Tunnel Visions: Vancouver's SkyTrain

Every once in a while, Acts of Minor Treason hops out of Toronto, lands in some other city with some other light- or heavy-rail transit system, and looks at different ways of getting around on two rails, whether it's on the ground, under it, or above it all.

The other day, a friend of mine summed up one of the problems Canada faces, and continues to face - at some point in the recent past, it's as if this country decided that it was totally awesome, and as such didn't need to do anything anymore. This attitude on the part of our leadership is particularly obvious in spheres like transportation. While there are a number of cities that could support transit systems more extensive than bus-only operations, rail-based transit is limited in the lands of the Maple Leaf. In fact, there's only one significant system that wasn't around when I was born (1982). In previous Tunnel Visions installments I've taken you through the Toronto subway and the Montreal Metro. Today, I'll give you a look at the country's most recent rapid transit network¹, the SkyTrain in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Like the Montreal Metro, I actually had some brief measure of experience with this system before I set out to review it earlier this year. Back in 1991, my grandfather and I travelled to Vancouver on what was to be our last significant vacation together, and I still have some vague memories of my eight-year-old self riding Vancouver's elevated rails. Going back there and riding the SkyTrain again was familiar and comfortable, not only because of that experience but thanks to the very nature of the system. It uses the same ICTS technology as the Scarborough RT here in Toronto, but unlike the Scarborough RT, the SkyTrain forms the backbone of rapid transit service in metropolitan Vancouver. With the opening of the Canada Line in 2009, the country's most recent commitment to higher-order transit, the SkyTrain is working to make the city work.

It doesn't spend very much time underground, either. Aside from the downtown component of the Expo/Millennium shared trackage and the first half of the new Canada Line, it runs on the elevated rails that give the system its name - and all the better for it. Between the mountains and the endless sea, Vancouver's a city that's meant to be seen and appreciated and not just tunneled under.

Really - it's a train, in the sky. Don't you want to know more?

System

A Mark I train pulls west out of Commercial-Broadway Station in the Grandview Cut, with cars in old BC Transit and modern SkyTrain liveries. Considering the amount of people still on the platform, it may well be a Millennium Line train bound for VCC-Clark.

Like so many other things I have an inexplicable fondness for, the SkyTrain is a product of the 1980s. While it's been the anchor of the Canadian West for a while - though Calgary may disagree - for decades after Vancouver ripped up its streetcar network and while Toronto and Montreal built and ran their own metro systems, it made do with buses alone. This changed with Expo 86, held in Vancouver from May 2 to October 13, 1986, based on the theme "Transportation and Communication: World in Motion." In other words, the perfect excuse for the Urban Transportation Development Corporation, the maker of Toronto's streetcars, to show off the Intermediate Capacity Transit System it had been polishing since the 1970s. The original spine of the system, beginning in downtown Vancouver and terminating in New Westminster, was finished in 1985 with six months to spare before the Expo crowds arrived, and nine months after the same trains had started to run in Scarborough.

Unlike its neglected sibling in Scarborough, the SkyTrain is an extensive rapid transit network befitting a major city - 68.7 kilometers of track, just a stone's throw on Phobos² shorter than the Toronto subway and RT. While Toronto's system has sixty-nine stations spread across the city, SkyTrain stops tend to be more widely spaced - forty-seven in total provide service in the cities of Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, and Surrey. It's divided into three lines - the Expo Line from Waterfront Station to King George Station in Surrey; the Millennium Line, which shares track with the Expo Line as far east as Columbia Station in New Westminster, and then curves north and back west to VCC-Clark Station in Vancouver; and the Canada Line, opened in 2009 in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which runs south from downtown Vancouver to Vancouver International Airpoirt and the city of Richmond.

The Canada Line service to the airport was an excellent way to be re-introduced to the system. Chicago is the only other city I've written about that had a direct rapid transit connection with the airport by way of the Orange Line to Midway or the Blue Line to O'Hare - Los Angeles, Toronto, and Montreal all rely on bus connections to subway or light rail lines. From the arrivals terminal at YVR, it's only a short walk to the platform of YVR-Airport station - there's only one platform, and considering that the airport itself is directly behind it, they'd have to do some funky planning in order to extend it any further.

