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Jim Takes a Bike Share

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Friday, August 21 was the official kickoff day for the the City of Victoria's new E-Bike Share system. Victoria has a municipal election coming up in October, and, unsurprisingly to anyone who has followed the last few municipal elections, social media and the Times Colonist letters page are burning with outrage. Some recent letters are: Not enough parking even before the Lime invasion Why aren’t we using a Canadian company? Paying a high price for the rental e-bikes   What about the people who can’t use e-bikes? Comment: Victoria's taxpayers are subsidizing a U.S. e-bike business   The social media is worse, as usual, and is filled with people drawing equivalences between first generation bike shares (like the abortive U-Bicycle here in Victoria) and modern bikes shares like our new Lime system, and the systems used in places like Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, New York City, Paris, London, etc. Also unsurprisingly, there's a lot of misinformation out there, and I will go t...
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Fleeing by car after disasters—a bad idea

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[The Times Colonist published the following commentary by my wife, Irene. With her permission, I've included it here, with the picture and resource links that were in her original submission, plus a couple of extra links.] The Tsunami Risk Map from The City of Victoria. The safe zone is in green.   Fleeing by car after disasters—a bad idea A commentary by Irene Allen, a resident of Vic West. After the traffic jams accompanying the recent Snowbirds show and David Foster concert, several letters and social media posts have expressed concerns about how people would ­evacuate Victoria by car in the event of a tsunami or earthquake. This assumption that everyone should jump in their car and drive away in the event of a tsunami or earthquake is not only wrong, but will likely get people killed.S A tsunami affecting Victoria due to distant, or even nearby, earthquakes is not going to be a huge wall of water wiping out large swaths of the city as you see in disaster movies. The t...
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The Long and Winding Road: How We Ended Up Not Owning a Car

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My wife and I decided to move to Victoria about a decade ago. We had retired, felt like an adventure, and were looking for a fun, walkable, city. Our move to Victoria has been all of those things, and it's been full of surprises!
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A Letter on Red Light and Speed Cameras

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A letter that I recently sent to the Honourable Nina Krieger, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. The letter advocates for more red light and speed cameras in the City of Victoria. This is a companion post to  A Well Documented Crash: Johnson Street Bridge, July 5, 2022.
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A Well Documented Crash: Johnson Street Bridge, July 5, 2022

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This post is a deep dive into the moments leading up to the driver of a semi-truck hitting a person on a bicycle back in July of 2022. Unusually, the crash was caught on a webcam. The events leading to the crash suggest a pressing need for red light and speed cameras in Victoria. This is a companion post to  A Letter on Red Light and Speed Cameras.
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Homes, History, and the OCP

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Built in 1978 Setting the Stage This evening, the Victoria BC Council will be holding the third, and hopefully the last, day of their public hearing for their 10-year OCP Update. In British Columbia, where I live, municipalities are required to adopt an  Official Community Plan,  or OCP.  According to the province: Official community plans describe the long-term vision of communities. They are a statement of objectives and policies that guide decisions on municipal and regional district planning and land use management. These decisions impact communities' sustainability and resilience. The province changed some of the rules around OCPs as part of their recent housing reforms. Among other things: They have to be updated every five years (down from every ten). They must be aligned with the municipality's Housing Needs Report (HNRs), which identify housing requirements over a 20-year period. They must designate enough land for development to meet the anticipated housing nee...
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