Lloyd Alter

It seems like half of my @theglobeandmail.com is filled with "protect Ontario" ads for nonexistent AI-generated pipelines, expanding highways for- school pickups? And promoting skilled trades when he is closing down schools.

Train brain is an expensive affliction in Canada Two days of my life are spent travelling 450 kilometres and back. That's just crazy in this day and age.

I took Via Rail from Toronto to Ottawa and back. Not a big deal, you would think, except it took up two days of my life and cost me hundreds of dollars on top of the ticket. lloydalter.substack.com/p/train-brai...

4 hours late going to Ottawa on via Rail and missed my connection, had a $240 uber. 2 hours 15 minutes late returning and it’s my wife’s birthday. Never ever again

Facit, a pioneer in digital homebuilding, packs it in I have followed this technology for almost two decades, and this is a very sad turn of events.

Facit homes, an almost 20 year old pioneer in digital design and manufacture of housing, closes. This is so sad at a time when such ingenuity is needed. lloydalter.substack.com/p/facit-a-pi...

I am so embarrassed.

Professional Toilet paper

Margaret Visser once defined “professional” as someone you trusted because they had knowledge that you didn’t. There were three: The doctor, who you trusted with your life, the lawyer, with your freedom, and the clergy, with your soul. I wonder what she would say about “professional” toilet paper.

Why are hotel corridor carpets so ugly? It takes real skill to design something like this.

I am on a field trip looking at sustainable forestry and staying in a hotel in Petawawa with really ugly carpet in the corridor. Why do hotel designers do this? open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

I have never had a ride like this, arriving 5 hours late, my group has left and I will have to take a $300 uber to Petawawa.

And thank you for your photos!

I think that is more time than I have spent in Scarborough in my entire life

Well after 3-1/2 hours sitting in Scarborough we are finally moving.

I allowed 2-1/2 hours to get from the stupid suburban train station in Ottawa to my meeting at 2:30 and have spent all of it sitting in Scarborough. I am not cancelling my subscription to HighSpeed but I never want to see a train in this country again.

I can’t believe how cheap it is!

A reminder of what we are losing to get this cheap shit metal and glass thing open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

At least it is moving. I have been stuck in Scarborough for an hour due to “operational issues” on the track ahead. I may miss a 2:30 meeting in Ottawa, this is no way to run a railroad!

@taras-grescoe.com save me get me some highspeed

“Operational issues” on the track ahead I wonder if I will get there today

Train was supposed to leave at 6:32 and it’s now 8:02 I could have jogged to Guildwood in less time

I had to get up at 5 AM to catch a train to Ottawa for a 2:30 meeting and now we are parked I Scarborough and I am wondering if I will make it, no wonder people fly.

It's either too hot or too cold: The New Yorker on Radiant Assymetry Christoph Niemann’s cover for today's issue will be around for years in classrooms and textbooks discussing heating, cooling, and thermal comfort.

My take on today’s wonderful New Yorker cover, with hat tips to Robert Bean Allison A. Bailes III, Susan Roaf and Lisa Heschong I have learned so much from all of you. open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

And he is over the white line!

Agreed, that statement was a real disappointment.

How Self-Driving Cars Could Change the Way Boomers Live Why go from the house to the car? Why not turn the car into a home?

I am actually writing about that next week. Further down the road, I think it is a real solution. I wrote about that a few years ago: www.treehugger.com/self-driving...

I love this week's New Yorker cover. I have been working on a lecture about comfort for my sustainable design course at @torontomet.bsky.social and just found my first slide; it has it all.

Will self-driving cars save older adults from being stuck in the suburbs? Let's look at the issues of Availability, Acceptability, Accessibility, Adaptability and Affordability.

Many readers tell me that self-driving cars will be the solution for older adults in the suburbs who can no longer drive. I think it is a fantasy and won't happen in my lifetime. lloydalter.substack.com/p/will-self-...

I am not sure the elevator analogy works- an elevator runs on rails. The driverless horizontal version is a Vancouver skytrain or airport train on a fixed route.

It was an honour!

So do I, but “accident waiting to happen” is a well known phrase. I wrestled with “crash waiting to happen“ and in this case went with accident.

We may soon have 70 million boomers too old to drive, too car-dependent to stop. As the baby boomer bubble pushes into its eighties, we are driving into a demographic wall.

The demographic reality is unrelenting. What happens when you have 70 million baby boomers pushing 80 and still driving big SUVs on North American roads? A whole lot of accidents waiting to happen. lloydalter.substack.com/p/we-may-soo...

Do heat pumps need a new name? I like "Kelvinator," but it's already taken.

people have been saying this for years open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...