Indubitably, this is the end of the line.

While it's all officially considered one SkyTrain, the lines aren't all interchangeable. The Canada Line stands particularly apart from the remainder of the system; its only physical connection with the Expo and Millennium Lines, through Waterfront Station, is in its own fare-paid zone, and the Expo and Millennium trains are incapable of running on Canada Line track. This even extends as far as signage - whether it's the stations or the jackets of on-duty personnel, there's only the Canada Line logo. The in-station announcements remind you that there is no smoking on the Canada Line - it's doubtful the implication is that smoking is acceptable on the Expo and Millennium Lines, but the specificity struck me as a bit odd when other systems have system-wide announcements. The only time I ever heard "SkyTrain" officially applied to the line was by a bus automated stop announcement. It seems more like a confederacy of lines than a single, unified system - almost like the Philadelphia subway.

As far as fares go, they weren't exactly bank-breaking, but I did have to pay more attention to them than in the other cities I've visited. TransLink, the agency in charge of the SkyTrain, SeaBus, and Metro Vancouver bus network, divides Metro Vancouver into three fare zones: the city of Vancouver itself is zone 1, the inner-ring suburbs of Richmond, New Westminster, Burnaby, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver are zone 2, and the areas beyond are in zone 3. What's important to note is that the SkyTrain is also subject to the fare zones, rather than being in its own unified fare zone - such as the Toronto subway before the elimination of fare boundaries in the 1970s. Thankfully, if you're holding a DayPass you won't have to worry about stumbling over a fare boundary; they cost $9 ($10 if you're paying cash, for some damn reason), and the fare zone system itself is only in force before 6:30 PM on non-holiday weekdays. One-zone and multiple-zone tickets are available for purchase at ticket vending machines within the stations.

An important note, though, to anyone flying into Vancouver International Airport and taking the SkyTrain out: it is most likely worth your while to purchase a DayPass outside YVR-Airport station, because of the wonderful thing called the "Airport AddFare," which puts an extra $5 charge on fares other than prepaid tickets and passes bought at any of the three Canada Line stations in the Airport Zone.

A selection of SkyTrain ticket receipts from August 1991. Adjusted for inflation - it's actually not that much more expensive today.

Despite the poor economic climate, the system remains primed for further expansion. Recent comments from the British Columbia government suggest that the Evergreen Line, extending from Burnaby to Port Coquitlam via Port Moody and Coquitlam, will along with an extension of the Expo Line deeper into Surrey be the next construction priority. Where the money will come from for this hasn't really been specified - though considering that construction is to begin in "early 2011," I suppose we'll find out soon whether or not there's any feasibility behind the government projections. After all, wasn't Transit City supposed to be totally done by 2018 at one point?

Stations

The kiosk of Burrard Station in downtown Vancouver. Many bus and trolley routes begin and end here.

Appropriately enough, considering the nature of its origins, there's a pervasive '80s style throughout the original SkyTrain network - or at least that's what I picked up on, and I can't be sure if it was just that I knew it had been built then. Something about the original stations speaks to that era for me, though, and it's an aesthetic that I don't recall encountering in other cities. Maybe it's the style of the signage or the smooth white walls or something else I never consciously picked up on. I don't know what it is, but it's there, I swear it.

It could be the art. Public art, though not ubiquitous, is common throughout the SkyTrain system, though much of it takes the shape of sculpture and statuary immediately outside the station rather than the "art on the platforms" style that's more common in Toronto, Montreal, or Los Angeles. From the leaping dolphin outside the greenhouse-like kiosk of Burrard Station to the huge, hollow bronze heads under the elevated track at Lansdowne Station - presumably the bodily remains of the vengeful gods that TransLink had to defeat in order to build the Canada Line - it combines well with the large public art program Vancouver is currently running. Though those laughing statues they've got at Denman and Davie seriously creep me the hell out.

