Feb 20 2025 - The King of Congestion

 

Donald Trump declared himself KING recently - in relation to ordering New York to stop its congestion fee system.  It doesn't seem possible to have two kings in the congestion world.  And that is not even considering Elon Musk. The real king of congestion and parking is Donald Shoup.  He is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking - 20 years ago - and he changed the urban parking landscape significantly.   He was a PhD and research economist at UCLA. He was inspired by a master's thesis that found that Los Angeles County employees were almost twice as likely to drive alone than federal employees in the Los Angeles Civic Centre.  Why?  It was free parking. Shoup had estimated that 700 million rot 2 billion parking spots existed in the U.S. - a ratio of 2.5 to 7 times as many parking spaces as registered vehicles.     His investigation and studies resulted in his theory that an 85% occupancy rate of on-street -parking spaces would be the most efficient use of public parking.  The expression "cruising for parking" was one of his findings - driving around to find the closest parking spot. Congestion was the result.  Parking cash-out was a solution he advocated.  As parking spaces are subsidized at work, he devised options for the employee the choice to keep the parking space, use the money to pay for transit or vanpool fares, or sae the money by carpooling, bicycling, etc.  He also advocated removing parking minimums for condos, etc.  These resulted in a bias towards owning cars and driving.  It was found that parking minimums failed to reduce or eliminate curb congestion and increased it. The expression of being the king of congestion comes with the full sentence that Donald Trump used.    "Long live the king" no longer can apply to Donald Shoup as he died a few weeks ago.   The declaration that Donald Trump actually made was:  LONG LIVE THE KING!   All upper case.  I looked it up and there's a name for that:  language intensity.  Surprise that this is meant to signal that something is important here and that there's intense emotion with the words.

This is the road to the Peninsula Ridge Winery restaurant.  The Kitchen House - a heritage site - is the actual focal point everyone knows.   The second picture shows  a different perspective with the road diagonally in front - and of course a spring view with the fruit trees in bloom.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nune 9 2023 - Summer Time Travelling

 

Our air quality has improved, allowing people to get outdoors again.  Let's go for a drive.   Look out, though.  There are 44 closures in Toronto alone on June 9 2023 for roadwork - these are planned.  Highway 400, 401, 404, 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way.  That covers the majority of the major roads in the Toronto area.  Seems like a lot of hiccups along the road. The events closures are ramping up too.  All those cycling fundraisers, runs and walks, and then festivals.  There's Portugal Day, Grilled Cheese Challenge festival and the RBC Open - which ironically has caused closures. Combine that with reductions in subway service for construction and reductions in GO train service. That is followed by an encouragement for residents and visitors to take public transit as a greener, faster and more affordable way of getting around.  Summer can get complicated when it comes to travelling around. What about steam train travel?  Here's a model layout.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 22 2023 - DAY IN THE SUN

 

The May 24th weekend makes me think of the expression "Day in the Sun" - maybe because we have lots of days in the sun in the summer in Southern Ontario. "When you have your day in the sun, you have achieved the highest possible level of success. You are at your peak. You are having a heyday. You are at your pinnacle or zenith of success."   So I guess summer is our pinnacle season. Some people might say that I am being too ambitious for this weekend.  What about this expression - One swallow doesn’t make a summer:  "Although something good has happened, it doesn’t mean the situation will continue to be good, so you shouldn’t count on it" But then again, aren't we walking on sunshine starting this weekend? That means: "To be extremely happy" There seems to be a vast number of expressions and idioms in English.  Is it English or French with the most idioms of any language?  One would think there might be a count by country.  The one count I can find is English:  "There are at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions in English."  Ask that question about French and you are sent to the idiom dictionary to scroll through them all.  Here's a beautiful country road in Pennsylvania. Makes me think of the expression - Smooth Sailing.  Better yet:  Roads are made for journeys, not destinations. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 29 2022 - Most Famous? It's Dwayne

 

