Formal Announcement
Those of you following my Twitter feed already know this: I’m moving to Vancouver sometime in this summer for a two-year position at UBC. Expect a dramatic reduction in the number of posts expressing exasperation with local transit planning beginning sometime in July or so. I will try to keep writing about the Northeast and not just about Vancouver.
Pedestrian Observations 
Have fun here in greater Cascadia, and enjoy the “summer” while you can. You should visit Portland in August or September while the weather is beautiful. Let me know if you need a place to stay.
Expect a dramatic reduction in the number of posts expressing exasperation with local transit planning beginning sometime in July or so.
Is that because you’ll be busy, or because you have a less jaded view of the competence of BC transit authorities? 🙂
Anyway, welcome to the Pacific Northwest!
The latter. Translink has reasonable construction costs, and its plans for Broadway rail read like it’s actually going to ask people what they prefer and give them all the relevant facts to make an informed decision. By the standards of the agency turf battles in New York, or the elimination of reasonable alternatives in California, it’s excellent. This does not excuse bad things like putting fare-gates at Skytrain stations, but just because Vancouver isn’t as good as Zurich doesn’t mean it’s as bad as any other North American city.
Also, except for a few brief, intense periods, work is not competing with blogging for time; you wouldn’t be able to guess what my post productive periods are based on post frequency or quality. Remember, I started this blog a few days before my defense.
While this isn’t Translink, this news out of Vancouver ought to be of interest.
Congrats.
If you’re gonna be at UBC, expect exasperation. Train to Seattle? Not really. Transit link from campus? Just a slow-moving bus. Walkability of the suburbs? Between “horrid” and “Dallas North”. (Ok, so that’s really just Langley, but still!)
Then again, there is a lot less to be exasperated about, so I guess you’re still right.
I bet even in Zurich people are exasperated because of their transit system. 😉
At least some are Trolleybuses!
Congratulations. Jobs are always good to get. Who is at UBC? Ghioca?
Yes, Ghioca, but also Bennett.
Congrats. You should also make a point of getting to know Prof. Jinhua Zhao as it relates to your transit interests — perhaps opportunity for some innovative interdepartmental collaboration?!
Interdepartmental collaboration? Umm, planning transit systems to serve cities located on hyperbolic manifolds? Yeah I don’t think that really works.
> Yeah I don’t think that really works
That sort of attitude is how the “ivory tower” earns a reputation for uselessness. You might just as well have stopped that last sentence after the first four words.
Congratulations. Hope the postdoc job shuffle isn’t too disorienting.
Congrats Aalon
Congratulations. Good to hear you’ll still be posting about the Northeast, we really need all the help we can get out here.
Be sure to consider attending…
http://www.velo-city2012.com/
June 26-29