Much like in Los Angeles, the relatively salubrious climate of Vancouver appears to have greatly influenced the design of its stations - but, then again, many of the elevated stations are obvious cousins of Chicago 'L' stops, to degrees open to the environment and on occasion with roofs that don't cover the entire platform. Many stations on the SkyTrain and Canada Lines lack doors altogether, and if it wasn't for the rarity of snow - indeed, the rarity of below-freezing days - in Vancouver, they might not be the most pleasant places to wait for a train. Indeed, I hear that on those rare occasions where Vancouver gets a significant snowfall, the SkyTrain has a tendency to shut down until the flakes can be cleared.

Not that, from appearances, the entire system would be affected by a minor obstruction in one particular area. There look to be multiple cross-switches across the system by which trains would be able to switch from one set of tracks to the other - at least, this is what they look like. I can't be sure if they actually can be used for that, but it wouldn't really make much sense otherwise, would it? In any event, during my eight days in Vancouver I never found myself on a short-turned SkyTrain, itself a welcome break from my Toronto experiences.

What really struck me as odd were the split platforms, a setup where each track feeds into a platform on a separate level. Though it's not like I've never seen them - Wilshire/Vermont Station on the Los Angeles County Metro Rail is set up like this, and Montreal Metro transfer stations use an adaptation of the underlying philosophy - their frequency in Vancouver is what I found odd. Granville, Burrard, and King Edward all have split platforms, and those are just the ones I remember.³ Really, I wonder why they were built like this - these are all underground stations. Would it really be cheaper, or geologically necessary, to do them that way? It'd have to be, otherwise it'd make no sense at all.

More sensible was what I found in most of the Canada Line stations - remote check-in terminals for airport departures, assumping you're flying Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, Horizon Air, Korean Air, Lufthansa, United, US Airways, or WestJet. There was a similar terminal in the lobby of the hotel I stayed at, and while I did my check-in online, I can see the convenience factor there. The machines do stand as a reminder, though, that if not for the airport and the impetus of the Olympics, the Canada Line might have been pushed back into the uncertain future.

A Vancouver International Airport check-in kiosk in Broadway-City Hall station on the Canada Line, a convenience for passengers hurrying to catch their flights. You had better find this photograph worthwhile, since I was (briefly) questioned by a South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service officer as to why I was taking it.

On the whole, I got the impression that the stations tend to stand slightly apart from their surroundings - in that there's very little integration. Take, for example, the situation of Granville Station and Vancouver City Centre station, the latter serving Canada Line trains. They are literally right across an intersection from one another, and yet there's no physical connection between them - anyone wanting to transfer between lines there would have to leave the station, cross Granville Street, descend into the second station and cross another fare boundary. Coming from Toronto, where there's an in-station transfer so long that it was originally envisioned as two separate stations, it seems odd. That's not to say that it doesn't happen - it's certainly the case at Commercial-Broadway, for transfers between eastbound Expo and Millennium trains and westbound Millennium trains.

Equipment

A Canada Line train at Marine Drive Station takes in the last bit of sky before diving into the tunnel that will take it the rest of the way to Waterfront.

No matter how you want to phrase it, regardless of the degree to which it's concealed behind technical bafflegab like "automatic train operation" or the like, there's one thing you need to know - the SkyTrain is driven by robots. In fact, you could go so far as to say that the trains themselves are robots. In this, as in so many other aspects of the place, Vancouver more than lives up to its appearance as the world-renowned city of the future. It is, in fact, the longest driverless rail system on Earth, and the only one of its kind in Canada.

There are three different types of rolling stock in use on the SkyTrain, split between the Expo/Millennium Lines and the Canada Line. On the original network you'll find Mark I and Mark II ICTS trains - the Mark Is will be familiar to anyone who's used the Scarborough RT, and in fact some of Vancouver's current Mark Is are slated to be sold to Toronto in the near future to shore up service on the RT until it can be converted to LRT, and the Mark IIs are larger, roomier, more streamlined and futuristic-looking improvements on that standard. On the Canada Line trains are comprised of Hyundai Rotem EMU cars, and they're considerably larger than individual ICTS cars - this is the reason why there's no intercompatibility between the Canada Line and the remainder of the system. Their internal dimensions are far closer to traditional heavy rail - advantageous when you consider how many luggage-toting folk are using it to get to the airport.

