I’m confused as to why they’ve chosen to exclude “Winnipeg Transit” from the branding. Bus rapid transit  is more or less completely integrated with the non-rapid transit system. It’s not like it’s going to be a separate division of the transit system. Winnipeg has a long history of public transit, dating back to the horse-drawn Winnipeg Street Railway corporation in the 1880s ( less than a decade after the City’s incorporation). Winnipeg Transit itself and the iconic flying “T’ logo have over 40 years of brand recognition. It’s usually a good idea to build of existing brand cred, isn’t it? The designer of this logo has chosen to ignore all this history and start over.

It logo itself is a rather predictable attempt creating a London underground style icon, with the “r” and “t” sort of resembling the lines on a subway route map, as One Man Committee points out. Again, how does this make any sense? We don’t actually have a subway system and there are no plans to build one. Where did the colours come from?

I’m simultaneously confused and bored.

Also, can you see “RT” without thinking “retweet”?

In related news, the new rapid transit corridor features a tunnel, so there’s that.

1. A web developer with a bunch of ASP experience. Full posting.

2. Production & Media Coordinator – as far as I understand this is a bit of a crazy hybrid position where you get to tell a bunch of nerds what to do every day. Full posting.

Feel free to hit me on twitter or leave a comment for more info.

In cities like Winnipeg, where traffic signals are hung from horizontal poles, the most visible place to mount a street sign is directly on the mounting pole, right above the roadway. I think that’s pretty straightforward common-sense.

I’ve pulled some images of Portage Avenue from Google Streetview. Portage is one of the busiest roads in Winnipeg, it’s the start of the Yellowhead Trail (west to Edmonton) and part of the main Trans Canada Highway (to Calgary). According to the City of Winnipeg’s 2009 Traffic Flow study (pdf), Portage Avenue received an average weekday flow of 75,000 cars per day – the portions of road mentioned below see about 75% of that. Suffice it to say, it’s a busy road.

Portage & Moray

An example of good signage; every major intersection should be set up like this. You can clearly see a large sign marking the cross street above every traffic signal on all four intersecitons.

Portage & Sturgeon

A few kilometers west of Moray lies one of the worst examples of street signage in the city. The westbound lane (on the left) is fine, it’d be hard to miss that Sturgeon Rd sign. For no apparent reason eastbound lane is completely non-standard. The traffic signal is clearly missing a sign, you’ll probably have to squint to actually find the sign. I’ll give you a hint, it’s off to the right…on a “no stopping” sign. How completely random is that? It gets worse, the sign post is actually offset a couple of meters ahead of the intersection. So, if you’re stopped at the stop line, or anywhere in one of the left-hand lanes it’s actually physically impossible to see the sign.

Obviously inconsistant street signage is far from the biggest problem facing Winnipeg, it’s not even the worst problem with the roads. It’s just one of those little things…

Part 1: mainly features Winnipeg. Interesting facts at the time Winnipeg was Canada’s 4th largest city – a position currently occupied by Ottawa-Gatineau (Winnipeg #8 now) – and meatpacking was the #1 industry in town.

Part 2: Featuring Brandon, Riding Mountain and north.

It seems to cut off before the end, but I was unable to find a part 3.

Yesterday I noticed that maps.google.com now features a built in Google Earth plugin, was pleasantly surprised to see a few Winnipeg buildings presented as 3D models.

Pro Tip: clean up the red-eye in your political party’s website profile picture.

At the time of writing, neither her official website or facebook fan page have been updated.

Fail.

I came across a great series of photographs from The Winnipeg Transit archives via the Winnipeg blog Rise and Sprawl. Here are some of my favorite photos from what could be dubbed the Golden Era of Winnipeg, they exemplify the vibrant city of an era gone by that many of us are pining for.

1910s

Caleron Hotel , now vacant “A&B Sound Building.” I wonder what happened to the top 3 floors - Google Streeview

Main St, “Peace Day” June 19, 1919 – the end of WWI. Look at all those people! – Google Streetview

1920s

Fort St – Google Streeview

VE Day, 1945

Portage & Main. Look at that stubby little bus and giant streetcar – Google Streeview

1940s

Selkirk & Salter – Google Streetview

Portage &  Main, northeast corner. I appreciate that we are still using historically accurate street lights, too bad they closed this intersection to pedestrians – Google Streeview

Non-Ironic Wolf Shirt, Burton Cummings