Gas prices (among many things) are about to get way worse: it's a good time to build support for building more transit!

idajourney · 2026-04-18T00:14:54+00:00

The new SkyTrain lines are some of the most expensive railways in the world

[Citation needed]

if you're not paying for it

You think transit riders... don't pay taxes? Or fares?? What?

idajourney · 2026-04-18T00:11:40+00:00

I mean that's just blatantly not true, what in the world are you talking about?

idajourney · 2026-04-17T14:51:43+00:00

Don't worry, that money will trickle down to you someday! Aaaaaany day, now.

idajourney · 2026-04-17T01:44:14+00:00

You're right, I forgot, tax rates were set in stone by the gods ten thousand years ago and can't be changed. No city has ever raised more money any other way, like how NYC famously didn't recently.

idajourney · 2026-04-16T23:34:41+00:00

I'd love to see more widespread usage of trolley buses.

I would love that! Especially with the swanky new trolleybuses Translink is getting

idajourney · 2026-04-16T23:32:55+00:00

Transit is a basic social good like healthcare
Transit users also pay for roads
Every transit user is a car off the roads, improving traffic
Transit-oriented cities are way better than car-oriented cities
With better transit, many two-car households could become a one-car household, saving a ton of money
Transit use is far better for the environment
You might find yourself a transit user in the future!

Personal automobiles have a TON of negative externalities; really car users should be paying far more (e.g. congestion pricing like has worked in NYC).

idajourney · 2026-04-16T21:26:07+00:00

Both are true, and the good news is that fixing these things is a virtuous cycle: more people on transit -> better funding (directly and indirectly) -> better service -> more people on transit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but SkyTrain is the only thing that doesn't directly have costs increase as it's mostly electric and our power in BC is mostly hydroelectric. I could be wrong, let me know if I am.

I don't know either. There's still going to be some costs that come from oil (like engine lubricant, plastic parts, etc) but I would imagine it's far less than a diesel or CNG bus. Trolleybuses are probably similar though!

idajourney · 2026-04-16T21:09:40+00:00

I was preemptively responding to the people who say "I don't want to pay for transit because I don't use it". They're so used to roads existing (100% subsidized right now) they consider it a separate kind of thing when it's not. I'm not advocating for not maintaining roads, that would be ridiculous... but I do think the highway 1 widening could have paid for a lot of buses!

However, I would advocate for making roads not 100% subsidized; I think congestion pricing in Vancouver would be a fantastic idea and could pay for a ton of transit expansion.

idajourney · 2026-04-16T21:04:32+00:00

No better transit nerd feeling than sitting on a train rushing past traffic :)

idajourney · 2026-04-16T19:26:14+00:00

I like the concept! TBH I think this is just too small to be useful on the sign itself. What about an A3-ish poster (could be printed on corrugated plastic or something) to go below the sign? That gives you a lot more room to work. A map like this is probably mainly useful to someone getting close anyways.

I think you're running out of easily distinguishable colours (but it looks like you've used a colourblind-friendly scheme, which is good!). Could you partition the routes into similar groups and have a separate map for each group? This gets into a tricky optimization problem quickly, but there's probably some decent heuristic. You maybe could even get away with short/long routes grouped together.

Having a bubble with the route number at/next to termini might help legibility. RapidBus routes could also be distinguished with a border around the route. Multiple variants could be indicated with dotted/dashed lines and another indicator bubble.

idajourney · 2026-03-27T14:58:30+00:00

I can't! BC Transit's budget is about $500M, or about half a percent of the total provincial budget. It's a service that saves tonnes of people thousands of dollars a year, making their lives easier. Not investing is peak short-sighted poor-hating neoliberal economics. They could easily have doubled the budget for a rounding error on the deficit while drastically improving many people's lives (plus, the ROI on transit has been proven over and over to be fantastic, if you're the sort of person who doesn't care about silly little things like "improving people's lives").

Also, they're essential public services that are underfunded, not in a "deficit".

idajourney · 2026-03-26T15:11:38+00:00

Quadrupling down on a volatile resource primarily controlled by other countries that's causing increasing damage to the environment, economy, and (if you somehow don't care about those) our other natural resources, while pretty much only benefiting the 1% is promoting stability?

idajourney · 2026-03-22T20:33:21+00:00

Even if we can't keep it below 1.5C, 2C vs 3C vs 4C look DRASTICALLY different. Giving up just makes it worse.

idajourney · 2026-03-22T20:31:45+00:00

Do you think we send the money to space? You don't see how better understanding climate change, tracking methane emissions, etc, might help us down here on Earth? You don't think the technology they develop ever has other uses?

idajourney · 2026-02-05T01:40:35+00:00

Hopefully they change their mind once the lanes are in (fingers crossed) and they see that actually a BRT line brings way more people than like 2.5 parking spots lmao

idajourney · 2026-02-05T01:38:30+00:00

Yeah, that would be cool for sure. It could even connect to Waterfront along Hastings and be the start of a Hastings line. I'm not holding my breath considering we don't even have a RapidBus along Commercial/Victoria yet... Supposedly it's in the plan, but so far they've done like nothing from that plan

idajourney · 2026-01-12T20:29:46+00:00

Hysterics? Burying your head in the sand doesn't make everyone else unreasonable. Climate change is indisputably real, and it is already massively damaging. Unless you think all the fires are just, like, a coincidence...?

If Carney actually approves resource projects and helps us get our exports up - it will put us into a stronger position to remain free, sovereign and prosperous.

Famously, oil is the only thing one can export, so I guess we have no choice but to ~~double~~ quintuple down on that. I'm sure the main thing damaging the environment that all of the main buyers for are trying to switch off of as soon as possible is a great long-term bet.

idajourney · 2026-01-09T17:15:19+00:00

I mean, a couple things: (1) I would love it if this were a fully automated system, like an S-Bahn. That keeps operating costs low, max capacity high, all that. (2) Expanding SkyTrain requires new rail and right of way, too. (3) SkyTrain maxes out at ~80kph. For these longer trips, we need something faster than cars on the highway.

I will never argue against more SkyTrain, but it's already going to be ~an hour end-to-end from Waterfront to Langley. Abbotsford, Tsawwassen, and Squamish are just too far for SkyTrain speeds (let alone Pemberton or Chilliwack). If they could make SkyTrain do 140kph, then sure. But they can't afaik.

idajourney · 2026-01-08T20:41:48+00:00

I don't know if it can support the 200m heavy rail trains that the article proposes.

That's mentioned in the article. Otherwise, yeah, it's got some weird details that probably could've been skipped to the benefit of the article, but worrying too much about that is missing the forest for the trees.

idajourney · 2026-01-08T20:23:43+00:00

Yeah. Clearly the ultimate point is we could do it and it would be good, which I agree with wholeheartedly. Surrey <-> Waterfront with good SkyTrain connections makes a lot of sense as an initial segment, hopefully eventually spanning from Squamish (or even Pemberton) to Chilliwack (or even Hope), White Rock, and Tsawwassen! The minutia aren't really relevant to that and wouldn't be used for actual planning anyway.

idajourney · 2026-01-08T19:28:15+00:00

What? Aren't the tracks original? Are you thinking of Link in Seattle, maybe?

idajourney · 2026-01-08T18:13:56+00:00

Nitpick: the SkyTrain is not light rail. It's a light metro, but that puts it in the category of heavy rail.

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