All of the trains, as a result of being automated, are totally open. In my opinion this openness is used to the best degree on Mark II ICTS trains, where a single "railfan seat" is installed in front of the window providing an operator's-eye view of the track - on the other models, you'd just have to stand in front of the window, but the concept remains the same. Compare this to Toronto, where the new Toronto Rocket subway cars will have their fronts entirely enclosed by the operator's cabin, denying passengers a view ahead. Because god forbid anyone ever get excited about the prospect of riding a rapid transit vehicle.

The forward view from the "railfan seat" on a Millennium Line train, somewhere in Coquitlam.

Vancouver's geography means that, among other things, its summers do not tend to be as punishing as those visited on Toronto, Montreal, and other cities in the humid continental climate zone. This may be why newer trains have air conditioning within, while the Mark Is do not. Still, I never really encountered horrible overcrowding within the trains in the time I was there; particularly between Vancouver and New Westminster, the interlining between the Expo and Millennium Lines west of Columbia Station would have a great deal to do with that. Since one or the other ends up coming about every two minutes, Waterfront-bound, the SkyTrain manages to regularly outdo the Toronto subway in that regard. The only particularly long headways in the system are found toward the ends of the Canada Line, where as a result of the line branching at Bridgeport Station, trains may only come every ten minutes or so.

Ease of Access and Ease of Use

Ticket vending machines and a ticket validator at the Lonsdale Quay SeaBus terminal in North Vancouver - technically speaking, not a SkyTrain station.

As befitting its architecture and the general cultural vibe I got from Vancouver as a whole, SkyTrain stations are open in terms of access - there are no physical fare barriers, and the only turnstiles I found in the whole system were those regulating access to the SeaBus terminals at Lonsdale Quay and Waterfront Station, and even those are meant to ensure that the ferries don't exceed safe capacity. While Canada Line and Millennium Line stations were built so that fare gates could easily be installed, for now it looks like there's no push to actually switch from the proof-of-payment honor system.

Unlike Los Angeles, the other proof-of-payment system I'm familiar with, fare enforcement is far more hidden. The only time I really encountered transit police was the time I had to justify taking photos of the airline check-in terminal, and I never saw them actually conducting inspections - whereas in LA, I crossed paths with a Sheriff pretty much every other day. Personally, I was never too certain about how the validators worked, and so even though I carried DayPasses I would feed it into those blue machines whenever I crossed a new fare boundary. Best, I figured, to establish a habit - though I did notice that no one else seemed to do it. They probably knew better than me.

Metrotown Station - your bikes are not welcome here.

As Vancouver is somewhat more of a bicycling city - in that, unlike Toronto, it actually recognizes the bicycle as a legitimate transit mode, and not just a recreational tool - it should come as no surprise that the SkyTrain integrates bikes into its operation. At least some stations have bicycle lockers for the use of patrons, and bikes are permitted around the clock on Canada Line trains. The only system-wide restriction is on the Expo and Millennium Lines, the standard rush-hour limitations depending on time and direction. Also, you can't bring them on or off at Metrotown Station in Burnaby. The TransLink website says it's for "safety reasons."

Presumably it's for cleanliness reasons that food and drink is not allowed on the SkyTrain system - and, to be true, it is a far cleaner system than the Toronto subway. Still, the lids and discarded McDonald's bags I found on some trains demonstrate that not all riders abide by these rules. I mean, I know that every once in a while we just get a jonesing - is it really too hard to clean up after yourself?

Conclusion

Guttering light upon a Mark I ICTS SkyTrain in, I believe, Main Street-Science World Station.

The most important factor to be considered in any transit system is whether it's easy to navigate a city with it. I'd say that the SkyTrain does work as a rapid transit network for Metro Vancouver in that regard, but there are still many more opportunities for extension. I had to wonder, for example, why there was no service through the West End or to Kitsilano - presumably it has a lot to do with economics and people who don't want to see a SkyTrain in their backyard. Still, it's taken a technology that was neglected here and really put it to worthwhile use.

