#Montreal was rated #1 bicycle city in North America this year. But the party that won the municipal election in November campaigned on auditing and removing bike lanes. They’ve already started in my borough, #Outremont. So we made our own bike lane this morning. We want, and need, to keep our kids active—and safe.
#Finland will begin to #Russia - proof its rail network, integrate with EU train infrastructure. The Finnish government has announced the conversion of its rail network from Russian gauge (1,524 mm) to European standard (1,435 mm). image
WE WANT TRAINS! The public is sending a message: Amtrak is setting ridership records, carrying 34.5 million passengers in fiscal year 2024-25, while ticket revenue is $2.764 billion. image
Nice detail in #Montréal’s Edouard-Montpetit REM station: natural rock walls. The platforms are 73 metres below the street—height of a 20 storey building. The rock is gabbro, a very hard igneous rock. 100,000 kg of explosives were used to build the station. image
I love that new #transit smell! Getting a press tour of #Montréal’s new REM line this morning. Starting at Edouard-Montpetit station. A clean, light, modern édicule (entry kiosk). And there’s parking for my bicycle… 🧵
Meanwhile, in #Egypt: New high-speed trains unveiled. Will run on 3 lines, with top speeds of 250 km/h (155 mph). Morocco already has a high-speed network; Nigeria is building one. (To Be Filed Under: We Can't Have Nice Things Here...Because Why?) https://www.cnn.com/travel/egypt-high-speed-rail-siemens-velaro-desiro-trains-spc
NEW STUDY: Why's the birthrate so damn low? It's because the rent is too damn high! Bombshell U. of #Toronto study identifies rising housing costs as the the primary driver of falling fertility rates. https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/housing-costs-fertility-rate-falling-study/ image
Here's a public transit model a lot more cities need to know about. It's the #Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. It runs tram-trains, in this metro region of 300,000 in #Germany Outside town, they run as standard commuter trains. Inside town, they operate as trams (streetcars)—no need to change mode. 🧵
Sure, it starts with Mamdani making buses free. Mark my words: pretty soon, all our buses will be driven by pigeons. #socialism image
Along with fellow author J.B. Mackinnon, I've put my name on a class action suit against Anthropic and other A.I. companies. We believe they used our books, and those of 1000s of other authors, to train their LLMs, without permission or payment. Mackinnon gives the whole story in @npub1jv64...3guf : https://macleans.ca/longforms/big-tech-v-me/