nycroads.com/roads/gowanus , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_278

In a lot of cases, urban highways could have been built above or beside railway corridors or through industrial areas.

https://michaelminn.net/newyork/areas/sunset-park-waterfront/gowanus-expressway/index.html

However, there would still have to be arterial roads & streets connecting to the various expressways or motorways.

https://www.dot.ny.gov/regional-offices/region11/projects/project-repository/gowanus/about.html

The Go wasn't designed to have bus & HOV lanes.

https://www.dot.ny.gov/content/delivery/region11/projects/X73081-Home/construction

A lot of it doesn't even have full width emergency lanes, which could have become bus lanes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_278

https://www.eastcoastroads.com/states/ny/inter/i278

Friday, February 9, 2024

Vancouver Broadway-Commercial Safeway Redevelopment

 https://storeys.com/westbank-crombie-broadway-commercial-safeway/

A lot of people or just a small extremely vocal few, want Vancouver to just be a provincial backwater for as long as possible. The NIMBY crowd just can't fathom any BC city & urban region to eventually be on the scale of Montreal or Seattle.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

What is (urban) Artificial Intelligence?

 https://parametric-architecture.com/explained-what-is-artificial-intelligence-ai

https://medium.com/urban-ai/urban-artificial-intelligence-from-real-world-observations-to-a-paradigm-shifting-concept-27f4c5aa20f6

Alphaville is one of the best AI totalitarian movies abbot a smart-city totally bent on controlling people.

https://urbanai.fr/our-works/urban-ai-guide

https://www.urban-ai.org/home

https://gouai.cidob.org/atlas

THX_1138 is also one of the best cautionary AI totalitarian movies made. 

AI can be quite a fantastic tool, but humans should never become totally under its control. Unless one wants to become part of an inhumane world. 


https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=AI

Friday, January 5, 2024

Building Height Restrictions in Various Cities

Height_restriction_laws can be a great way to hold back the vertical scale of a city. Usually, the cities with the tallest buildings are also the more economically prominent ones. However, that's not alway the case.

Honolulu has several buildings over 40 floors, but none are office towers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Honolulu

Phoenix only has one building with 40 floors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Phoenix , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Phoenix#Tallest_buildings:_approved,_site_plan_under_review_or_proposed

San_Diego has some buildings over 40 stories, but none of them are office towers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_San_Diego

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_restriction_laws#Canada Despite Canada having a vast area of land, only a tiny portion of that land has some very tall buildings on it. 

Montreal is small when compared to Toronto, but big when compared to Vancouver.

https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_dad=portal&_pageid=2762,3101387&_schema=PORTAL

Montreal won't be allowing any 100 story towers like those in NYC, Chicago or Melbourne anytime soon.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-politicians-debate-whether-to-allow-skyscrapers-higher-than-mount-royal-1.5401429

Just allowing a 50-60 story building is still a big deal for Montreal.

https://cultmtl.com/2021/05/in-defence-of-building-height-restrictions-in-montreal-mount-royal-urban-plan-denis-coderre

Vancouver won't permit any building to rival what is in Calgary or Seattle

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-view-cone-impacts-broadway-plan-cambie-street

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/central-broadway-plan-view-cones-mountains-queen-elizabeth-park

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-tower-building-shadowing-solar-access

Monday, December 18, 2023

The Steel Bridge (Portland) and Washington Avenue Transit Bridge (Minneapolis)

The Steel_Bridge and the Washington_Avenue_Bridge, if only such bridges were allowed in Greater_Vancouver...

The Steel-Bridge is old, yet adequately functioning as a multi-model crossing.

Upper: 2 outer lanes for general traffic, 2 inner lanes solely for MAX Light Rail, and sidewalks on both sides
Lower: Union Pacific Railroad (incl. Amtrak toward Eugene) and walkway. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Amtrak_talgo_train_crossing_steel_bridge.jpg

"The bridge has two decks, with the lower deck designated for motor vehicle traffic and light rail trains and the upper deck used for pedestrians and bicycles (lanes specifically for bikes are on the north side)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Avenue_Bridge_(Minneapolis)

Unfortunately, the Skybridge between NW & Surrey, has no bus & bike lanes. Thus, its another fine example of backward BC planning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skybridge_(TransLink)

Even though the SkyTrain wasn't intended to run 24hrs, no adequate future capacity provisions were included into the design of the SkyBridge. Ideally, the bridge should have had at least 3 tracks on 1 deck. Plus, 2 bus & bike lanes on another deck, with 2 lanes for emergency vehicles that would all be open 24-7. 