If anything, riding the SkyTrain flung light on the roads - or, rather, the rails not taken. Look at the Scarborough RT and the manners in which it hasn't lived up to its potential, or the concept of the Hamilton SkyTrain - wherein ICTS technology was offered to the city of Hamilton, Ontario by the provincial government back in the early 1980s even with the provincial government willing to pay for construction. It's a big sky out West, and the SkyTrain is a good place to watch it go by.

¹ I know that Ottawa's O-Train is newer, having commenced service in 2001 as opposed to 1985, but the O-Train also only has five stations. I've been on zoo monorails and airport peoplemovers with a similiar depth of service. If Ottawa wants to be taken seriously, it can build a subway befitting the fourth-largest city in the country.

² As Phobos has an escape velocity of 40 kilometers per hour, I strongly suggest you throw the stone lightly if you ever want to see it again.

³ Even if those are in fact the only ones, three split-platform stations in a forty-seven station network is pretty large considering the unconventional nature of the design in North America.

Previous Tunnel Visions

• The Toronto Subway and RT
  
• The Los Angeles County Metro Rail
  
• The Chicago 'L'
  
• The Montreal Metro

PDP #278: Wasp-er Wednesday

As what is shaping up to be Things With Wings Week here on Acts of Minor Treason continues, I'd just like to state for the record that I am not a buggist. I know they're annoying when they get all up ins your business and little beyond that, so when I managed to snap a picture of this one as I stood stock-still, trying to avoid pissing it off because I had no interest in it stinging me. I'd thought it was a bee at first, but as it turns out it appears to be an example of Vespula vulgaris - the common wasp. I've never been able to look this closely at one before.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Quaff Review #8: Route des épices

I know it's been a long time since I've done one of these; almost a year, in fact. I've not forgotten these drink reviews, and I've not become some kind of teetotaler - the simple fact is that I thought that there was a possibility that some people might find it objectionable for a candidate for Mayor of Toronto to be reviewing alcoholic beverages on his weblog. Not that it's much when put against, say, an arrest for drunk driving and marijuana possession in Florida, but I never saw a reason to stick my neck out when there wasn't any need for it.

As I'm no longer a candidate for that office, I see no reason to hold back on any further investigation of the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. On with a review of a brew I've never encountered before, Route des épices ("Spice Route") from Brasserie Dieu du Ciel ("God of Heaven Brewery") in Montréal (Montreal). This is a fairly recent arrival, it seems, at the LCBO, but welcome. I've realized that while LCBO stores tend to have a good selection of obscure foreign brews as well as Ontario microbrews, there is not that much in terms of beer from the rest of Canada. A trip to a BC Liquor outlet in Vancouver a few months ago brought it home; there were plenty of varieties there I'd never seen.

My last encounter with Québecois beer was, aside from the political kitsch value, pretty pedestrian - but who am I to turn away from a new and intriguing microbrew? There were several different brews from Dieu du Ciel on offer in the LCBO at Scrivener Square, but Route des épices - $2.95 CDN plus applicable taxes - was the one I chose first, simply because it promised the freshest experience. Why? Very simple.

It is rye beer, brewed with peppercorn. My personal experience with peppercorns goes no farther than gravy, and frequently I would pick them out of it one-by-one. Not the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a beer - but then, French culture is responsible for many such culinary breakthroughs. Frog's legs, for instance, or escargot.

As I poured it, there was nothing unusual about the smell of it, but its body was dark and seemed just a bit viscous as it flowed out the bottle. It was properly chilled, and when I took my first sip, I was stunned for a moment - it took me a few seconds to think of a way to describe it. Route des épices is is spicy, sure, but it's a cold spice with a bit of a bite, as if someone dumped the contents of a pepper shaker in with the barley and hops. There was no real aftertaste but an aftersensation, a very slight burning at the back of my throat from the peppercorns. The sensation encouraged me to sip even more than I usually do.

It didn't lessen with time, either. On the contrary - as the beer warmed the spice stayed as potent as it always was, but without the chill to balance it out it didn't take long for me to lose my taste for it. Sad to say that I ultimately dumped the last finger or two of it down the drain, but for me, cold beer is something that can't be nursed. Aside from Guinness, I can't really think of a beer that would be better warm than cold.

