Vermont - a tiny state, with a population of just over 600,000 people - spends almost 10 times as much on transit, per capita, as the average U.S. state with a heavy rural population. It’s now poised to study the feasibility of on-demand buses in 12 communities across the state.

The Ontario government has announced it is ending licence plate renewal fees and sticker fees and will refund the cost of stickers purchased over the past two years. It’s welcome news for my wallet, I’ll be better able to afford my Amazon Prime membership now. It’s also a great decision if the government has been looking at license plate renewal as a rather blunt instrument to curb congestion. To recover the $1 billion loss, may I suggest looking at road user charging? That would also help with all those EV drivers who are free-loading on our roads without paying a gas tax ;-)

BlackBerry made headlines for two reasons recently: they announced that ALL BlackBerry devices are officially end of life, and will stop (reliably) working as of Jan 4th, 2022. Also, if you’re not aware, BlackBerry is in the market developing software for auto makers. At CES last week they gave a demo of their Ivy platform with cool features such as: adjusting your route to a nearer charging station because a traffic jam has drained power, turning down the music because facial recognition sensed that the kids have fallen asleep in the back, and adjusting the house temp and turning on the porch light when you return home.

Ottawa’s former Greenboro Busway is a case study of ambitious plans that were never fully realized. The story offers a valuable lesson for transport and urban planners: creating plans without community support – no matter how thoughtful – is a treacherous path.