Unger's canoe commute is every bit as serious as Vancouver's official transportation policy, which now includes skateboarding as a means of travel.
Rod Smelser 

What's wrong with skateboarding? One of the amazing side effects of the Dunsmuir bike lane is I know see people skateboarding to work. 

There is nothing wrong with skateboarding, canoing or using a pogo stick if that is what turns your crank, but like all sustainable ideas on getting to work in the downtown, how do I do it from the White Rock area?

I will be damned if I am going to use a pogo stick, bike, or even a canoe to get to work.

Yes, the car is the biggest problem in downtown, that is, if you only live within biking distance of downtown. 

Hey Rod, it is exactly in response to poorly informed, badly planned and sadly executed transportation policies, that come from ivory towers, almost always too late and too little, and that fall flat on the ground, that Steve and others are doing this - the best stuff comes from real people who don't wait around for those in authority but instead innovate in response to challenges they encounter and who initiate ideas that make total sense in real life to those living it. So drop the judgement, climb outta the box, leave the car at home, and check out the view of your world from a new and exciting place like a skateboard or any other unconventional "crazy" mode of fossil fuel free transport. We all need to get over ourselves, have some fun and use our powers for good my friend! And then share our new and inevitably amazing perspectives of things, because that is all that this is about, making the space to do it differently, see it differently, and then, finally, choose to live it differently, for real, and without intending to but at the risk of sounding like a totally cheesy b-s Nike ad.

So much peace my friend and happy gliding, skipping, pogo sticking, peddling, paddling and whatever else keeps this wonderful world of ours spinning right side up right way around with us still on it. I'm under no illusion that a skateboard is going to turn things around and save our sorry asses from the predicament we are all in. But like Gandhi said: "Everything you do in life will be insignificant, but it's very important that you do it anyway." 

Duf,

You could use the park and ride in Surrey and ride the sky train in from there. 

I plan to do, as I do every day (rain, shine or snow)..... walk.  

Duf,
You could kayak from White Rock, across Boundary Bay, around the Airport and up into False Creek or Burrard Inlet - a long and arduous trek indeed, and thoroughly outrageous, but totally do-able nonetheless, and under your own steam! It would be powerfully illuminating of how our discovery and use of fossil fuels has been so incredibly beneficial in so many ways to our standard of living and quality of life (as well as immensely disastrous in countless other ways). Such a crazy commute would create the space for one to contemplate that which needs to be come to terms with in all this, driving home how precious a gift oil is, black gold, and how we have utterly squandered it in our total disregard of its power and potential to do good. Paddling that trip would give one the time to think hard about a lot of hard things and maybe provide the perspective needed to change some stuff in one's life, that, while likely only a drop in the bucket in the bigger scheme of things, could have significant ripple effects in directions unimagined and the lives of others, both known and unknown. Give it at go Duf! Feel what it's like to do it and then, at the very least, be able to know and say that you did! And if not this Friday, then one day dude! What have you got to lose, other than a few pounds, some monkey-on-your-back carbon dependency, and maybe a layer of skin off your hands? For that one magical kayak trip to work, you won't be in traffic sucking back the fumes, but rather, surrounded by the lapping lull of cleansing ocean waters and seabirds floating luxuriously and unrushed in their daily rhythms, living eternally in the now.  

Steve, you know what, the worst air to breathe is on transit routes with diesel buses, in Vancouver, the B-Line route to be specific. Now, I'm in favour in removing as many ditzy myopic drivers of a certain ethnic persuasion and gender from the roads, but those foul ear shattering diesel buses do society more harm than good.

As long as the COV has transportation planners who are on their knees to TransLink to allow TransLink to save a few pennies per rider while putting our health at risk, we are far better off with non-toxic cars on the roads, thank you very much. Try this link and do some research before spouting off about the false-merits of diesel bus transit:

http://www.alaw.org/air_quality/outdoor_air_quality/facts_about_diesel_e...
 

Mary, diesel exhaust kills eight people every year in the Lower Mainland. Source: confidential report which TransLink did not allow to be published after it paid for the study and report. Educate yourself and don't believe everything that you hear from TransLink. TransLink is run by ...

