Tag Archives: cars

Catalyst Repeating The Lies That Worked

Your Worship and City Council,

The Catalyst process has learned that most people are not in favour of a downtown arena. The report is public, and easily found. Yet we heard some media like CTV Regina report deceptively that a so-called “majority” in the Regina Chamber of Commerce wants it downtown. Fewer than 7% of its members replied to their member-only survey, in favour. Some of 6% is not a majority, in case I need to spell it out.

Surprise! Priority #4 is listed as a downtown arena. The fix is in. CTV, along with whoever is telling them to frame it as a majority in support, are not going to stop when we bring facts to the table. They’ve got the audience to try and change minds, but the people have the truth. Their job, apparently, is to change the truth.

I realize my presentation to you today won’t change your votes, but I want others who hear it to realize that taxes are going way up thanks to this latest stadium swindle. We’re still paying off the last new stadium for more than another decade. In our rapidly changing world with global catastrophes, we couldn’t even make use of it for over a year at the start of the pandemic. I’d argue it shouldn’t be used exactly how it is now, facilitating outbreaks of deadly disease even as responsible journalists reveal the cover-up of super-spreader events.

Instead of repairing the Agridome/Brandt Centre, and improving transportation to the facility, you’ll try to send millions more dollars to our construction industry for another arena we don’t need and most people don’t want. Old City Hall lasted only 55 years in Regina. The present one is already 47 years old. Will it be replaced by 2030, going by our need to tear down functional 50 year old buildings? How’s the roof coming for Mosaic Stadium, by the way? We apparently have more money for policing and yet another event building, but not enough to provide safe housing for vulnerable people as the provincial government lets us all down.

The next insulting sequencing priority for the Project? A trail to join the districts in the downtown core. Why is that insulting? Because it was part of the original Regina Revitalization Initiative, and was not built despite it being listed on the RRI website for years during construction of roof-ready Mosaic Stadium II. That deception, along with claims that Taylor Field would become a site for affordable housing and possibly even groceries, is why residents of Regina can’t trust City Council or City Hall to honour the projects it puts forward in black and white.

CBC reported on Mar. 14, 2019 that by 2023 Regina would have ~30km of new bike infrastructure. The result was about 10 times less than that much. An independent researcher found Regina lags behind other western Canadian capital cities with fewer bike lanes per capita, and per square km too. The amount must be doubled to even catch up. Take one scintilla of the money and effort wasted on the Catalyst Project, and catch the heck up.

Sincerely,

John Klein

Advertisement

How Would You Fix Arcola Ave. for $42,300,000 or Less?

City Council unanimously approved a plan to spend more than $42 Million on making traffic on Arcola Ave. worse. Yes, you heard me, worse. That wasn’t their intention, but Councillor Stadnichuk brought up the problem, and still voted with the pack to make the mistake.

“Direct Administration to bring a supplementary report to City Council
during the 2023-2024 budget consideration, that will include the following:
a) The financial implications to capital planning of the redistribution of
$42.3 million from long to medium term project planning to
expedite the expansion process for the Arcola Avenue corridor”

The City will consider the potential financial implications of building more infrastructure for specifically privately owned, single-occupant motor vehicles, but wasn’t directed by Council to consider the sustainability implications. That’s likely because it violates the Energy and Sustainability Framework’s “Big Moves” related to transportation.

“b) The potential financial implications of adjusting the SAF model to
account for increased costs due to expedition of this project.”

“While the Framework provides an ambitious community-wide plan that will require sustained effort from all sectors of the community, the City of Regina will play a leadership role in modelling the changes and behaviours that are required to reach our goals through advocacy, partnership, awareness/education and direct action in the municipal operation.”

If we’re not addressing transportation with sustainability in mind, why’d we pass the Energy and Sustainability Framework? The Council’s “ambitious community-wide plan” couldn’t even be sustained until even their very next two ~$100M transportation decisions. They took over a hundred million from Transit to build a pool facility, now they’ve assigned nearly that much again to expanding freeways and turning lanes for car drivers with nothing for cyclists or pedestrians or transit users.

My trust is damaged from Council’s inability to implement the crucial Framework. The City Admin is telling Council to implement a plan at least 6 years old, instead of looking to the future with a Framework passed this year.

Here’s an insight by Councillor Bresciani that I hope she takes to heart with her ability to first spend millions on improving transportation infrastructure for either people on bikes, or people in single-occupant motor vehicles who are costing the city more than we can sustain.

The City’s website asks, “Who’s Listening“. Here’s who, with contact info:

====

Speed limits for Arcola were changed a few years ago, and had no apparent impact on the number of collisions because the number is still far more than 0 every week.

Most Of a Million Dollars

The province is wasting more money on a single-owner vehicle parking structure at General Hospital in Regina, when it could buy a bus for the cost of the the cursory dig and the project’s budget for 2022:

“The excavation is also not anticipated to strain the project’s allocated $750,000 budget for this year, as surveys were included in the planning.”

There’s a shuttle that travels between health facilities in Regina, stopping at parking lots, but the ridership is restricted to Sask Health Authority employees. If Regina Transit was offering the service instead, everyone going to or visiting the hospital would be able to ride it. Our city would get better transit, and the province wouldn’t be spending any additional money. And we could probably have the hospital there without constructing another stranded asset, which is what a parkade is when built during a climate crisis.

B.C.

Dear SGI,

I’ve heard it said that real change comes from within. I suppose that means that if you want to know what to do about escooters, you have to ask your employees what they think. How many dozens of them use them and love them? Do they have kids who want to use them, and hope for a community that has zero-emission transportation as a legal option for them?

If you do nothing, that’s easiest. It may make SGI less popular though, to stand in front of some family’s summer fun, to stop business ventures for people hoping to employ Segways with the public, and make our home province just a little bit more backward and stuck in the past.

You already allow 2 wheeled electrically motorized vehicles limited to 32km/h without the hassles of registration. It’s only for the lack of pedals that an escooter isn’t already exempted as an ebike, right? It makes sense that we don’t want people strapping 2-stroke engines to a scooter, modifying them to go 50km/h, or crashing them into people. Gmail’s auto-complete thought I wanted to write “crashing them into people’s cars”. Now, there’s a technology that might need regulation.

You may be too young to remember the newspaper comic B.C. Well, the cavemen in the comic would ride these ridiculous vehicles which were simply a stone wheel with an axle. They made no sense, it was a joke. Now, those vehicles *exist*, and SGI’s Traffic Safety Act is the joke. Making One Wheels, hoverboards, and escooters illegal to use practically everywhere, limiting the amount of vibrancy and fun the people in our province are allowed to have, that’s no joke. That’s an attitude that belongs in the Stone Age.

Sincerely,
John Klein

Regina, SK


P.S. A comic for you:
https://johnhartstudios.com/bc/tag/thor-bc-hybrid-model-wheel-mileage/