385 replies to this topic

[sdwright.vic]

^You do know you can download map areas to your phone for offline use and that travel time to destinations should update as you travel dependent on you current location? Google Maps is data based, so if you take the road less traveled, you going to get a estimate based on that information.

Edited by sdwright.vic, 22 May 2015 - 05:33 AM.

[Mike K.]

As a result of today's police incident in the 500-block of Johnson that has the eastbound lane of the Johnson Street Bridge closed.

 

[Baro]

Blanshard is down to one lane heading south past the arena, traffic backed up to Bay and sometimes gridlocking.

[Mike K.]

What's happening on Blanshard?

[LJ]

I spent the last few days in Kelowna. I will never again complain about the Colwood crawl. If you stay on Hwy.97 to try to get either north or south of town you're wasting at least an hour of your life. Thankfully I knew alternate ways to get where I was going but sheesh, that place is congested.

[Bingo]

I spent the last few days in Kelowna. I will never again complain about the Colwood crawl. If you stay on Hwy.97 to try to get either north or south of town you're wasting at least an hour of your life. Thankfully I knew alternate ways to get where I was going but sheesh, that place is congested.

 

It's that bridge, and it's the only bridge.

[HB]

Today

 

 

http://youtu.be/ERvsdtDfMtA

[VicHockeyFan]

I started reading this article with doubts.  But it does make some sense.   But I think people on their own, the ones that hate traffic and congestion, already make changes in their lives.  And it might ignore the fact than many people think "others" are the cause of traffic congestion.  What I mean is, people swear and say "look at this traffic!" when they are in a big line, but disassociate themselves from being part of that problem, they simply do not consider themselves part of that traffic problem that day at that place.

 

It also might ignore the fact that many people enjoy their morning commute.  It might be one of the few times in a day they are away from a spouse, and not working.  It's a bit of alone time for thoughts and reflection.

 

 

 

 

Bruce Batchelor says he has honed a concept that could get between 8,200 and 16,400 commuting vehicles — or about five to 10 per cent of the total — off the road within two years in Greater Victoria.

 

Batchelor said his idea, which he calls CloseCommute Systems, involves “a change of mind, a change of attitude, a change of expectation amongst employers.”

 

Employers would consider factors such as commuting distance when hiring and assigning work sites, and paying attention to where people live when internal transfers are made. “You can gradually improve immensely just doing those two steps,” Batchelor said.

 

CloseCommute Systems combines a website and an app to guide users through the process. The free app is being introduced today through closecommute.com in Greater Victoria and Metro Vancouver.

 

Batchelor said a mid-1990s project involving 500 employees at Key Bank in Seattle used similar strategies and saw overall commuting distance decrease by 17 per cent within 15 months.

 

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...h.5vd5Qb5O.dpuf

[On the Level]

So according to the "Local road and highway development, conditions" thread, If the current pace keeps up, by 2020 you will see another 27,611 vehicles added to our roads.  Now if we can just get employers to discriminate based on where someone lives, we can possibly reduced that number by 5 to 16k? 

 

Why don't we start with making Councillors live in the same city that they represent?

Edited by On the Level, 07 March 2017 - 07:06 AM.

[VicHockeyFan]

The article cites teachers.  But if I'm a good teacher, and I hate my commute from Gordon Head to George Jay school, won't I make inquiries about transferring to Torquay Elementary?

[rjag]

The article cites teachers. But if I'm a good teacher, and I hate my commute from Gordon Head to George Jay school, won't I make inquiries about transferring to Torquay Elementary?

Somehow I think their commute is not very high when it comes to choice of school! Speaking from experience here....

[VicHockeyFan]

Somehow I think their commute is not very high when it comes to choice of school! Speaking from experience here....

 

Right, it would only be important and an option if all other things were equal.  But they are not.  I also might choose to work for a fencing supply company based in Keating industrial park rather than one in Langford, even if I live in Langford.   I might even want to work at the Langford branch of a plumbing company, rather than the downtown branch of the same company, based on working conditions, co-workers, bosses etc. where I work each day.

[rjag]

Yup, I know a few folks in banking and while it may make sense in concept there are loads of variables to consider, ie choice of manager, career trajectory etc

[shoeflack]

What about the real estate implications of something like this? Assuming all jobs stay where they currently are, essentially this guy is saying that everyone who works in the core should live in the core. If you thought real estate prices in Victoria were hot now, just wait until this gets rolling!

[Coreyburger]

The article cites teachers.  But if I'm a good teacher, and I hate my commute from Gordon Head to George Jay school, won't I make inquiries about transferring to Torquay Elementary?

 

Not to mention the biggest congestion is coming in from the West Shore or down the Peninsula, both of which are in different school districts for Victoria (and each other)

[rjag]

I think I wrote this some time back on this forum. In the 90's I remember the Province investigate all sorts of options from telecommuting to staggered start times and 'hotelling' desks (where 2-3 folks would share the same desk but work different days or times. They even considered sharing buildings with some Ministries by having 1 Ministry work Sun-Wed and the other Ministry work Thur-Sat, quarterly rotations.

