I know pedestrians in the city can get a little crazy and if you’re a driver they’re your worst enemy on the road. Although when you’re out walking somewhere, the drivers are the bad guys. It goes both ways but that doesn’t mean rules of the road should be ignored. I don’t know how many times I’ve stood at a crosswalk and had 20 cars breeze right past me. Not only do they have to stop, not doing so can land them hefty fines.
On August 28, 2007, Officers from the Vancouver Police Department Traffic Unit will be conducting several crosswalk safety enforcements throughout the city. An officer wearing plainclothes will be posing as a pedestrian crossing at various crosswalks, while other officers nearby will be looking for drivers committing speeding, failure to yield and other violations. [VPD]
I’ve seen these types of stings before in Surrey and within only a few hours dozens of drivers were ticketed for failing to stop at crosswalks to let pedestrians pass. More importantly, if you’re driving along a 2 lane road and the person on the right or left stops for a crosswalk, make sure you’re paying attention and stop as well. I’ve also been in that situation where one lane will stop for you and the other doesn’t.
Pedestrian-controlled intersections are an entirely different breed and apparently unique to this area. I recently found a write up about them on a travel site:
The flashing green light is a “Pedestrian Crosswalk”. It stays flashing green so you can continue to drive through the crosswalk and do not need to stop, but once a pedestrian pushes the crosswalk button the green light turns solid red stopping the traffic letting the pedestrian cross. Do not stop your vehicle on a green light or you might get a rude awakening from behind by another car. [TravelEtiquette]
Special note here, if you are approaching a ‘flashing green light’ intersection from the sides, you probably still have a stop sign in front of you. If the light turns red for the oncoming traffic to your left and right, you still have to STOP at the stop sign, then proceed into the intersection when it’s safe to do so. Yes, I’m talking to all the drivers crossing Robson Street that completely ignore stop signs when approaching it from a side street and just zoom through intersections at full speed, without even a pause.
According to this site, it’s $167 for failing to stop at a crosswalk, so perhaps that will act as a deterrent, especially with children being back at school. It’s the same fine as if you fail to stop for a school bus or stop for a crossing guard. Regardless of road rage, walk rage, bike rage etc. crosswalks should be a safe place, and I’d much rather use one than risk jaywalking and pissing off motorists, getting a fine or getting hit.
Internet Explorer 6 is bad. It is not good. No, not at all. If you use Windows, please upgrade to the more secure ‘won’t melt your machine down’ Internet Explorer 7 (if you must use IE). Not only is it more secure, it actually displays pages the way they’re supposed to be seen. How do I know this? Well whenever I make changes to my company’s website I have to do some QA since 61% of our customers use IE6. I was just checking my stats for Miss604.com and noticed 21% of my visitors also use IE6 so I decided to use the best tool around to see what those visitors are viewing.
John sent me a link to the Net Renderer some time ago and it’s been an invaluable asset to my website coding and css tinkering ever since. What is allows you to do is view your website as it is seen by various versions of Internet Explorer browsers, from 5.5 up to 7 and ‘mixed’.
Unfortunately, my sidebar disappears under the main content column when viewed in IE6 so to those readers using that browser, I’m sorry, but also… please please upgrade your browser. Not just for the sake of viewing my site but you’re opening yourself up to a lot of vulnerabilities on the interweb by using an outdated browser i.e. bugs, viruses and unpretty colours. It’s so bad in fact that it’s been ranked one of the “25 Worst Tech Products of All Time” by PC World. “If bugs in IE were nickels, Microsoft would be rich as all heck.” [ComputerGripes]
What would I recommend then? Easy, Firefox. There are a few more options as well if you want to get fancy, such as Opera, Safari (for Apple users) and Flock. All in all, Firefox works well for me and all the add-ons and toolbars just make life a whole lot easier. Once you make the switch you’ll also see how ridiculously good looking sites on the weebernet will be. In the meantime, I’ll try my best to make this site work well with all browsers, especially for 21% of my valued readers. I’m just looking out for ya, that’s all.
But I will be at Holly McNarland‘s show tonight at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Tickets are $19.95 and there are still a few available if you’d like to check out my fave Canadian female singer/songwriter.
Update: Deb left a note in the comments about attending the show – some of her pics are featured below and she’s got a great write up of the concert over on her blog as well.
Apparently Metro Vancouver, fka the GVRD is hurt and displeased with its google rank and is in need of some serious SEO help.
If you Google it, you’ll get eight other entries, including a newspaper, soccer league and hotel before you finally find the one for the body formerly known as the GVRD.
Staff tell the Vancouver Courier the name isn’t the trouble though, it’s Google’s arcane system, which tracks outside sites still using the old title and they say their webmaster is hard at work trying to find a solution. [News1130]
Apparently the big issue is that the name “Metro Vancouver” isn’t unique or ‘googleable’ enough. Geez and I thought I was anal about my google search results.
According to Urban Vancouver’s poll: ‘What do you think of “Metro Vancouver”, the new name for the GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional District)?‘ so far 40% of readers welcome the name. As for me? I really don’t want this to turn into a mass amalgamation a la Toronto but it’s just a name change, which doesn’t bother me. And regarding the google search? I’m on results page 3 so count me out of the running, although I’ll be checking back to watch the climb of the District formerly known as GVR, just because I am that geeky.
In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he’d saved to wander around the planet until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.
A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt the idea of dancing everywhere he went and recording it on his camera. This turned out to be a very good idea. Now Matt is quasi-famous as “That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I’ll send you the link. It’s funny.” [WhereTheHellIsMatt]
Matt dances so much, in so many places, for his most recent video he traveled 39 countries on 7 continents in 6 months. Now that’s some serious dancing.
For his next project he’s going around North America, avoiding the usual monuments and getting people involved, saying it’s almost like a flash mob sorta thing. Keira and I went down to the inukshuk after work today to check things out, where we happened to run into James and Chris.
Vancouver is Matt’s first stop and the only way to find out his next shooting location is to sign up via his website. If you’re on his mailing list (like John is) updates get sent right to you.
Okay, here’s how this works: you tell me where you are and how I can reach you, I’ll contact you if I’m passing through your area to shoot a dancing clip.
A few weeks before I arrive, I’ll let you know when and where to meet. You show up. You sign a release form. We dance.
The release form basically gives Stride gum, my sponsor, the right to use your likeness in the video. You must be 18 years or older to sign, or have a parent/guardian sign on your behalf. We’ll be providing release forms at each event, and I also plan to put a printable PDF version on this site so you can read it and fill it out in advance. [SignUp]
My photos from today’s dance are up on Flickr tag: dancing matt
Vancouver will be included in the June 2008 release, so stay tuned to his website for more info and updates or check out Matt’s journal/blog.