signed,
someone who knows with a chemical engineering degree
 

I wholeheartedly agree with you chemical engineer! We should NOT feel good, in any way, about packing people into buses that sprew out tonnes of toxins, and ever consider calling that sustainable. The key to this whole endeavour is in the "craziness" aspect of Steve's commute - it's outrageous to consider kayaking from White Rock into downtown Vancouver, for sure, but totally worth suggesting and, better yet, worth doing because that's not the ridiculous part of it all...the ridiculous part of it all is that Duf, and millions of us like him all around the world, commute such huge and outrageous distances on a daily basis to begin with, from where we live to where we work...that he lives in Whiterock and works in downtown Vancouver is absolutely crazy, and moreso in that it is so common. WTF?! Why don't we live where we work? Work where we live? Contribute to and support the local economy and social wholeness of the communities we hang our hats in, go to sleep in, eat our morning and evening meals in, raise our kids in, etc? Why have we, as human animals, disconnected ourselves from our natural habitats and settled in such untenable patterns? And I don't buy the higher intellect thing, given the impending implosions of almost every ecosystem required for our specific life support. Ours is a human zoo, put so eloquently by Desmond Morris in his book of the same name. Carrying a canoe down Cambie Street or skateboarding across the Dunsmuir bridge or stiltwalking from Commercial Drive into downtown Vancouver or sailing down the Fraser River, all to get to work, is meant to free up our view so that we can notice stuff we've been missing and see what it is we are doing everyday with our mornings and evenings, our whole entire days, so that we can think about how that is impacting our lives and our planet in very real and tangible and horrifying ways, to get us to question if we still think it's cool to live in these utterly unmanageable and unhealthy ways, and to give us the creative space to consider how we might begin to change it up so as to make our lives more liveable and the planet less pissed with us.

So don't get on a bus! Exit the current thinking on transportation all together, step outta the box and get crazy instead!  

While it is true that diesel is by no means a clean fuel, it still comes down to simple math. 60 people being pushed along by one engine, or 60 people being push along by 60 engines. Sorry no, contest.  

What about zero emission electric vehicles? Is it the congestion or the pollution we are primarily concerned with? 

Thanks to unknown sample. That's a good question.


Transportation debates in Vancouver are usually a front for social class and property values. Thanks for reminding is that Point A to Point B is the real issue.
Rod Smelser 

Mary Coll

We all need to get over ourselves, have some fun and use our powers for good my friend!
==============================

Mary, ... some of us need to get to work. I know that's a foreign concept for the creme de la creme, but for some of us it's reality.
Rod Smelser 

Hipsters on bikes will love this. If you plan on participating in this, at least do something creative, like put an articulating joint in between two Chevy Traverse's or something similar, and have one car pull the other to your destination then have the other one pull you home. It'll be interesting and instead combine two gas-guzzling engines into one, have the rear one in neutral and steer with directions from the front passenger over a bluetooth headset. Plus then you can carry 16 people in total and their baggage.

More than any bike :) 

Geez Rod lighten up...... its just ONE DAY. Get over it. No one is forcing you to partiipate, I don't see a gun to your head. All this event is about.... is a reminder that when it comes to transportation there's more than one way to skin a cat. If you job is so important to you that you can't take one day to do something a little different, a little zany lest you lose your job and go into some sort of manic tizzy..... I humbly suggest that maybe your the type, who needs this day more than the rest of us. Relax...dude... your gonna blow a blood vessel.  

Mary, I didn't think that Vancouver actually had people who understand that sustainability means living near your work. You've renewed my faith that Vancouver does at least have a few people who aren't total morons moving out to Coquitlam to commute 100 km round trip daily by diesel bus.

This week a young Chinese mother with her five or six year old son moved from our building on the B-Line route. Reason: the son couldn't sleep at night because the 60' articulated diesel buses howl and scream until 4 am and because she didn't want her son to damage his lungs from the foul toxic emissions spilling into her apartment. TransLink and COV, I'm coming after you and you have nowhere to hide, scum! 

Neil, a diesel bus like the B-Line gets 1/10th the fuel mileage of the average car and is on the road 20 times longer than the average driver's 45 minute commute. What's worse for the environment, 100,000 clean burning cars or 1,000 soot blowing toxic diesel buses causing cancer and asthma?

Neil, before we even start to look at GHG emissions, diesel buses can't possibly be considered the preferred choice over cars because diesel buses emit toxic emissions which cars do not. Maybe the odd diesel bus is harmless but 600 diesel bus trips daily on the B-Line route? Come on. However, forget that, let's calculate the difference in CO2 emissions between cars and diesel buses:

Approximately one-thousand diesel buses move 100,000 riders daily (200,000 boardings per day in the Lower Mainland, see TransLink web-site). Let x = the CO2 emitted per hour for the car. Then, the CO2 emitted for the diesel bus per hour is at least 10x. The average driver commutes 45 km daily (from the CBC, "Who Killed the Electric Car") for a duration of approximately one hour. The diesel bus, in contrast, operates many nearly empty hours and "Not in Service" hours along with a few hours of overcrowding for a duration of 12 hours to 18 hours daily, on average.

