Category: roads

City Hall, cycling in Ottawa, roads

Gov’t Downsizing

Westsideaction

These mini-traffic lights were on a post in Gatineau. I could not determine if they were for cyclists. Or pedestrians. Or if they went off and on with the bigger lights. I recall seeing these everywhere in France, but that is because they skip the big light fixtures on the far side of the intersection in favour of big ones over the stop line only. The plethora of push buttons didn’t make it any clearer. I eventually walked my bike across against a red light (I was on a bike path detour that led me to the intersection and abandonned … Continue reading Gov’t Downsizing

roads

Rational Road Pricing

Westsideaction

Back in the 80’s I worked at Transport Canada doing strategic planning and policy advice. A big study back then was on Rational Road Pricing, by Zeiss Haritos. My memory of the study is this: the basic principle was to take the gas tax, subtract the portion that was equivalent to the general sales tax rates (since fuel should not be exempt from general tax revenue) and attribute the rest as revenue required to build and maintain the road network. From there, compare what all levels of governments spend annually on roads with revenues earned. Of course, there are many complicating … Continue reading Rational Road Pricing