[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Currently designated a "primary bike route" in the city's Active Transportation network, proposed changes to Lower Water Street suggest that HRM has no intention of supporting their own plan."][/caption] HALIFAX - On September 19, 2011, traffic patterns in Downtown Halifax were altered in an attempt to ease congestion in the city's core. In this first of three planned phases, a number of streets that currently allow two-way traffic now only permit one-way traffic (including sections of Blowers, Market, Sackville, George, and Granville streets), while a section of Grafton Street will now allow two-way traffic. Subsequent phases in October and March will see Lower Water Street becoming one-way north bound, signals added to the Duke and Lower Water Street intersection, and bike lanes added to both Lower Water and Hollis streets. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Phase 1 came into affect September 19, 2011. "][/caption] In a report to Council, HRM Staff claim that “the highlight of this plan is the creation of new bike lanes on Hollis Street and Lower Water Street”. Why then does this plan sacrifice the safety of cyclists and efficiency of both its active transportation and public transit network?

SAINT JOHN – We are now a few months into the City of Saint John’s experiment with bike lanes on Main Street in the city’s North End and, from all reports, the world hasn’t ended yet. Traffic has naturally slowed to non-freeway speeds without backing up (or really being noticed at all) and the route sees many cyclists use it every day. It has even been popular enough with pedestrians that the City thought it was necessary to issue a statement saying that the bike lanes are approved for – you guessed it – bicycles only. Too bad for the pedestrians in need of a safer walking route, but that’s another story.

Today, Friday, September 16th, is PARK(ing) Day! In cities around the globe, artists, activists and citizens will transform metered parking spaces into temporary public parks and other social spaces, as part of the annual event. PARK(ing) Day invites people to rethink the way streets are used and promotes discussion around the need for broad- based changes to urban infrastructure. In recent years, PARK(ing) Day has inspired city governments to create legal mechanisms to extend the public realm into the parking lane. In San Francisco, the Pavement to Parks “Parklet” program provides a permit system for businesses, community groups and individuals to transform metered parking spaces into small “parklets” that are open to the public. In New York City the “pop up café” program offers similar permit system for local cafes wishing to offer sidewalk service. A listing of events scheduled for Canadian cities follows. For more information, visit the PARK(ing) Day project website.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is kindly cross-posted from the Halifax Media Co-op. Check out the original here. Also, Spacing Atlantic has created a Facebook Event to easily notify and inform others of the Public Meeting on Bayers Road Expansion, please help us get the word out! https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114181238686810 HALIFAX - There's no way to get around it.  Metro needs better transit. Fortunately, the It's More Than Buses group have big ideas of how to fix that. After several public meetings,  this week they unveiled a proposed High-Frequency Public Transit Network [PDF] and a set of guiding principles. It's an exciting and promising approach led by the Planning and Design Centre (PDC) in Halifax in partnership with Fusion Halifax.  More than 100 members of the urban and suburban public participated in the meetings.  Also present were Eddie Robar, the new head of Metro Transit,  and Richard Butts, HRM's Chief Administrative Officer.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Based on feedback from an earlier post on urban density, Spacing Atlantic will feature one of the top five dense residential neighbourhoods in Atlantic Canada each week. No case of the Mondays here! So, why density? Residential density, the number of people living in a given area, is one of the most important characterisitcs of urban areas. High densities create vibrant streets, support main street commercial areas, and encourage walking, biking and transit use. But how dense should our neighbourhoods be? What types of buildings create high densities? What do high density neighbourhoods look like? Hopefully this series encourages people to look around their neighbourhood and ask: how does density affect the quality of my neighbourhood? Without further ado...

SAINT JOHN - PlanSJ, Saint John's community exercise to produce a new Municipal Plan, is coming under criticism from the region's airport for being 'unnecessarily restrictive' and threatening the airport's long term viability. To survive, the airport hopes to diversify its revenue sources by also becoming an industrial park, and fears that PlanSJ may prevent such development. Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase sounded the alarm bell by suggesting the airport may close in five years if action isn't taken. The presentation to Common Council on Monday is available here [PDF], page 185.

SAINT JOHN - Many characteristics affect the look and feel of urban neighbourhoods. Two very important characteristics are building height and density. They can be related, but people often speak as if tall buildings and high density are the same thing. So what's the difference? Height is easy: a building is so many stories or so many feet tall. People easily understand how big a 16 storey building is. Density – the number of people or housing units in a given area – pardon the pun, is less concrete.

WHAT: It's More Than Buses - Public Forum on Public Transit WHEN: Tuesday, June 28th (July 19 & Sept. 7), 6pm-8pm WHERE: World Trade and Convention Centre HOW MUCH: Free HALIFAX - Waiting for the bus each morning to start my short daily morning commute to work in Downtown Halifax, I observe the regular bottle-necking on Robie Street, whereby cars are narrowly packed together carrying generally one driver each. In much larger cities, transit is used more often by commuters and helps to create a more active, efficient and accessible transit system and urban culture. If you have ever used Metro Transit in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), then you have likely thought of ways that the infrastructure could be improved. As a daily bus commuter, I really enjoy the transit system - but it has only come with time of understanding the way it works in Halifax, particularly, by having a cell phone to check the exact time in which I can expect the bus to arrive. I have also been privy to peoples opinions about the HRM transit system - referencing specifically (in)frequency of buses and (in)consistent schedules.