| Welcome to our newest subscribers – we’re thrilled you’ve signed up and encourage you to get involved! Check out our updated website and join our lively Slack chat where the last month has seen a flurry of great posts and discussions. Council is meeting on April 26 to consider an important application for 48 market rental homes in Tsawwassen on 56 St. Please speak up by writing an email of support to Council or make plans to attend in person or on Zoom. Please continue to spread the word about Del-POP and join us at our next meeting! This month we’re excited to feature the writing of Corbin Auriti, an eager Del-POP volunteer, who has written up a great piece on stroads in Delta. Not sure what a stroad is? Check it out! And while you’re at it, check out the work that Max Ghilarducci has been doing with our Twitter feed! |
| Del-POP Meetup April 21 Our monthly meeting will take place on Thursday April 21st from 7:00PM – 8:00PM at the Tsawwassen Library with a presentation by Max Ghilarducci followed by a hangout at a nearby ‘third place’. Join us in person or catch the Zoom stream. RSVP |
| Social Action Plan Meeting April 19 The City of Delta is holding a Public Information Session related to its proposed Social Action Plan. Your input on making the City more inclusive of all ages and income levels would be welcomed! Encourage actions that make our city more inclusive and less auto-centric. RSVP |
| Crucial Public Hearing for 56 St Rentals April 26 Write to Mayor and Council and/or sign up to speak at the public hearing (via Zoom or in person at City Hall) to support 48 more rental homes in Tsawwassen. (read all about it) This fantastic project on 56th Street in Delta is coming to Council for Public Hearing and 3rd Reading and it’s a great opportunity to write to Council and encourage them to support this project. If you’d like some ideas on what to write or say, we would be happy to chat with you! RSVP or Write Council |
| Learn how to Del-POP Inaction Here Has Consequences Elsewhere: Small Towns Cope With Big City Exodus and Prince George Too Binge This: Uytae Lee’s About Here on CBC Gem Rent Costs More Than 13 Lattes Per Day: CTV on Soaring Rents Deep Dive on Cities’ Role in Housing: Who Does What Report Parking Minimums Harm Cities: A Ton of Resources To Confront Parking Rules Our Streets (and Roads) Need a Diet: Road Diets Stroads Harm Cities: What’s a Stroad? Now that you know, what will you do? |
| Stroads and Giving Roads a Diet: Article by Corbin Auriti As unintuitive as it may seem, sometimes the best way to help traffic congestion woes is to give the roads a bit of a diet. Just like us people, if you have a cupboard full of snacks to eat, you will end up doing so in a concerningly short amount of time. That same logic applies to traffic engineering, the more road there is available with lanes and width, the more it often gets used to capacity. Unfortunately we have made many streets into stroads that fail to be an efficient route for automobiles and fail to be a place for people and commerce. Stroad is a mix of the word Street which is a place people want to be where you may live, socialize, and conduct commerce, and a Road which is traditionally an efficient route of travel. As a recent City News Vancouver article explained, “They’re not streets and they’re not roads. Call them “stroads”, frustrating for everyone who uses them and bad for local economies. “They’re the futon of transportation alternatives, it doesn’t do anything well,” chuckles Gordon Price, an urban planner with Simon Fraser University’s City Program. The term was coined by Minnesota-based traffic engineer Charles Marohn and Price says while a futon is an uncomfortable couch and an uncomfortable bed, stroads are too slow to get around efficiently and too fast to make them a pleasant place to be.”  A great example of a Street where people have a sense of place, is 48Ave in Ladner, which feels like a place you and your family or friends could spend the day hanging out.  For efficient travel by car or truck, one of the most pleasant Roads may be Highway 17A on a lot of the north/south stretch (at least outside of rush-hour) being as there is extraordinarily little in terms of conflict points.  Now in terms of a throughway that is neither pleasant to drive, nor hangout, we can take 56St in Tsawwassen as an example of a Stroad. It is not pleasant to visit with people due to traffic noise and speed, parking lots to contend with, and intersections galore. Driving may also be uncomfortable as there are many conflict points with intersections, driveways and people sometimes randomly crossing at non crosswalks, meaning you must be always on extra high alert. What is the solution to such tumultuous Stroads? A diet and lifestyle change!  Large infrastructural changes are necessary for more efficient commerce, outdoor socializing and the economy at large as good mixed used business centers that encourage people first instead of automobiles are more economically productive. Source: Litman, Todd Alexander. “Economic Value of Walkability.” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, vol. 1828, no. 1, 20 Apr. 2017, https://doi.org/10.3141/1828-01 Want to watch a compelling video explainer on this? Check out this video by Not Just Bikes |
| Network Statistics: As of April 8, 2022 – 42 Newsletter subscribers – 53 Twitter followers – 23 Facebook likes – 4 public letters sent to council – 1 campaign Now that you know, what will you do? |