How is it that Dwayne Johnson is the most famous person in the world "as of 2022"?  Where was I? Likely looking at news stories rather than entertainment stories.  He shows up in the top 10 in numerous lists.  My cynicism comes into play as these lists are typically the same source that is reproduced over and over. "Dwayne, nicknamed "The Rock" was a WWE champion wrestler earlier and is now an actor and producer. He is one of the greatest professional wrestlers the game has ever witnessed."  (Note the quality of English, grammar, and style of the sentence above). On to  Forbes where he is listed as #4 of highest-paid entertainers and #10 celebrity - the 2022 films are Black Adam and Red Notice.  "One of his popular mannerisms as the character The Rock was to raise one eyebrow up with one down as a taunt to mock his opponents during interviews (this is called The People's Eyebrow)." And how is it that Joe Biden is #2 or Elon Musk #3?  Then comes Jeff Bezos at #4. Down the list at #10 is Justin Bieber who has recently been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by facial nerve paralysis.  That is very significant when you compare Johnson's description as  "The Rock" to Bieber's as "Yummy".   It turns out that Justin Bieber is googled more than Jesus.  We know that Jesus is, in fact,  the most famous and known person in the world.  Every religion references him - either for or against.  It is considered that only people in remote places of the planet do not know of him.  But then what is "famous"today?  It shows up for celebrities - entertainers and sports figures.  Not for heads of state, royalty, scientists, writers, and those who made history.  That is famous in the past tense.  So we can wonder where will Dwayne Johnson be in 10 years or 100 years?  What will be famous from 2022? Here's one of our Niagara roads that the Porsche Club travelled on a few years ago.  This seems like a little bit of heaven - a narrow, winding country road lined with trees and fences.  All that summer green.

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oct 11 20201 - And After Thanksgiving, Is there Rest? No

 

After our Canadian dinner of Canadian leftovers last night, the "Day of Distinguishing Canadian vs US Thanksgiving" comes to a close.   It brought to mind things that might or might not be celebrated based on country and religion.  We joke about Canadian vs American Thanksgiving.  However, we fail to take into account being Indigenous in either country and how overwhelming the colonial nature of the holiday tradition has been.  What about our next holiday?  It's Halloween.  What do we find?  It is labelled a secular holiday - like Valentine's and Thanksgiving. It comes from some ancient tradition - Celtic - so that might be ok.  But wait, the Roman Catholics took it over as an All Saints Day.  That's what makes it political to all sorts of religious groups. I am quite amazed by how many holidays the Jehovah Witnesses reject - they claim that Jesus didn't ask for anyone to celebrate his birthday.  So Christmas is off. And after that? It is Remembrance Day on November 11 at 11:00am.  Give up the singing of Onward Christian Soldiers and the British National Anthem in Ireland.  These items are the subject of protest.  Ireland is particularly troubled by the day of commemorations.  And then there are religious groups such as Quakers. Then we're on to American Thanksgiving with the predominant views alternating between the Pilgrims 'sharing' their harvest with the 'natives' and the harmoniously sharing the 'first Thanksgiving meal'. We round out the year with Christmas and celebrating the New Year.  We know Christmas is political.  Are New Year's celebrations a political issue?  The Jehovah Witnesses pop up again - they "refuse participation in ecumenical and interfaith activities."  Keep going and you will find 4 reasons why Muslims should not celebrate the New Year.  Mostly, though, it is complete cultures who don't celebrate January 1st as the New Year - think of Chinese New Year. We can continue through the entire year, and this trend will apply to every celebration holiday.  It seems to me this is an instance where being a Global Village has its dilemmas. Our picture today was taken a year ago.  It is the Cherry Ave intersection from yesterday's picture of the bicycle driver in the flower field.  It is on the left side past the intersection.

Aug 30 2021 - Highway 8 - The Stone Road

 

Today our federal, vs provincial vs regional vs municipal levels of government go about giving each other responsibilities. Mostly downloading vs uploading responsibilities.   In the time of way-back, the government took over responsibilities.  Our Highway 8 is an example.  Originally the Iroquois Trail from ancient times, the province's Department of Highways of Ontario assumed jurisdiction the road between Hamilton and Queenston in 1918.  This road travels the entire Niagara region along the escarpment. One of the distinctions in Grimsby is the change in route so that the historic Nelles Manor (built in 1792) no longer faced the road, but backed onto it.  It rebuilt itself to have an appropriate grand entrance for the new front of the house. It was previously known as the Grimsby and Queenston Stone Roads.  Taking responsibility for it meant it was upgraded and by the early 1920s was paved. It became the King's Highway 8A in 1930.  Before that it was a "stone road".  I got to wondering about "stone roads".  There's a Niagara Stone Road that goes into Niagara-on-the-Lake.  That too was an ancient road and intersected with the Iroquois Trail. That had a long history of development from the 1830s onward so that wagons could travel on it better.   The name Niagara Stone Road came about when it was macadamized - single-sized crushed stone layers are placed in shallow lifts and compacted thoroughly.  It had a binding layer of stone dust, was rolled, and covered with a binder to keep dust and stones together.  That's the "Stone Road" designation of all these roads.  The Niagara Stone Road goes from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Homer - where the Homer Bridge is over the Canal, the name all that's left of the town.  I realize that I take roads for granted.  I hadn't thought about roads and their technological development in the last century.  A transformation ihas taken place in materials and methods used to build them. That's what infrastructure is like - we don't think about it very much, but depend on it all the time. Some model railroad images today.

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