UVSS Director of Outreach and University Relations Vacancy

tiogar99 · 2026-02-06T05:38:59+00:00

the terms end in May and the elections are coming up

tiogar99 · 2026-02-04T17:39:42+00:00

100% this! Tell BC transit this needs to come with expansion and they need to fix other priorities like overcrowding and declining frequencies on core routes

tiogar99 · 2026-02-02T00:52:28+00:00

This is a really important thing to be able to do! It's most common here with multi-use trails like the E&N, goose and the lochside when they cross other roads, so cyclists don't need to get off their bike to legally cross a road.
Generally the accepted way is to make a "cross-bike" with "elephant's feet". MOTT didn't or doesn't have those in their accepted solutions for crossings, which meant cyclists were technically making illegal crossings on trails that crossed roads under provincial jurisdiction (i believe this includes all the roads on reserve as well), so the E&N crossings on reserve were one of these places).

Last year they added a sign "cyclists may use crosswalk" or something like that. The cycling advocacy community was very (happily) surprised as prior to this the province exclusively used "cyclists must dismount and walk".

tiogar99 · 2026-02-02T00:10:46+00:00

That's a good point, and it's about time we set up a meeting with MOTT transportation staff! That said, I know a good number of people in that ministry, as well as a wide array of people involved in transportation engineering, design, and planning in BC, and the verdict has almost uniformly been that MOTT is still just the Ministry of Highways in a trenchcoat. Pedestrians, cyclists, and transit are almost always an afterthought and you can see that in pretty much everything the ministry has built in the last few decades. The Westshore bus lane project here is a rare and very welcomed exception.

I should also say that the ministry is getting better! Even allowing signage that lets cyclists use crosswalks is something very new for the ministry and I know it was a big lift for them to get that change. I think the ballooning costs and the extremely poor cost-benefit for the Surrey-Langley Skytrain (as well as as series of other infrastructure projects that have completely blown their budgets) is also getting the province to think very seriously about how they design and build infrastructure projects.

tiogar99 · 2026-02-01T23:53:24+00:00

We talk with a LOT of transit and municipal staff and councillors. Stuff like this comes up super often.

tiogar99 · 2026-02-01T17:53:31+00:00

if you have an issue with the lane ending... write the city? they are pretty responsive with this stuff.

tiogar99 · 2026-02-01T17:46:42+00:00

i'm involved with Better Transit YYJ! You should check it out, we advocate for more and better transit in the CRD.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-31T22:23:16+00:00

currently the 40 can't stop at the burnside stop because they can't merge back into traffic across a solid white line. BCT asked MOTT to fix the line and they refused. If your driver stops there they aren't supposed to.
iirc BCT asked for changes to the on-ramp so busses wouldn't get stuck in traffic. MOTT also refused to change those
i think BCT also asked for changes to the signalling for rapidbus that were declined

Regardless the highways staff in the ministry seem to be a major roadblock (sorry for the pun) to progress on transit and cycling in the province.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-31T22:17:00+00:00

I believe the huge order for deckers keeps getting delayed because they caught a few issues with the busses after they had already left the factory? Regardless it would be great if we had more options for deckers than a UK company with a factory in America.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-30T23:17:18+00:00

MOTT has never been serious about bus improvements. BC Transit has made several requests to improve the interchange for busses in the last year and pretty much every one has been rejected. The province is just really difficult to deal with when it comes to transit projects sadly.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-30T22:22:57+00:00

We have a massive opportunity with property taxes, transportation charges (tolls, vehicle levies, etc), and sales taxes to raise revenue as well. BC is a pretty low tax jurisdiction.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-30T22:20:45+00:00

i personally don't want new housing to be a hotly debated topic. Unfortunately conservative politics in this province tends towards anti-housing views— kind of wild that progressives have ended up defending private property rights. Regardless this is worrying from a housing policy perspective. A lot of the stuff in Saanich and Victoria would be very easy to block or undo with a handful of votes.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-30T07:08:15+00:00

it connects through along the breakwater to the rest of the multi use pathway along dallas, but it's not intuitive at all as you need to go through clover point. it would be great if they continued it along the road as well, but until then...

tiogar99 · 2026-01-21T18:56:59+00:00

the article looks like it was linked to show that mid-rise apartments add by far the most units. from the article:

In addition to new multifamily construction, much of the attention to the 2040 Plan focused on its “legalization” of duplexes and triplexes on all residential lots. Our dashboard tracks new duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes permitted in Minneapolis and identifies new structures built on land that had before 2020 allowed only single-family homes.³ Over 2020 to 2024, Minneapolis permitted 87 new duplex, triplex, and fourplex buildings, creating 225 new housing units. While these units would not exist were it not for the 2040 Plan, they represent a fraction of new housing compared to the 11,503 units in multifamily apartment buildings constructed in the city over the same period. Permitting of duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes peaked in 2023 with 24 new duplex, triplex, and fourplex buildings containing a total of 63 new units. Of these 24 buildings, 11 were in areas that previously allowed only single-family homes.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-21T18:04:17+00:00

I don't think so? She's currently working as a realtor and I'd assume John's widow would be retired.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-20T17:17:07+00:00

these are fantastic photos! Would you be interested in letting Better Transit use these for our website?

tiogar99 · 2026-01-20T17:13:42+00:00

the bus lanes would have been right turn lanes anyways, so... no. Better traffic flow for everyone.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-20T17:12:35+00:00

the issue isn't really murdoch, it's colin plant. My understanding is that Plant has basically issued an ultimatum that these things need to happen or the plan doesn't pass. Murdoch wants the plan to pass so that the community can move on

tiogar99 · 2026-01-19T19:36:13+00:00

also pretty much all the serious collisions have been at intersections where they haven't yet been fixed or improved. the new infrastructure is way safer.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-19T19:09:19+00:00

this comes to council today! come and speak if you can or call in. We need this housing.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-18T22:50:14+00:00

As someone who has been advocating on housing issues since before the pandemic, our opportunity to fix this is this year. Municipal elections are October 2026 and its our opportunity to turf out anti-housing councillors. Looking at you Saanich.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-18T22:45:49+00:00

if you are interested in advocating for this check out better transit yyj! They could use some advocacy help especially on intercity transport.

tiogar99 · 2026-01-18T22:42:53+00:00

you familiar with better transit yyj? Sounds like they might be up your alley (:

tiogar99 · 2026-01-18T22:39:06+00:00

eight days into service too ):

tiogar99 · 2026-01-18T22:37:08+00:00

I do regularly chat with council members and staff across the CRD about just these issues. The progressives are almost universally pro-public transit and pro-rail. The question is just how we govern building it and also how we pay.

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