For the miserable ride on the 1,000 diesel buses each day, the emissions are as follows:
(1,000)(10x)(18) = 180,000x

For the comfortable trip in the 100,000 cars each day, the emissions are as follows:
(100,000)(x)(1) = 100,000x

In other words, the B-Lines have almost doubled CO2 emissions in Vancouver so that UBC can sell luxury condos rather than build residences on campus for students and to make TransLink tons of money after the B-Line diesel bus is paid off after one or two years. Don't forget, cars also don't emit toxic levels of lung damaging emissions like the B-Lines, either. Simple math, right?

signed,
chemical engineer
 

there wont be any pollution when the whole species goes extinct soon. 

Mary, not everyone can live near their work. This should be obvious. Sure, I'd like to live in Kits or Yaletown, but that isn't an option because I simply don't have the money to live in a place there that is comparable to what I am living in now. People change jobs all the time, so is a family to be uprooted everytime a parent changes professions? What about quality of life? Should people leave satisfying and enriching proffesions so they can work somewhere, though no where near as fulfilling, that is nonetheless closer to their home? Or should a family abandon a pleasant and safe neighborhood for a lesser one, simply because it is more "sustainable" and closer to work? So say I am a researcher at UBC... but I hate living in dense and compact urban areas, so I live on a nice big yard in a pleasant peaceful area with my family in South Surrey. My quality of life will surely diminish if I have to downsize my home, uproot my children, and deal with an unhappy family. It is these that are "tanglible things".

But as you said, we "can notice stuff we've been missing and see what it is we are doing everyday with our mornings and evenings, our whole entire days, so that we can think about how that is impacting our lives and our planet in very real and tangible and horrifying ways" by spending hours getting to work via skateboard, so I guess it's all worth it. We all know that it is impossible to even ponder these things unless you are living some enviro-hippy's wet-dream.

Your way of life simply isn't practicle for most people. The problem you have is that you view your way of life as superior to that of someone's who doesn't share your values when in fact it is only superior for you because of your own life circumstances (both practically and ideologically). It is exactly this reason I will never support the Green Party. People like this have found the "truth" and want to use this "truth" to restructure how people live their lives, whether this restructuring is actually wanted or needed.  

===>>> Neil B

If you job is so important to you that you can't take one day to do something a little different, a little zany lest you lose your job and go into some sort of manic tizzy..... I humbly suggest that maybe your the type, who needs this day more than the rest of us. Relax...dude... your gonna blow a blood vessel.
=================================


How many employers are going to be chuckling when people show up late after even one day of goofing around? Damn few, actually.


These kinds of special days are meant for people who are employed in NGOs or at their own businesses. They aren't for paid employees who work in industry or at schedule-driven public agencies either.


I have to say I find the yahoo/giggling teenager atmosphere to these discussions offensive and snobbish. It's like listening to the rich kid at school telling you to "lighten up".


Clearly, there are people taking a loud role in debating transportation who have no interest whatsoever in actual outcomes in transportation terms. They're simply fronts, many of them well paid or well supported, for other interests, usually real estate.


Rod Smelser 

"Mary, ... some of us need to get to work. I know that's a foreign concept for the creme de la creme, but for some of us it's reality."
Rod Smelser

Geez, how can I get a job that gives me time to surf the net all day posting lame comments? 

While I agree that diesel buses are harmful, there is still great importance to encourage people to use the service rather than drive. Translink has one of the newest diesel bus fleets in Western Canada. The old two stroke detriot diesel engines (pre 1995) are gone and a sizeable number of hybrids and electric trolley buses ply the roadways.

When considering a bus, 1 electric trolley or possibly 1 hybrid diesel is much cleaner than 60 cars. Translink needs to move the sustainable direction, which compared to any other transportation agency in Western Canada is at the forefront. Translink just needs to do more of the same and implement more electric trolley bus routes and hybrid diesels.

The electric trolleybuses and hybrid diesels are also the most pleasant to ride and might encourage more use compared to a diesel bus. 

@Mary... Maybe that is Rod's jobs. Companies often employ professional trolls to comment and attack organizations whose goals my be counter to their interests. 

Jamie, your way of life isn't responsible and who says that everyone needs to live near their work? We just don't want to encourage people who would otherwise be walking or cycling to move out to Coquitlam in anticipation of the next big rapid transit line.

TransLink is not helping the Lower Mainland by superimposing regional transit over local transit. It is stupid and non-sustainable.

Look the RAV Line, TransLink is running the RAV Line under Cambie Street while operating diesel buses on Cambie Street. TransLink stopped running the trolley buses on Cambie because the COV is too weak to force TransLink to honour its obligations. At the same time, 80% of the diesel buses are still operating and shuttling people to the RAV Line for TransLink to make its quota to avoid penalties. Wake up, and don't be a wanker who complains about "needing transit". You need a new attitude. 