Route des épices didn't strike me as a "relaxation" beer, the sort you crack open at the end of a long day at work to try and let some of your stress evaporate before you sleep - I buy sixes of Lucky Lager for that, because it is some of the cheapest beer I can find. Instead, I'd say it's meant to be enjoyed where it was created - a brewpub, with company to drink it with and food to keep the sensation of spice from lingering past its welcome. I wouldn't necessarily buy it for home-drinking again - at least, not outside of a special occasion. Don't get me wrong; it's a good beer, and beyond that, an innovative beer. This gave me something I've never encountered before, and for that I look kindly on it.

ANDREW'S RATING: 4/5

Previous Quaff Reviews

• #7: Sparks Plus
  
• #6: Hurricane High Gravity Lager
  
• #5: L'Indépendante
  
• #4: Antigravity Light Ale
  
• #3: Nektar
  
• #2: Innis & Gunn Original
  
• #1: Abbey Belgian Spiced Ale

PDP #277: Wings Over University Avenue

My standard practice with photographs I post here is to reduce their dimensions by 50% in order to minimize the amount of storage space they take up; while I get a good deal, it's not infinite yet. Nevertheless, today's photo is going to retain its original dimensions, just for the sake of greater detail.

The Canadian International Air Show, a mainstay of the Canadian National Exhibition, was held this weekend, bringing the roaring, directionless howl of jet engines to Toronto's skies. I didn't attend this year, but because of the nature of the show I still didn't miss it completely. The Snowbirds, the Canadian Forces aerobatics squadron, were participating as usual and some of their wider maneuvers took them away from the lake and over the city proper.

It wasn't until after I'd dumped this skyline shot of University Avenue to my hard drive that I realized you can see two of the Snowbird jets, lit up by the sun so that they seem to shine with a light of their own, banking over the city in the far distance - just a bit to the left of the CN Tower.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

What a Day for a Rumfart

No matter how much I dislike the phrase "the sky's the limit," since it betrays its origins in a time when humanity was chained to the ground, the fact of the matter is that except for the space agencies of the United States of America, Russian Federation, and People's Republic of China, it's still pretty accurate. In aiming for space, we on Earth face what's quite possibly the highest barrier to entry we've ever encountered, orders of magnitude beyond even the Polynesian colonization of the Pacific islands by dead reckoning alone. From Sputnik on, space has been a game for governments and corporations - while we can only gawk, us prisoners of gravity.

The twenty-first century doesn't necessarily have to unfold the same way.

Copenhagen Suborbitals, a non-profit Danish rocket group, has recently come to the attention of the news - my only regret is that I didn't write about it sooner, when they were still obscure. Their goal is a modest one - just to build and launch the first crewed Danish space mission, and a private space mission at that. Copenhagen Suborbitals is supported by donations and grants, and with those the people behind it - many of them volunteers - have built HEAT1X-TYCHO BRAHE.

The rocket's first test was terminated only a few hours ago, when the attempt to launch from a homemade platform in the Baltic Sea - towed there in part by Nautilus, Copenhagen Suborbitals' homemade submarine - was scrubbed by a frozen liquid oxygen valve. Apparently the heating system, a $10 hair dryer, was not up to the task. Also, a bad battery had to be replaced. Still, the rocket itself remains intact, and the launch window remains open for another twelve days.

Twelve days to shatter the paradigm of space travel from 1957 to today.

HEAT1X-TYCHO BRAHE installed on its launch platform. Photo by Ellinor Stenby, released to the public domain.

Governments have traditionally been the pathfinders for new, experminental, untested, and originally limited-use technologies. The military applications of air forces in the First World War and mail delivery contracts in the 1920s gave the fledgling aeronautics industry the push it needed to keep on rolling to the present day. Likewise, governments invested the vast sums of money necessary for research, development, and proving of increasingly more sophisticated rocket technologies; today, with those lessons and solutions in the books, the doors are open for agencies with more limited resources to give it a go.

