Sasha on the Street

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 [...]

To continue from the other day, our warming climate will drastically change how we design highway infrastructure. Cindy Burbank then took over the presentation. Her presentation highlighted 5 main topics Climate change science, sources and trends The importance of climate change to the state DOTs Strategies to reduce GHG emissions from transportation Climate adaptation for [...]

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 [...]

The angry environmentalist came out in me yesterday. I had ultimate frisbee last night at Sunnybrook Park (NOT transit friendly) so my bf and I decided to carpool – I would bike to work in the morning than bike over to his office to head over together. I was so caught off guard when I [...]

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 [...]

Have you ever been driving home during rush-hour wondering why it is taking so long to get through the traffic light? Through a busy interchange? Only to see it open up and you travel along smoothly for a few minutes or the rest of the way to your destination. Frustrating as it may be it’s [...]

It’s that time of the year when students are scrambling to pick their courses for the year (myself included). What courses do they take that both inspire them and open up doors for their future working careers? When looking at the courses available this morning I was required to request permission from the instructor to [...]

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 [...]

Thanks to RenewCanada I had the unique opportunity to attend the Strategy Institute’s conference on The Future of Canada’s Infrastructure. The two days started with a keynote address from the Assistant Chief planner of the Directorate for the Built Environment of the Scottish Government and the remainder was filled with presentations about the current practices [...]

That is the slogan for the 2009 Pollution Probe Clean Air Commute Week; contribute nothing to pollution. It is an attempt to get individuals to re-think how they travel to work everyday. Instead of driving, carpool, drive a hybrid, bike, walk, take transit or telecommute. I started my week off by riding my bike to [...]