Ruofan 🚎

@ruofan

Transit planner in Vancouver, still a Montrealer at heart. Cyclist, road safety advocate, pro-housing urbanist and indiehead. Opinions my own - he/him

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Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir ruofan.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· 18d

The same one that erected a gated border fence along its entire border with Pierrefonds?

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· 19d

Putting aside that this is slopulism that will make parking availability worse, it bears noting that the reason there's paid parking in front of beaches and community centres in the first place is that Vancouver Liberal park commissioners Scott Jensen and Brennan Bastyovanszky made it so.

Screenshot of Park Board meeting minutes from May 6, 2024 where Cmm'rs Jensen and Bastyovanszky vote to enact paid parking at Spanish Banks Beach

Screenshot of Park Board meeting minutes from October 20, 2025 where Cmm'rs Jensen and Bastyovanszky vote to enact paid parking at Langara Golf Course, VanDusen Botanical Garden, and Hillcrest, Kerrisdale and Trout Lake Community Centres

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· 19d

Got to try out the new Solaris trolleybus today. It was a smooth ride and the AC is going to be a godsend in the summer. Very excited for it to enter service!

New Solaris trolleybus at Nanaimo Station

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· 20d

I think there's at least one good reason not to do this: it makes the sidewalk harder to navigate if you have a visual impairment. Best practice is to keep the clear zone of the sidewalk as straight as possible and parallel to the road. Per the BC Active Transportation Design Guide:

The Pedestrian Through Zone should have a straight and consistent alignment, with continuity maintained across driveways, intersections, and other conflict
zones. Generally, the Pedestrian Through Zone should be aligned parallel to the road centreline or the property line. This continuity helps to improve

navigation and wayfinding for people who are visually impaired. In constrained contexts, the Pedestrian Through Zone may need to occasionally meander
around obstacles, but this should be avoided wherever possible. However, meandering or curvilinear sidewalks
may be used to mitigate long sustained steep grades. Driveways across the Pedestrian Through Zone should
be limited to minimize disruptions. Design guidance for driveway crossings is provided later in this chapter.

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· 28d

You know, sitting in the antechamber listening to the opponents' colour commentary, I'm starting to agree with Michael Geller about the benefits of watching public hearings at home.

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· 28d

So this isn't good. ABC (+Fry and Bligh) introduced an amendment to the Vancouver General Hospital campus report to order staff to study demolishing the 10th Avenue bike lane in front of VGH and rebuilding it on the north side. They say it's to reduce conflict, but the data says otherwise.

FURTHER THAT Council direct staff to continue discussions with VGH regarding options to mitigate pedestrian/cyclist/emergency vehicle conflicts within the VGH campus, including consideration for a bi-directional bike lane on the north side of West 10th Avenue and one way vehicle traffic.

Voting screen with ABC, Fry and Bligh in favour, Maloney against, Orr abstaining

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jul 4

The RCMP would like to remind you that the highway shoulder is a very dangerous place to be full of debris and garbage. Good thing we keep putting our bike lanes there rcmp.ca/en/bc/bchp/n...

“Passing on the right enrages other motorists, but that’s not the main reason that it’s illegal,” says Corporal Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol. “The side of the road has rocks, sand, garbage, shredded truck tires and other hazards, and if someone pulls off the road suddenly, you could end up badly hurt or worse.”

Screenshot of bike lane on WB South Fraser Perimeter Road, between Tannery Rd and the Alex Fraser Bridge, with a tractor-trailer driving over the line

Screenshot of bike lane on WB Upper Levels Hwy at Exit 10 in West Vancouver crossing an off-ramp

Screenshot of bike lane on WB Barnet Hwy near Barnet Marine Park, obstructed by a portable LED message board

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jul 1

Didn't know until today how beautifully Alder frames Vancouver House at sunset. This is way more interesting than a view cone!

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jun 29

Most companies sponsoring FIFA probably aren't getting their money's worth, since I doubt anyone sees a Visa FIFA ad and goes "I should get a credit card". But I have to say Michelob Ultra is really getting incredible value for its money. I've never seen it in Canada before and now it's everywhere.

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jun 15

Is there any sewage pipe in the world with a more beautiful sunset view than the Iona jetty?

View of the sunset over the Sunshine Coast from Iona jetty

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jun 13

Granville is really lively and popular, and people keep stopping just to take pictures. Let's keep it this way! A 24h bar street is a perfect candidate for a permanent pedestrian space, and the Seymour/Howe bus lanes are working well other than some kinks with the stop in front of the Art Gallery.