Limited resources on one hand, but on the other, limited bureaucracy - NASA is, regrettably, choked by its bureaucracy and utterly dependent on a generally uninterested government. Sure, the engineers and boffins at Cape Canaveral and JPL have come up with tons of great ideas - but the nature of government work is such that good ideas can get buried for lack of resources or lack of will to see them through. Not so for something like Copenhagen Suborbitals, which is fundamentally a hobbyist organization - though some of these hobbyists have worked with NASA and know a thing or two about rocket science. This is a case of people making something for the sake of making it - for the sheer joy of testing these frontiers, in the finest traditions of the human spirit. To me, the story of Copenhagen Suborbitals is even more compelling than that of SpaceX. Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen don't have the resources of Elon Musk, don't have the millions of dollars that are backing up his dream - but they're following the same road anyway.

Today Copenhagen Suborbitals is rattling the cage that we're all trapped in. Sooner or later, the lock is going to give way - and it's going to be an interesting time when that happens. It's been fifty years since the first flight of Yuri Gagarin, and here we are in a place and a time where non-profit hobbyists are zeroing in on a crewed flight into space. What might we see fifty years from now?

Also, if you were wondering, "rumfart" just means "spaceflight" in Danish.

PDP #276: A Line to the East

It took a bit of work for me to figure out the nature of this photo, since there are a good many airlines that don't fly into Toronto Pearson and thus I'm unfamiliar with. Photographed from East Los Angeles in December 2009, this is a China Eastern Airlines Airbus A340 - I'm not sure how to tell if it's an A340-300 or A340-400 - ascending from Los Angeles International Airport through what looks to be a rather calm sky. It was easy enough to figure out where it would have been going, though; from LAX, China Eastern connects only with Shanghai Pudong International, one of the airline's two hub airports.

Kind of makes me nostalgic for Aerobiz Supersonic.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

The Characters of Command

It can be easy to forget the importance of the chain of command. Establishing who can give orders to which people is of vital necessity in any organization or bureaucracy, whether you're talking about one that runs a country or one that you can fit in a broom closet. What's really important about it is the establishment of responsibility: no matter what, in every situation, there should always be someone who an order can be traced back to, who could theoretically stand up and acknowledge that a specific action was taken at their behest. Otherwise, the system is ripe for abuse by people whose ambitions outstrip their authority - and it happens, more often than you'd want to think.

When I was in Los Angeles in December, one of the attractions were the costumed characters along Hollywood Boulevard: everyone from Superman to Spider-man and Stormtroopers to Captain Jack Sparrow were there, mingling with the tourists and posing for photographs. Which, really, I can understand. Costumes aren't free, particularly the kind of costumes that characters in popular entertainment generally end up wearing. I don't recall ever having been accosted by a costumed entertainer on the Boulevard; it's a busy street, and there were always plenty of tourists who had no issue with being obvious tourists to compete for the characters' attention. I'll admit that one data point is just an anecdote, but it's all I've got.

Not so anymore. Back in June, though I didn't hear about it until yesterday, the Los Angeles Police Department launched an operation to arrest and evict the costumed characters from Hollywood Boulevard, in what KTLA News described as a "'zorro' tolerance policy." The most probing issue for me, learning about this situation, was "why?" After all, it's the most important question, and a question we should *always* be asking of authority figures. An August article in Curbed LA, detailing a suit filed against the city by some of the arrested characters, suggests that the solicitation of tips was an issue - even though the charges, it seems, never went ahead. At first I thought it could be an issue of characters being masked and not easily identifiable, but they've arrested Superman as well - and without his Clark Kent glasses, there's no super-hypnosis making you think he looks different than he actually does.

As long as he stays away from Hollywood Boulevard he should be fine.

The big problem for me came up toward the end of KTLA's report, where an arresting officer indicated that the order to remove the characters came from the Los Angeles City Council - even though a city council member interviewed by KTLA supposedly knew nothing about it. Not only that, the LAPD itself didn't know where the order was coming from.

Well, if you've got no idea whose word this is on, if your organization is so convoluted that it can't disseminate a simple message, I think that's the sort of situation when an order shouldn't be followed. Verification of orders is absolutely important! If it's possible during a war, why not in day-to-day city business? Is this just another example of a desire to act going beyond the authorization to act?