Apparently, it was better to funnel everything into the inept Pattullo_Bridge. A narrow 4 lane joke of a crossing with only 1 narrow sidewalk. Its so nice that the Sydney-Harbour-Bridge has 2 pathways. Surrey is set to become the largest city in BC. Thus, Surrey & NW should have had several bridges like Portland_OR by now.

In the 1930s, NSW already had a sense of Sydney being a substantial state capital on the Pacific for quite a while. In contrast, NW, BC emphasized its status of a former backwater provincial capital & perpetuated its small-minded city mentality.

Thus, the Sydney_Harbour_Bridge was originally built with six lanes, 4 sets of tracks & two sidewalks. Where as the Pattullo_Bridge was a fine example of backwater BC thinking & planning. Unlike the impressive Sydney_Harbour_Bridge, there is no comparable high level bridge in BC which is capable of carrying double deck passenger trains. Of course it should be noted that NSW has seen itself as a mighty state on the Pacific for quite a long time. Thus, the 1930s Sydney_Harbour_Bridge remains so far ahead of anything in backwater provincial BC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge_cycleway Unlike the BC aproach, NSW didn't have to remove any traffic lanes. Ultimately, Vancouver will have traffic lanes removed from 3 of its bridges, because the city refuses to build anything like the magnificent Tilikum_Crossing in Portland, OR. Vancouver was one of the first cities to get rid of its streetcars & will likely be one of the last to ever bring them back. Well fortunately, there was nothing like the BC mentality to stop the Portland_Streetcar_or_the_Tilikum_Bridge

The tram-train MAX_and_bus_on_Tilikum_the_Crossing. If only backward Vancouver, BC would allow such a fine transit bridge, then there would be less congestion on the existing narrow bridges. Indeed, Greater Vancouver refuses to build a series of bus-bridges, even though that would relieve some of the regional congestion.

Unlike in the largest urban area in BC, Portland,_OR was able to build many more bridges.

https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca Of course the bridge wasn't built with the provision for a lower deck similar to what's on the Tilikum Bridge. https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca/about/projectoverview It wasn't allowed to have 8 lanes like the Anzac_Bridge_in_Sydney. So no bus & HOV lanes, just have everything crammed into a 4 lane bottleneck. No emergency lanes, it will open with only 2 lanes each way, but with the potential to become a 6 lane bridge, some day. So, just like the Skybridge, it won't have 2 dedicated bus lanes. 

Unlike the Skybridge in NW, at least the North-Arm-Bridge to Richmond has 1 bike lane, but there should have been 2 as well as 2 bus lanes & even 2 emergency vehicle lanes on the North_Arm_Bridge. Since the North_Arm_Bridge doesn't have 24hr train service & no bus lanes, late-night buses only have the 4 lane bottlenecks that are the Oak_Street_BridgeKnight_Street_Bridge & the Queensborough_Bridge. Of course there are no emergency vehicle lanes, because even they should be subjected to the overall congestion of the region.

The Sydney_Harbour_Bridge, the Anzac_Bridge & the Tilikum_Crossing were all possible, simply because they aren't subjected to anything like the restrictions impose in Greater_Vancouver or BC in general. The BC part of Canada is trapped in some kind of a stagnation loop or a series of restrictions to stiefel or thwart infrastructure upgrades & progress. However, so many other cities around the world just aren't subjected to anything like the BC approach to things. 


https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Portland

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Tilikum+Crossing

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=transit+bridges

Monday, December 4, 2023

Urban Tech Portal

UTP still isn't just about urban technology. One can be in a typical cabin or van in the woods and have  powerful laptops with plenty of solar power for all the gadgets.

https://www.ign.com/articles/gaming-laptop-vs-gaming-pc

https://www.anoffgridlife.com/internet-off-the-grid

Proposed SFU gondola popular, but not among some who’d live under it

 https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/12/04/sfu-burnaby-gondola-pushback-neighbourhood

This tech is all over the world, but having it in Burnaby, BC is getting some persistent resistance. 

https://www.translink.ca/gondola?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=gondola

The BC mentality wasn't able to stop the Portland_Aerial_Tram from being built.

