Category Archives: Vancouver

Survival Guide to Transit in Vancouver – 4 Kamikaze Tips

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j0443328 Lets face it .. we’re all going to be cranky if we have to wait two hours to board a Canada Line train or stand at a bus stop as we watch the full buses pass us by. A little preparation may help you to avoid the bottlenecks or at least cut the time you spend waiting. Don’t rely on their being Transit personnel providing information.

Kamikaze strategy is going to be required for you to cope with the transit gridlock.

  • 1st Kamikaze tip

Install the Translink iPhone app. This handy utility displays what transit options are available from your location as well as the schedules at your stop.

  • 2nd Kamikaze tip

Do your research before you leave. Use Google Maps to discover all the transit options available. The Canada Line may be lightning fast, but not if you’re delayed boarding. Check the bus schedules and routes. Have at least two alternative routes. Print out the map if you’re unfamiliar with the area you’ll be travelling to.

  • 3rd Kamikaze tip

Get away from the congested area. I learned this lesson in Italy. The guide book mentioned there may be “rotating strikes” in the Italian train service. We were stranded for half a day in a crowded hot station when a train finally arrived. It wasn’t going anywhere near our destination, but we used our rail pass to get Pisa, where we were able to get a train to our destination. It was the scenic route, but we arrived only an hour later than we’d planned. If the Canada Line stop is packed, consider taking the train one or two stops in the opposite direction to a less crowded stop. City bus stops are often two or three blocks apart, walk to one or two stops up the line. Consider taking a less travelled route to your destination.

  • 4th Kamikaze tip

Arrive early, take in the sites, have a leisurely lunch near your destination and then walk. Leave later, chill and let the crowds thin.

Breathe .. it is what it is ..

Bonnie Sainsbury a Social Media Strategist and Principal in Duet Media. She uses transit and car sharing to get around town.

Train YOUR Perspective

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These days, with all the changes in street traffic and lane allocations for our upcoming Olympic guests, I have been enjoying the variety of people-watching opportunities on the Canada Line.

Sunday, on a train headed south to Richmond, I was in the front car.  The very front seats (with a great big window) were occupied by a family of four: two engaging young children and their parents.

The little boy was very observant, sharing his impressions of what he saw, first in the tunnel and then out in the clear as we bridged the river and had a view.

As the train ran south along Number 3 Road, his father added the observation that – having driven this route many times- it was odd to see it from this higher level,  from which many of his landmarks did not appear, or were not visible in their usual way. His perspective had shifted and with it, his sense of where he was, too.

Isn’t it interesting how often in life we change our positions, usually without realizing how that has changed our view?

How have you trained your perspective?  How has it trained you to respond?  What does it take for each of us to really change our view?  Have you trained your perspective, or has it just trained you?

Survival Guide to Transit in Vancouver

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j0443328 Vancouver is not a particularly transit friendly city. We have a car culture. All that is going to change in February and March 2010, when 45,000 athletes, officials, media and volunteers travel to and from Olympic venues. Vehicular restrictions make using transit a necessity. Add those to regular commuters, new commuters, spectators getting to and from Olympic events and regular folk just trying to get around in their regular lives.

You’ll need to be prepared; know which buses/trains to take and where to transfer. Your computer and your iPod/iPhone will be your best tools. Translink does have a pocket map showing routes in the area. My head hurts when I try to read it and I’m familiar with the city and transit routes!

I use my computer to help me get around using transit. The most powerful tool is Google Maps. Yes, Google Maps provides transit information for most cities. I prefer this service to the Translink web page and it’s a common display for almost any city your in.

On the Google Maps home page, click on the Get Directions link (top left of your screen). a and b where are you starting from and where are you going. You need to use the city name in the address.

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You can key in an exact address, the nearest intersection, the business name or the venue name. You’ll be given a list of destinations. Click on the one you want.

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The next screen shows you the next three transit combinations that will get you to your destination. At this time, there’s no transit service to the oval, but closer to February, service will be established. The approximate travel time is also displayed.