 

Sometimes the ideas just need to wait for the technology to catch up. There is absolutely zero reason for probably 50+% of government jobs to be located in the core, they have zero public access and could easily be located in other locations. The BC Ferries building is a classic example of this. There is no reason why it could not have been located at Royal Oak or Keating or heaven forbid in Sidney 

 

Until a major employer actually is offered a deal they cant refuse by Stu Young etc nothing will change

[AllseeingEye]

One other aspect not mentioned thus far is that many orgs in the private sector, and I've worked for two of them, both Vancouver-based, will routinely canvas employees to get a sense of what staff wants in terms of 'location'.

 

One of those firms was a Fortune 200 tech firm based at the time in d/t Vancouver and considering re-locating the HO to North Van (where unsurprisingly the CEO lived, heh heh), Burnaby or Richmond.

 

When 85% of the staff voted overwhelmingly to stay put on Pender Street the discussion was effectively over - no further questions asked; ditto for the second largest credit union in the country, now as then based in Surrey.

 

In 2007 they were considering moving the HO to d/t Vancouver as a d/t address was perceived as havng more cachet especially for a major financial services firm with an eye to expanding nationally. However since 50%+ of the staff lived in Surrey/South Surrey/White Rock - south of the Fraser River in general - when the question was put to 1900 staff over 75% opted to remain; case closed and Coast Capital has since built a beautiful state of the art HQ in Central City (Surrey).

 

Somehow though I doubt employees in public sector, and especially core provincial government agencies, will be afforded the opportunity to voice their opinion or "vote".

[Baro]

My wife works for a company "way out" in langford, hundreds of staff but she's one of the few that commutes in from town, almost all live in the western communities or saanich.  There were rumours of a move to Uptown, and a lot of staff were unhappy with "moving downtown".  Sucks for my wife, but at least she's going against the traffic to and from.

 

Similar situation back when West was operating out on Keating.  Huge employer,  over a thousand staff at its peak I believe.  But the traffic it generated wasn't bad because so many took the bus and those who drove were once again going against the flow of traffic.

 

The odd thing about call centre jobs is how seldom they let you work from home.  It should be so easy to do from home,  I know some people who do it, but corporate is generally very resistant.  

[jonny]

I think I wrote this some time back on this forum. In the 90's I remember the Province investigate all sorts of options from telecommuting to staggered start times and 'hotelling' desks (where 2-3 folks would share the same desk but work different days or times. They even considered sharing buildings with some Ministries by having 1 Ministry work Sun-Wed and the other Ministry work Thur-Sat, quarterly rotations.

 

Sometimes the ideas just need to wait for the technology to catch up. There is absolutely zero reason for probably 50+% of government jobs to be located in the core, they have zero public access and could easily be located in other locations. The BC Ferries building is a classic example of this. There is no reason why it could not have been located at Royal Oak or Keating or heaven forbid in Sidney 

 

Until a major employer actually is offered a deal they cant refuse by Stu Young etc nothing will change

 

There's a reason most cities have centralized downtowns. They're pretty efficient, in a lot of ways.

 

If one company or ministry moved to Royal Oak or Keating, all of their employees would have to drive to work as the transit options are piss poor. Having an office downtown means almost everybody can either take transit, bike, or even walk to work.

 

I know bcIMC employees who are ecstatic to be moving downtown as their are more options for running errands, grabbing a decent lunch, coffee spots, etc.

[AllseeingEye]

My wife works for a company "way out" in langford, hundreds of staff but she's one of the few that commutes in from town, almost all live in the western communities or saanich.  There were rumours of a move to Uptown, and a lot of staff were unhappy with "moving downtown".  Sucks for my wife, but at least she's going against the traffic to and from.

 

Similar situation back when West was operating out on Keating.  Huge employer,  over a thousand staff at its peak I believe.  But the traffic it generated wasn't bad because so many took the bus and those who drove were once again going against the flow of traffic.

 

The odd thing about call centre jobs is how seldom they let you work from home.  It should be so easy to do from home,  I know some people who do it, but corporate is generally very resistant.  

I was one of the two senior ops managers hired prior to the opening of the West facility to get the staff hired, on boarded and trained up in advance of the official opening.

 

West was a classic US-based-owned-controlled corporation - not a chance was anyone going to be permitted to work from home, management included. Too hard to train, to maintain expected customer service standards and - frankly - to monitor, which all CSR's were from the time they logged in to the end of their shift.

 

It was initially intended to be a 12-1400 seat facility however never actually got more than about half that number of warm bodies in seats due to a) wages, b) the culture: it was very US 'command and control-style' which was not a great fit in BC especially and c) the commute; at the time BC Transit service to Keating was poor, if not almost non-existent, which was a real barrier for many prospective employees.