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jun 8

Today I took one of the weirdest bike routes in Metro Vancouver. It's so circuitous that it makes 45th Avenue look like an airport runway, has a stop sign every block, and doesn't have a safe crossing of a single arterial it crosses. Not sure why anyone would take it over Railway or the West Dyke...

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jun 8

A modest proposal

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jun 3

The new bike lane on the stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge is really cool, it's nicely wide and flat. The connections on the Surrey side still need some work, but hopefully they'll get to it after the bridge is complete

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Jun 2

high speed rail terminus should be at the cheesecake factory, says cheesecake factory ceo

High-speed rail terminus station should be at Vancouver International Airport, says YVR CEO

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 29

Recently got my hands on a gorgeous 1977(?) Raleigh Supercourse aluminum road bike whose previous owner modified it with bar-end shifters (the best configuration!). Can't wait to take it out for a spin

A red 1977 Raleigh Supercourse road bike

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 28

I'm not sure this is a fair translation of a common idiomatic phrase without any violent connotations that just means wealth redistribution. It's not really any different than "kill two birds with one stone". Here's a Baidu Baike extract on the entirely figurative meaning of this phrase:

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 27

Apparently Mike Klassen blocked me for what (I think at least) is fairly tame criticism of his votes

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 22

I spoke to Vancouver council tonight in opposition to this motion. ABC can't claim that allowing methane in homes is a pro-housing measure, then immediately move to savage multiplexes to cater to quell specious aesthetic concerns. Part of my remarks:

An hour ago, this Council voted to allow natural gas back into buildings on the false notion that it would unlock housing supply and widen the pipeline for new homes (pun intended).

To be frank, this had no basis in evidence. But nonetheless, you persisted because you said it’s important to create more housing faster and unlock choice for consumers.

I strongly disagree with that vote, but I agree with that philosophy. We need to build housing faster, and this Council should employ the tools at its disposal to do so.

Which is why this motion, as presented, is the height of hypocrisy.

One hour ago, you were willing to move hell and high water—to jettison all of Vancouver’s climate leadership—on a measure that has almost no effect on the housing pipeline and that creates immense regulatory uncertainty.

And now suddenly it’s all about balance. About protecting the views and context sensitivity for existing residents. About, in the words of several speakers tonight, preventing “monstrous” multiplexes.

This is not balance. This is abject surrender.

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 20

I love this delightfully old-fashioned question on the City of New West's 311 form

What type of computer are you using? PC/IBM compatible, Mac, or Don't know

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 20

La vraie capitale de l'urbanisme canadien

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 19

Who else likes biking in the construction equipment storage lane?

A portable LED announcement sign blocking the bike lane on Barnet Highway, Burnaby, BC

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 17

For some reason Vancouver seems to have a single American NACTO-style bike cross-ride. It's located on the mostly useless Alberni St bike lane where it crosses a random driveway.

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 8

Apparently last year, the government of Madagascar was overthrown by a human resources department

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 7

@lucymaloney.bsky.social brought an amendment to ask staff if introducing food delivery robots onto the narrow and overcrowded sidewalks of Kits and the West End will create a barrier to accessibility for blind people and wheelchair users, as the CNIB has repeatedly said. ABC voted it down.

THAT Council refer the motion entitled “Implementing a Robotic Food Delivery Pilot in the City of Vancouver” to staff for consideration of the legal implications for denial of access to sidewalk facilities for people with disabilities under the Human Rights Code, in light of the opposition of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to sidewalk robots and recent Human Rights Tribunal decisions about sidewalk safety.

Voting screen showing Fry, Orr, Maloney in support, Bligh abstaining and ABC against

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 5

I think most systems that use exit numbers mark them in a way that makes them much more distinct from the line numbers. I think Montreal's implementation is quite elegant.

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 3

This Harbour Air ad is the most personally offensive ad I've ever seen

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· May 1

The only reason I even know about the census is because I saw this trailer at Confederation Park last week

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Apr 22

That just seems cruel

A spokesperson for BC Premier David Eby said the six foot seven leader flies commercial economy within Canada

Ruofan 🚎@ruofan· Apr 22

I put all my Strava rides onto a heatmap and can you tell I always get confused about how to stay on Heather?