Suppose you have to be at your destination for a certain time. Click on Show Options just under the start and destination fields. You’ll see that you can specify the departure or arrival time and date of your trip. Click on Get Directions and the display will reflect that date and time. The times are quite reliable, though I would err on the conservative side during peak hours.

You can magnify the map, to show you cross streets on your trip.

To display the return trip, click on the double arrow symbol to the right of the start and destination fields. You can change the arrival and departure times for the return trip.

You can print the directions, with or without the map.

Next time, we’ll talk about the iPod/iPhone applications for transit in Vancouver.

Bonnie Sainsbury is a Social Media Strategist and Principal in Duet Media. She doesn’t own a private automobile, she used transit and car-coops to get around the city.

Thoughts on a train

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…well, actually, that should read “thoughts on a Canada Line train”, because that’s what I was riding yesterday.  I live in Vancouver, Canada, where we will soon host the world for next year’s Winter Games.  In preparation for that event, one of the new and exciting advantages our Greater Metropolitan Area now boasts is a world-class addition to our Skytrain system (our legacy from hosting Expo 86), running from our downtown harbour core to the Vancouver International Airport (YVR).  That has been named the ‘Canada Line’ (sorry – I don’t know either….).

Now, for those of you who live outside our city, you should know that most of this transit rail line runs underground, so ‘taking the train’ is also a bit like spending some time in a time capsule.  It is its own little microcosm, a sort of ‘thin slice’ of our city and the people in it, and every ride has a flavour all its own.

Yesterday, I rode and sat and listened to my fellow riders.  It was dinner time, my car filled with people going home from work or however they spent their day.  Some travelled alone in thought, some nodded silent greetings to others, many were occupied in some sort of electronic exchange – iPods, cell phones – and a few were engaged in actual conversations.  What struck me most was that it was not until I had exited my train that I heard a single word in my own language.

A young couple with their baby in a stroller were talking to the baby, each other, and – in passing – to me.  I love that about this city: every day I can be exposed to so many different cultures and cuisines, languages and histories.  It made me wonder about other people’s experiences travelling today.

Did you take a bus in Surrey, ride the SeaBus to North Van, cycle in White Rock, park your car in Langley, walk around Deep Cove, take a ferry from Horseshoe Bay, rollerblade around Stanley Park?  What did YOU see and hear?

Where else did YOU go?  Did you take the subway in New York, ride the Marta in Altanta or take the train from the airport into downtown Athens, Greece?  Maybe you walked in Picadilly Circus or took a stroll in Beijing.  I hope you had a pleasant time and shared a smile along the way.  Please take a moment to share YOUR experience with me; write a comment and give us a ‘thin slice’ of your world today.

Vancouver rentals a la 2010

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We live in a cosmopolitan city – a place marketed around the world in ordinary times and furiously exposed in the run-up to the large-scale international athletic competition headed our way in 2010.  All this attention brings excitement, people, and the promise of cash.  It also creates scarcity of things like affordable accommodation.  Here are three stories about rent and space that I heard today:

1. some friends of mine live in a very upscale highrise condo – fabulous views and a great downtown location.  They were recently approached by phone (someone with a heavy Eastern European accent, calling himself Yuri) with an extravagant offer – we’re talking 5 figures a week here – for 12 weeks occupancy.  They (respectfully) declined, thinking Yuri and his friends might do more party damage than the generous offer was worth…….turns out Yuri was a busy boy, calling all their neighbours, too.  I said it was a desirable location, didn’t I?

2.  SFU lost a very desirable tennat for their Morris Wosk Centre for Diaglogue, when the Brits pulled out of their UK House plan.  It seems that one of the businesses involved had to beg off for financial reasons.  The Centre was lucky: they were able to find another tennant, though their staff had to pull out the stops to get things in place.

3. overheard at The Buzz, 901 Homer Street, today.  One North Shore family is taking a February holiday someplace warm and all-inclusive…thanks to an offer from some friends-of-a-friend.  This offer was legit, for $1000 per day for their home for 14 days.  One family comes in to enjoy the Vancouver Games experience, and the other family enjoys a fabulous vacation away from the madding crowd.  That’s what I call win-win-win!  Neat.