We can't allow leadership to become some kind of weird ontological paradox; directives must always be created by someone who can be made to explain them and take responsibility for them.

PDP #275: Palming the Sun

I'm not sure what this building is, on the east side of Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica in Los Angeles. It was the way that the sun is just barely contained behind that palm tree that drew my attention to it. I know that this was taken relatively early in the morning, and that it is Los Angeles, but even so - the lack of foot traffic in a lot of the photos I took from that city tends to get me. This was taken, if you're interested, on December 8, 2009.

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Plain Trains and Automobiles

Sprawling problems can easily spring from narrow vision. Just look at the postwar history of North America; in the last seventy years, the United States and Canada have hitched their destinies firmly to the automobile. Despite recent rumblings to build new and expand existing mass transit systems, my own gut feeling is that the economic abyss we're staring into is going to lead to a maintenance of the status quo for as long as the slapheads in power can get away with it.

The good thing about speculation is that it doesn't cost any money - though, of course, that inevitably leads to good ideas not being followed up on because politicians quail at the cost or "safety concerns," like GO-ALRT of the 1980s or the original plans for the Los Angeles subway. But it gives us a platform from which to jump when these things do become possible, and transportation is one of the more important things we can speculate about.

Last week, the Union Pacific Railroad revealed an experimental convertible rail car, the trademarked AutoFlex, designed specifically to transport vehicles. It's modular inside and can vary between bi-level and tri-level in order to accommodate vehicles of varying sizes. Presumably, this will be used for freight transport, since that's pretty much the lifeblood of the North American railway network at this point - transporting vehicles from factories to points-of-sale may be cheaper and more efficient if done by rail rather than road.

I know there are people who believe that the railway's time is over, that it will never approach its former glory and that private cars are a far more efficient means of getting around. Personally, I don't have much truck with that sort of viewpoint. What North America really needs in the years ahead is a coordinated improvement of its transportation networks - not just, as we had in the twentieth century, a monomaniacal focus on the road network to the detriment of everything else. The idea behind Union Pacific's new car opens new possibilities for the road system and the rail network to work hand-in-glove.

Working in concert, they can be stronger than they ever could alone.

After decades of experimentation, speculation and anticipation, electric vehicles are at last starting to make headway in the automotive market. Most of them are hybrids, to be true, but pure electrics aren't totally unheard of - I even saw a Tesla Roadster on the road in Toronto a few weeks ago, and its utter silence likely would have been even more stunning if I hadn't been drunk at the time. As petroleum becomes more expensive, it's likely that electric vehicles will capture more and more of the market share.

The biggest problem with EVs right now, though, is range. You can't just dump in a new charge the way you can fill a tank with gasoline, though the "1920s radio" model, where a depleted battery is swapped out for a fully-charged one, is effective and used at Better Place recharge stations. Additionally, future EVs may have more in common with the Smartcar than the SUV - small may be in style in years to come, but small isn't necessarily advantageous for long-distance trips.

This is where the railway could come in. If you're of the mind to go from one end of the country to the other, but you want your car at both ends, you just drive it to the railway station, park it in one of the train's car berths, and relax as you ride the rails to your destination. Since the train doesn't have to worry about highway traffic - assuming passenger rail ever gets meaningful signal priority over freight - or finding a hotel at night, you may end up arriving at your destination rather earlier than you would have if you'd driven. Once the train does pull in, all that's left is for you to get back behind your wheel and pull out.

I'll admit there's stuff to be worked through, here. But this is the sort of thing we should be thinking about more. We can't expect to find our way into the future when we're only thinking about what's been done in the past.

PDP #274: Atop a Box of Light

Rising on what once was a parking lot - definitely following the pattern for Toronto downtown construction - the Festival Tower condominium skyscraper is externally complete. With the Bell Lightbox at street level, this is where the Toronto International Film Festival will be held in future years, and I can only imagine that traffic through the Entertainment District will become even more interminable as a result. Sometimes I really think that if money was no object, it might be better to replace the 504 King streetcar - which runs directly outside this tower - with an underground LRT or ALRT system.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.