Halifax, Nova Scotia

Hanging out on Spring Garden Rd. a studenty area in Halifax

I’m back in California now, dreadfully behind on the blog entries.  I’ll be updating these over the course of the next week or so….

Unfortunately the winds were too high for the harbormaster in St. John’s to allow a big cruise ship to pull into the narrow harbour entrance, so we missed Newfoundland, somewhere I’ve wanted to visit since I saw the Shipping News with Kevin Spacey.  Lovely and bleak.  Oh well, something to look forward to I suppose.

Instead of one day in St. John’s and one day in Halifax, we had two days and one night in Halifax.  When we stepped off the ship, it was immediately obvious we were back in North America.  The low density built environment, wide streets, the small green street signs, and huge hulking SUV’s that have apparently emerged under the rock of high gasoline prices, all welcomed us back to the most profligate part of our planet.

I had been in touch with Ecology Action, an environmental lobby organisation for Nova Scotia, and they invited me to come and present my research, Driven to Excess, at one of their lunchtime events.   About 17 of us squeezed into Ecology Action’s small kitchen, including a Halifax councilmember and a number of transport policy staff from local government.   They told me that my research will help them make the case for improvements to transit and non-motorized facilities in the province, which was nice to hear.

Thanks again to Jen Powley at Ecology Action for hosting me and good luck reforming Halifax transport policy!

Presenting my research at Ecology Action