Quelle surprise! The Worldwide Cost of Living survey carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit just ranked Vancouver the most expensive city in North America. Vancouver overtook all U.S. cities and ranked 37th in the world.
Los Angeles was the most expensive U.S. city – equal at 42nd with Shanghai – while New York came in 47th. Zurich has topped Tokyo to become the world’s most expensive city.
Read more here.
Last week I had another “adverse interaction” with a motorist. These seem to be happening with increasing frequency.
It started with the traffic circle at Blenheim St. and 8th Ave. I was heading east along the Off-Broadway bike route (aka 8th Ave.) and two vehicles were heading north along Blenheim St. It was dark, but not raining. I was lit up with my reflective riding gear and 5 blinking LED lights: a bright headlight, one in the spokes of my front wheel, a bright omnidirectional on my seat post, and one hanging from each pannier.
In short, the only way you won’t see me at night is by not looking in my direction. read more »
Kitsilano residents classified as “blue zone” by the City currently have their garbage and recycling collected on Wednesdays. This Wednesday, however, several homes were missed in the collection.
If this is you, keep your bins out. We have spoken with the City and someone will be by to collect your recycling soon.
For a number of years now, the City of Vancouver has been exploring options available to implement a “Public Bike System” (PBS), otherwise known as a bike share program. The issue has resurfaced in the news recently due to conversations about BC’s bike-helmet laws, how they might affect the success of a bike-share program, and different solutions that might be used to ensure compliance with those laws. It’s an issue that affects not only BC, but also other places that have similar helmet laws, like Seattle.
The City is currently evaluating Expressions of Interest from a number of different organizations (“more than 5, less than 10″), including Montreal’s Bixi and a local group, Bikeshare BC. read more »
Last week, city reporter extraordinaire Frances Bula posted in her blog about whether or not cyclists should be banned from using arterial roads. This was an issue that councillor-elect Adriane Carr clumsily raised during the civic election. Bula cited two pieces of evidence for an existing arterial-jam problem: watching “traffic jam up behind a cyclist who has decided to take up a lane on 12th or Hastings or Granville during rush hour,” as well as an anecdote about a lady riding along Broadway.
I don’t really want to rehash the question of whether or not cyclists should be banned on any city road — you can read through the comments on her blog for an interesting (but somewhat derailed) discussion. My take on it is: bicycles are traffic, deal with it.
The “deal with it” means not only should motorists learn to drive with cyclists (and vice versa), but also the city’s engineering department should design and build infrastructure that accommodates all forms of traffic in the city.
