Friday, September 26, 2008

Friday Musings

I remember back when the 2006 census information became available, there was a bit of a shock that the population in Langley City was down compared to the 2001 census. Well apparently Stats Canada messed up, and the City’s population when up by 188 people. I found that out, and other interesting facts in the City’s “City News” newsletter that goes out three times a year.

These newsletters are nice to get because it keeps you updated about City activities, granted it’s mostly spin, but it’s still good to get. The newsletter got me thinking about the openness in our government. With PDF’s and the Internet, many government documents are now online but sadly many more documents are not online and those that are can be hard to find. Take for example transit statistics. When I was researching Portland, OR transit mode share and ridership, I could find lots of information online. Translink? I found a report buried on their SkyTrain.info website that was meant for potential merchants at SkyTrain stations.

Anyway, I’ll make my point quick: In this day and age of anytime, anywhere information, government run agencies have no excuse for hiding information from the public they serve. Now let’s get posting that information online Translink.

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