However, there are still plenty of people that don't like it going over their Portland houses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Aerial_Tram#Community_response

So while it could be a great transportation link, not everyone is happy about such urban gondola-trams.

https://www.burnaby.ca/our-city/projects/burnaby-mountain-gondola It really could be a good transportation link, but local residents might want some reasonable compensation. Not just some new blinds or curtains.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandia_Peak_Tramway


https://www.grousemountain.com/skyride

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/grouse-mountain-new-gondola-construction


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_Mountain#Cable_car

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_Tram


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_Mountain#Cableway

Monday, November 27, 2023

The Pattullo Bridge saga in BC

The old Pattullo_Bridge was built with a narrow sidewalk on only one side & a road deck that can barely hold 4 narrow lanes. It's all part of the narrow mindedness of the BC mentality.

 https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca/about/projectoverview/

https://604now.com/new-pattullo-bridge-completion-updated-photos-renderings/

"The new Pattullo Bridge is on track for completion in 2024, but business leaders in Surrey are calling for six lanes to be open to vehicle traffic on day one, instead of four as currently planned." https://globalnews.ca/news/9489375/pattullo-replacement-six-lanes-debate

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/pattullo-bridge-surrey-board-of-trade

https://604now.com/like-cross-pattullo-bridge-1937 Why build a wide bride that also has 2 wide sidewalks when the bare minimum can be done instead? Then try to build an inadequate replacement bridge with only 4 lanes, no bus & HOV lanes & no emergency lanes. That's the BC way in the 1930s & the 2020s. At least it will have a couple of bike lanes.

https://www.delta-optimist.com/local-news/delta-says-new-pattullo-wont-ease-traffic-woes-3088329 Of course just like the old bridge, there won't be any provision for a lower rail & express bus deck.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45379817@N08/9660269876 Just the idea that there could be 1 waggon road each way was amazing for BC back then. Somehow, the narrow bridge had just enough width to eventually have 4 waggon roads

https://oppositethecity.wordpress.com/2016/08/27/were-walkin-ridin-drivin-here-traffic-safety-an-issue-in-1937

http://archives.newwestcity.ca/Results.aspx?AC=SEE_ALSO&QF0=NameAccess&QI0==%22Pattullo%20Bridge%22&XC=/Results.aspx&BU=http%3A%2F%2Farchives.newwestcity.ca%2Fsearch.aspx&GI=&TN=internet&SN=AUTO73&SE=1636&RN=7&MR=100&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&XP=&RF=WebRelevance&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=GENERICENGWPMSG.INI&DT=&ST=0&IR=4333&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=

Wide+bridges, twinning or duplication can allow for express bus lanes and more HOV_lanes in general.  

http://archives.newwestcity.ca/Results.aspx?AC=NEXT_RECORD&XC=/Results.aspx&BU=http%3A%2F%2Farchives.newwestcity.ca%2Fsearch.aspx&GI=&TN=internet&SN=AUTO26198&SE=1232&RN=51&MR=100&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&XP=&RF=WebRelevance&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=GENERICENGWPMSG.INI&DT=&ST=0&IR=4333&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS= Of course there was no provision to have a lower deck for trucks & trains. 

http://archives.newwestcity.ca/Results.aspx?AC=NEXT_RECORD&XC=/Results.aspx&BU=http%3A%2F%2Farchives.newwestcity.ca%2Fsearch.aspx&GI=&TN=internet&SN=AUTO26198&SE=1232&RN=49&MR=100&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&XP=&RF=WebRelevance&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=GENERICENGWPMSG.INI&DT=&ST=0&IR=4333&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS= While a narrow bridge can easily become inadequate, the provision for a lower deck can make all the difference.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/driving-and-transportation/reports-and-reference/reports-and-studies/frontier_to_freeway.pdf It was quite a thing for BC to have waggon roads & then eventually some were doubel width. Unfortunately, even today, there is a mentality to just have 1 or 2 lanes each way. Yet, such thoroughfares will be marked as a major route when it's not much wider than a country road.  


https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Multimodal+Bridges+and+Tunnels

https://thedigitallabyrinth.blogspot.com/search?q=Urban+Bus+and+Bike+Lanes+and+Bridges

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=bridges

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=BC