Here's the newest Games event: The marathon commute
Invest in a bus pass or prepare to walk as city moves to reduce auto traffic
By Pete McMartin, Vancouver SunOctober 14, 2009 9:00 PM
Yes, there will be delays.
Yes, there will be times when you may not be able to get from A to B, at least, not before detouring through the rest of the alphabet.
So, you have two options when it comes to responding to the street closures and traffic restrictions that the Winter Olympics will begin to bring to our fair city as early as next month.
You can (a) whine.
Or you can (b) get with the program, you party pooper, and embrace the Olympic Spirit! Which will likely mean you having to take the bus in the near future. Where you will sit beside the man whose breath smells overpoweringly of garlic.
(There is, actually, a third option, though it entails alcohol.)
So say you choose Option B. You have decided to embrace the Olympic Spirit! Good for you! First, you should be made aware of the fact that most of the parking spaces on the street in the downtown core will no longer be available to the public, and those that will be available have been reserved for the sole personal use of IOC chairman Jacques Rogge, who will need them whenever he feels the urge to stop somewhere and get some sushi to go.
You should also be made aware that the City of Vancouver plans to reduce car traffic coming into the downtown core by 30 per cent during peak hours. Since some 55,000 cars presently do so now -- cars which, when stacked end to end, as they usually are, would form a line all the way from my home in Tsawwassen to my office at the foot of Granville, as they usually do -- that means the city hopes to have 16,500 fewer cars entering the downtown core during the Olympic period. Which means you will have to leave your car at home so I won't have to.
Okay, so let's now look at your options.
You can walk. No, seriously. This is a particularly good option if you live in the second-floor apartment above the Seven-11 in which you work. If your commute happens to be a little farther than that, the City of Vancouver, according to Wednesday's press release, "will implement an easily recognizable and consistent way-finding program to guide residents." The one downside to this will be, of course, that you will have to walk to implement this program.
You can bike. If you have never biked to work before, you are in for a treat, especially since you will have a chance to experience first-hand our dedicated paramedic crews in action.
Or, if you happen to live outside the City of Vancouver, where long commutes preclude the walking and biking options, Vanoc and TransLink suggest various strategies to ease your commute.
These are:
1. Don't. Work from home. Upside: Nude dress code. Downside: You get laid off after boss notices how well things are going in the office without you around.
2. Carpool. Your neighbour who insists 9/11 was an inside job? This is your chance to really get to know him.
3. Commute during off-peak hours. TransLink has suggested, for example, that you consider not commuting between 7 and 9 a.m., and 2 to 7 p.m. I understand this to mean that I am to arrive at work after 9 a.m. and leave work before 2 p.m. Which in my case would be a longer than usual work day.
4. Take transit. Your best bet. The Metro Vancouver is blessed with a variety of rapid transit systems that can whisk you to and from your office within days. During your commute, you can read the newspaper, do paperwork or watch to see if the woman snoring in the seat next to you will drool out of the side of her mouth. Two words of advice for those of you new to the transit system? Flu shot.
5. Take a vacation. Not, unfortunately, an option for most of us.
Somebody has to pay for all this.
pmcmartin@vancouversun.com
604-605-2905
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Her...302/story.html
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Must you be so negative all the time?
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