Sasha on the Street

Greenroads. GreenLITES. CEEQUAL. These are all sustainable highway tools already in place and there are even more in development. What this hopefully means is that in the future our roads, highways and bridges will have a context sensitive design that meets the three pillars of sustainability; social, economic and environmental factors. Different government agencies are [...]

The Globe and Mail published an article on making gridlock /congestion /traffic a federal election issue through the use of social media, using #CutMyCommute. Burdened by long drives from home-to-work, home-to-shop, home-to-wherever, commuters believe they should be heard, and they have the support of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Gridlock isn’t the issue. The issue [...]

I happened to be driving down the Allen Expressway when Toronto mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi announced that if he’s elected he will propose the extension of the Allen Expressway from it’s terminus at Eglinton down to the Gardiner Expressway. His vision is to tunnel from the existing terminus down to the Gardiner. (Uhhh… the Gardiner [...]

Toronto has been said to have two seasons ‘Winter’ and ‘Construction.’ On this hot, humid, sticky day traveling through the Toronto area I noticed that there seems to be even more construction. It seems like most north-south routes through the core of the city are under construction (Bayview, Mount Pleasant, Yonge and Avenue). And a [...]

This week my good friend Dave sent me this amazing and hilarious video about a new road sign. In the video the trade-off between safety and efficiency (carbon footprint) is discussed. Although it seems a little far fetched, I’m sure we’ll see something like it in the future.

Last week I sat in on a webinar jointly hosted by AASHTO/FHWA/FTA on climate change and transportation; Climate Change 101: An Overview of Climate Change for State DOTS – An overview of climate change science, linkages to energy security, greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction strategies for Surface Transportation and risk-based adaptation to climate change. This presentation [...]

Not surprisingly there was another traffic accident on highway 401 this morning. It was almost in the centre of Toronto, in the Yonge Westbound Express lanes. As reported by CP24 a tractor trailer plowed into the guard rail dumping 200 litres of diesel fuel across the highway and seriously damaging the guardrail. The result for [...]

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on perpetual pavements. With a panel of experts on pavements they made a convincing case for asphalt roads. What is a perpetual pavement? Defined by the Washington Asphalt Pavement Association, “a perpetual pavement is an asphalt pavement designed and built to last longer than 50 [...]

Asphalt Roads versus Concrete Roads … what is better long term? There is no easy way to answer this question; it depends on the climate the roads are subjected to, the traffic volumes, the maintenance contracts, etc. But yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a seminar that shifted my preference to concrete roads. What [...]

Yesterday I happened to be on the Gardiner when the Tamil Protesters took over. I narrowly escaped and managed to make it to my mother’s day dinner on-time. I do feel for the protesters but holding a city hostage is no way to have your cause heard. I think the social injustice in countries like [...]