SpongeG
Jan 30, 2008, 10:27 PM
hmmm
Are young people getting on the transit bandwagon?
Having sold my trusty little truck and converted to a one-car household, the automatic choice to drive over to the Lower Mainland for a convention wasn’t so automatic any more.
A friend offered to give me a lift to the ferry terminal for the trip back, and suggested I fly over. Helijet, the choice of cabinet ministers and TV types, was a bit rich for my blood, but Harbour Air’s one-way fare wasn’t much more than two ferry passes for the car, so I booked it.
As I struggled to keep my knees from making an impression in the back of the lady in front of me, the Harbour Air in-flight magazine welcomed me aboard “North America’s first carbon-neutral airline.” For this trip, the airline charged me an extra 50 cents and passed it on to Offsetters.ca, a non-profit society started by a couple of UBC professors to identify legitimate green projects to finance.
And it reckons that a single-engine float plane is a more environmentally friendly way to get from Fantasy Island to Lotusland than a car, ferry, helicopter, commercial jet or twin-engine plane. Flying low not only gives a better view, it saves fuel. (Watching for orcas instead of exit signs: priceless.)
After listening to logging contractors discuss beetle-wood and bioenergy, I had a chance for a bite to eat with my daughter between her classes at Douglas College. Down to the depths of Burrard Station to board the Expo line: $3.75 for a two-zone fare.
Some things haven’t changed since I first rode the SkyTrain from my old New West walkup apartment nearly 20 years ago. The thieves and drug dealers around the station look just as ghastly, although now there are more of them.
What has changed is the rush-hour volume packed onto the trains, leaving people on the platform as we exit the downtown. Mostly young and non-European-looking riders crushed politely together, on a line that’s due for expanded stations and longer trains as part of the B.C. government’s $14 billion transit master plan. There are no plans yet for Tokyo-style subway “pushers” to cram people into cars, but don’t rule it out for 2020.
After the convention it’s onto the SeaBus to meet the friend who will drive me to Tsawwassen. Another two-zone fare of $3.75, another scenic ride.
My daughter and her friends are suburban girls and boys: as car crazy as my or any generation. They mostly don’t live near SkyTrain, and can’t imagine getting onboard the Loser Cruiser, as transit buses are known. They brave the gridlocked streets to school and work, switching networks from Facebook to cellphone for the long commute, and as if that wasn’t enough mechanized madness they go four-by-fouring on weekends.
Their cars are an extension of their wardrobe, style and brand all-important. My daughter’s recovering from an accident that wrote off her ’95 Civic (the other driver’s fault, no serious injuries), but does such trauma dull her enthusiasm? Does the prospect of wading back into the used-car market in search of the few import brands deemed cool enough? Not for a second.
Back in Victoria, I drove out to the UVic campus to hear Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon defend the RapidBus option for Metro Victoria, seen as second-best by those with rail-envy.
Articulated buses with dedicated lanes will actually be faster than surface rail, and the level stations create a “rapid-transit feel,” he said. It also conditions people to transit, and allows urban density to build up to support rail.
Will the next generation buy in? According to Statistics Canada, they’re more car-addicted than us Baby Boomers.
Windshield time
Statistics Canada issued a new report last week analyzing trends in vehicle dependency. It finds that despite all the urbanization that’s taken place in the last decade or so, “dependence on the automobile increased between 1992 and 2005.” The proportion of Canadians aged 18 and over who went everywhere by car (as driver or passenger) rose from 68 per cent in 1992 to 70 per cent in 1998 and to 74 per cent in 2005.
At the same time, walking and bicycle use declined. The percentage of people who made one of their daily trips by muscle power is down from 25 per cent in 1992 to 19 per cent in 2005.
Smaller urban communities have an average of 80 per cent dependence on automobiles to get around, and among large cities, Vancouver finished behind first-place Montreal and second-place Toronto with 69 per cent of adults dependent on their cars.
Carbon offsets tracked
My 50-cent guilt fee to fly to Vancouver went to Offsetters.ca as mentioned above. So what did it actually do?
The first thing I’m assured is that this is the official carbon offsetter of the Barenaked Ladies Canadian tour, so I feel more confident already. Vancouver-based Offsetters.ca gives the money to British-based Climatecare.org, which to my great relief, actually has tangible projects.
One of them is to finance leg-powered irrigation pumps for farmers in northern India. This frees them from the need to use diesel pumps to irrigate their land, getting three crops a year instead of one as they would from normal rain.
The low-tech pumps look and operate like Fred Flintstone’s Stairmaster, and draw water up from deep underground with nothing other than the farmer’s own mass and muscle power.
Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press newspapers.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/kootenayadvertiser/opinion/14954751.html
Are young people getting on the transit bandwagon?
Having sold my trusty little truck and converted to a one-car household, the automatic choice to drive over to the Lower Mainland for a convention wasn’t so automatic any more.
A friend offered to give me a lift to the ferry terminal for the trip back, and suggested I fly over. Helijet, the choice of cabinet ministers and TV types, was a bit rich for my blood, but Harbour Air’s one-way fare wasn’t much more than two ferry passes for the car, so I booked it.
As I struggled to keep my knees from making an impression in the back of the lady in front of me, the Harbour Air in-flight magazine welcomed me aboard “North America’s first carbon-neutral airline.” For this trip, the airline charged me an extra 50 cents and passed it on to Offsetters.ca, a non-profit society started by a couple of UBC professors to identify legitimate green projects to finance.
And it reckons that a single-engine float plane is a more environmentally friendly way to get from Fantasy Island to Lotusland than a car, ferry, helicopter, commercial jet or twin-engine plane. Flying low not only gives a better view, it saves fuel. (Watching for orcas instead of exit signs: priceless.)
After listening to logging contractors discuss beetle-wood and bioenergy, I had a chance for a bite to eat with my daughter between her classes at Douglas College. Down to the depths of Burrard Station to board the Expo line: $3.75 for a two-zone fare.
Some things haven’t changed since I first rode the SkyTrain from my old New West walkup apartment nearly 20 years ago. The thieves and drug dealers around the station look just as ghastly, although now there are more of them.
What has changed is the rush-hour volume packed onto the trains, leaving people on the platform as we exit the downtown. Mostly young and non-European-looking riders crushed politely together, on a line that’s due for expanded stations and longer trains as part of the B.C. government’s $14 billion transit master plan. There are no plans yet for Tokyo-style subway “pushers” to cram people into cars, but don’t rule it out for 2020.
After the convention it’s onto the SeaBus to meet the friend who will drive me to Tsawwassen. Another two-zone fare of $3.75, another scenic ride.
My daughter and her friends are suburban girls and boys: as car crazy as my or any generation. They mostly don’t live near SkyTrain, and can’t imagine getting onboard the Loser Cruiser, as transit buses are known. They brave the gridlocked streets to school and work, switching networks from Facebook to cellphone for the long commute, and as if that wasn’t enough mechanized madness they go four-by-fouring on weekends.
Their cars are an extension of their wardrobe, style and brand all-important. My daughter’s recovering from an accident that wrote off her ’95 Civic (the other driver’s fault, no serious injuries), but does such trauma dull her enthusiasm? Does the prospect of wading back into the used-car market in search of the few import brands deemed cool enough? Not for a second.
Back in Victoria, I drove out to the UVic campus to hear Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon defend the RapidBus option for Metro Victoria, seen as second-best by those with rail-envy.
Articulated buses with dedicated lanes will actually be faster than surface rail, and the level stations create a “rapid-transit feel,” he said. It also conditions people to transit, and allows urban density to build up to support rail.
Will the next generation buy in? According to Statistics Canada, they’re more car-addicted than us Baby Boomers.
Windshield time
Statistics Canada issued a new report last week analyzing trends in vehicle dependency. It finds that despite all the urbanization that’s taken place in the last decade or so, “dependence on the automobile increased between 1992 and 2005.” The proportion of Canadians aged 18 and over who went everywhere by car (as driver or passenger) rose from 68 per cent in 1992 to 70 per cent in 1998 and to 74 per cent in 2005.
At the same time, walking and bicycle use declined. The percentage of people who made one of their daily trips by muscle power is down from 25 per cent in 1992 to 19 per cent in 2005.
Smaller urban communities have an average of 80 per cent dependence on automobiles to get around, and among large cities, Vancouver finished behind first-place Montreal and second-place Toronto with 69 per cent of adults dependent on their cars.
Carbon offsets tracked
My 50-cent guilt fee to fly to Vancouver went to Offsetters.ca as mentioned above. So what did it actually do?
The first thing I’m assured is that this is the official carbon offsetter of the Barenaked Ladies Canadian tour, so I feel more confident already. Vancouver-based Offsetters.ca gives the money to British-based Climatecare.org, which to my great relief, actually has tangible projects.
One of them is to finance leg-powered irrigation pumps for farmers in northern India. This frees them from the need to use diesel pumps to irrigate their land, getting three crops a year instead of one as they would from normal rain.
The low-tech pumps look and operate like Fred Flintstone’s Stairmaster, and draw water up from deep underground with nothing other than the farmer’s own mass and muscle power.
Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press newspapers.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/kootenayadvertiser/opinion/14954751.html