A staff report coming to Thursday’s meeting of the Transportation Standing Committee is proposing several improvements for passenger safety in Halifax taxis. The report recommends an in-depth review of the city’s taxi industry be conducted by outside consultants to study potential technology upgrades like video surveillance, GPS tracking, car shields, emergency alarm buttons and passenger […]
Safety
Posted inNews + Opinion
Appeals Standing Committee’s authority on taxi licenses under review
The authority of HRM’s Appeals Standing Committee to make rulings on taxi licenses is currently under review. According to municipal spokesperson Brendan Elliott, HRM is working with the province to determine if it makes sense for a standing committee of city councillors to make the kinds of decisions like the one that put Bassam Al-Rawi […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City staff reject side guards on HRM trucks
[Image-1] The potential lives saved by truck side guards isn’t enough of a reason to install them on municipal vehicles, says HRM staff. That’s the recommendation from a staff report going to Thursday’s meeting of the Transportation Standing Committee which recommends “no further action” be taken on the idea of side guards on all city-owned […]
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I am a pedestrian, and I am an idiot
[Image-1] I am a pedestrian, and I am an idiot. I am a seven-year-old child, racing across the street to catch the school bus. I am drunk, stumbling home after a party. I am wise enough to leave my car keys, but too forgetful to save money for cab fare. I am getting older; I’ve […]
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Why do people still hate cyclists?
[Image-1] When you’re a pedestrian, you hate drivers. When you’re a driver, you hate pedestrians. And when you’re a cyclist, everyone hates you. We’ve all been there—in the driver’s seat, so to say. I myself am a former quasi-cyclist, and a current motorist, and even I have caught myself getting lame-ass road rage when I’m […]
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The safety dance: Crosswalk safety still sadly up to pedestrians
[Image-1] As the seasons change from wintery hell to blistering heat, so too do causes of pedestrian injuries morph from unsafe sidewalks to traffic collisions. It must be summer. Yesterday, a 40-year-old woman was hit in a crosswalk at the intersection of Hollis and Morris. The police say she received minor injuries to her hand […]
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Snova Scotia keeps on piling on
[Image-1] Don’t shoot me for saying so, but it’s kind of gorgeous outside right now. The sun is shining, it’s not very cold, and neighbours across the municipality are sharing shovels and slipping discs to help dig the city out of this monster lizard. Yesterday brought a hellish amount of snow down on top of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Here, have some pictures of summer
[Image-1] It’s still snowing. Just look outside. It’s falling right now. Snow on top of snow on top of ice on top of snow on top of our hearts. #Halifax is a pretty nice place in the summer. pic.twitter.com/A8En9zgKcm — Walter Forsyth (@walterforsyth) July 18, 2014 The roads are slippery causing all sorts of accidents. […]
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Halifax police are mostly shooting deer
[Image-1] Amongst the many outrageous stories breaking around Ferguson last summer was the news that no public database of police shootings exists in the United States. No one is was keeping track of how many Americans are shot by police. Which got us wondering how trigger happy Halifax’s police officers are. Police shooting and killing […]
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Streetlight scarcity casts risky shadows
[Image-1] Old, ineffective streetlights across downtown Halifax leave streets ill-lit after dusk. For those who commute every day in a city with a higher-than-national assault rate, the darkness around them is an issue of concern. “As soon as it’s dim out—not even dark—I’m always thinking ‘What’s the lighting like? Where am I? How big is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Crosswalk signals are pushing all the wrong buttons
[Image-1] About six months after he was elected to Halifax council, the city upgraded a major intersection at University Avenue and Robie Street in Waye Mason’s district. It was, according to Mason, “a beautiful piece of engineering which solved a bunch of problems.” But the reaction on the street was not so pretty. “People flipped […]
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A history with breathalyzers
Constable Blair Hickey, himself pulled over last week for drunk driving, once charged a suspected impaired driver for refusing a breathalyzer test even though the man asked for another chance. Blair William Hickey, a 22-year veteran with the HRP, was arrested last week by the New Minas RCMP. The off-duty constable was pulled over on […]