Posts from — January 2010

From the indefatigable Chris Keam at the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, these helpful links to Vancouver 2010 Games cycling information:

VACC Bike to Work Commute Tracker
Track your GHG reductions, kms, and calories burned on our interactive mapping and tracking tool. It lets you compete with yourself and against other teams once you have signed in. It also lets you share mapped routes to find co-workers that you can ride in with.

City of Vancouver Bike Route Network
The City of Vancouver has an updated map of bike routes including closures and temporary bike routes.

Bike Parking
Maps for bike parking facilities in Vancouver, at the Richmond Olympic Oval, and UBC/Thunderbird Arena can be found here. [Read more →]

Yesterday’s council decision to endorse Translink’s UBC Rapid Transit Line study (item 4 here) means Vancouver riders may be able to consider options to relieve the crisis on the B-Line as early as the summer.

(Council also asked staff to consult with Vancouver residents on the principles guiding the study while work continues.)

A Translink stakeholder meeting Monday at the Plaza 500 heard updated evidence that the Broadway corridor remains by far the best transit option in the Lower Mainland and could quickly pay its own way.

Ridership on the B-Line — more like a trip in a cattle car many days — is so high it rivals existing light rail lines elsewhere in North America. Thousands of riders are passed by daily.

With another Translink funding deadline approaching in September, it’s urgent to make the case for Broadway, but not at the expense of other regional priorities. I agree with council’s policy that the Evergreen Line must be the first regional priority.

That’s why the headline writer at News 1130 got it wrong when he wrote that there’s a “battle looming between Vancouver and other regions over priority of rapid transit.”

There the only battle is with Victoria to find the funding solution to meet the entire region’s needs. Until we resolve that, Evergreen won’t get built and Broadway will remain the best unbuilt rapid transit opportunity on the continent. [Read more →]

We know that protesters at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will have the benefit of trained human rights observers to ensure that security forces stay within bounds.

But what information is out there for run-of-the-mill Games visitors on the reasons for the protests and how they might unfold?

Well, the reasons  are complex and the nature of the protests are, as Donald Rumsfeld might say, a “known unknown.” The FAQ page at the N02010 website has this to say:

FAQ: Why do anti-Olympic groups vandalize businesses and even carry out arson attacks?

Groups that carry out militant direct action are just one part of the anti-Olympics movement. Most do not carry out vandalism or arson. Those that do have targeted corporate sponsors of the Olympics as a form of sabotage (along with police & military targets). This can increase the costs for corporations seeking to profit from the Games, and could potentially deter some corporate investment. All militant direct actions that have occurred have consisted of property damage and no person has been injured as a result.

So you should be fine, but watch out for fires and broken glass.

[Read more →]

Tonight’s screening of Bevel Up, a riveting documentary/teaching guide about Vancouver’s street nurses, provided the starting point tonight for Pacific Cinematheque’s retrospective series on the work of Vancouver film maker Nettie Wild.

Produced two years ago, the film is a major departure for Wild — she normally works independently but was commissioned to do this project by the Centre for Disease Control — and a logical sequel to Fix, the film that defined for many the campaign that resulted in Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site.

Not surprisingly, Wild started her introductory comments with a brief celebration of today’s Federal Court decision upholding a BC Supreme Court ruling that required Ottawa to renew Insite’s operating permit. Both former Mayor Philip Owen and former city drug policy director Donald Macpherson were at the screening.

Available from the NFB, Bevel Up can be viewed as an unflinching look at the realities of life on the street as seen by the street nurses. But it can also be used as a teaching and discussion guide for those training for the job or interested in harm reduction.

Seven years after Philip Owen’s NPA rejected harm reduction, rejected his leadership and was swept out of office by Larry Campbell and COPE, the fight for harm reduction and sane drug policy continues. Bevel Up is a reminder of the cost paid every day by people on our streets.

The entire Wild series continues this week.