I've never complained once about "needing transit" and didn't actually mention public transit in my post, so I have no idea what you are apparently quoting.

Encouraging people who are already walking or biking to work to continue so isn't the issue. People who bike to work do so because they appreciate the life-style and are unlikely to move out to the suburbs so they can drive to work and add an hour's drive to their day. Let's not kid ourselves. The reason most people need to drive or take transit to work is that they cannot afford to live in an area that would be within walking distance to the places they need to go everyday. For the majority in this city, this only exists in fantasyland. What is actually happening in the real world is that not everyone can afford to live in the same area that they work. As a result, people REQUIRE transit because they have no other methods of transportation (ie, too poor to live downtown and too poor to own a car). The only wankers around here are the ones trying to impress the idea that their life-style is the "truth" and that everyone should step in line. Too bad this issue isn't about "attitude" and other rhetorical catch-phrases, but I live in the real world, where actions have consequences outside of ideological endevours.  

Jamie, when you stated:

"Your way of life simply isn't practical for most people. The problem you have is that you view your way of life as superior to that of someone's who doesn't share your values when in fact it is only superior for you because of your own life circumstances (both practically and ideologically)."

I wish such common sense would be more the norm amongst some environmentalists. We need practical answers rather than smug condescension.

RodSmelser, your comment about "Transportation debates in Vancouver are usually a front for social class and property values" is right on the mark.

Practical,clean and efficient transportation in the Lower Mainland is something I support wholeheartedly. But invariably, the urban cyclist elite lunatic fringe seems to rear its ugly head.
 

If you are a UBC researcher and commute from Surrey to enjoy your big yard, why not just move to Toronto where you can enjoy your lazy lifesytle and grow your fat ass even more commuting three hours daily? What kind of balanced lifestyle is that? How often do you excercise to keep healthy so that you are not a big drain on the health care system?

I live in Point Grey, own three cars and still cycle to work every day downtown. I pay more taxes than the average person makes and am forced to subsidize people like you who can't make it life but still want to live here.

If you can't afford to live and work in Vancouver, move where you can. By the way, I do vote Green and I'm not surprised that a fat ass like you living in Surrey doesn't. 

Chemical Engineer: There's still more than one way to skin a cat. Diesel is by no means optimal... never said was... and I defer to your math... however, I guess you are forgetting Hybrids and other technologies that Translink is using. Lets work to convince them to put the money were it is best served. Which will as I'm sure you will agree will be cleaner than Cars.

Rod: FYI , I don't work for an NGO nor own my own business, I work for a large (one of the largest) Canadian corporations... and they support alternative transit methodologies. Further, who said anything about being late? Are you so narrowminded to think that anyone who chooses to use Alternative Transportation methods can't keep a schedule. No wonder your worried about losing your job. 

Drew Snider with TransLink, I presume? With all due respect, Drew, you say that diesel buses are cleaner than cars but the worst air quality occurs on diesel bus routes. How do you explain that? Isn’t there a contradiction in what you are saying? How can you make the air quality better by making it worse on diesel bus routes?

Moreover, as pointed out by the chemical engineer who has qualifications, which you do not as a TransLink spokesperson hired to spread pro-TransLink propaganda, he has proven with math and logic that diesel buses emit more GHG emissions than cars.

Can you provide scientific proof that diesel buses are not putting people at risk on the B-Line route and that we would have more GHG emissions if people on transit drove rather than rode 3 mpg diesel buses? You can't and you know it.
 

We do not have smoking cars on the roads; we have smoking diesel buses. Cars go through AirCare. Diesel buses are exempt from AirCare because they cannot pass. Any questions, Drew or TransLink? 

Dearest @Jamie,

I love how you attack me as lazy and a fatass simply because the person in my hypothetical situation drives to work. For your information, I am 6'1" and 165 lbs and live an active life all year round. (and I don't live in Surrey) So much for your little theory, huh?. I love how you can't actually address any of the points I said in a rational way. Rather you are reduced to insulting me based on some kind of misconception you have about people who do not understand "the Truth". You seriously advocate that everyone who cannot afford to live in Vancouver propper should quit their jobs and leave the city... you know, because they cannot find an "eco-friendly" and "sustainable" way to get to work? (and move to Toronto... because they are all fatasses too? Yet, another group apparently deserving of your scorn) Are there any other "undesirables" you'd like to see deported? So not only do you judge a person based on their acceptance of "the Truth", you also look down upon people struggling to make the best of their lives. What is most hilarious is the simple fact that if you couldn't afford to live near your work, you'd drive.

And that is really what at issue here... you can't comprehend how the vast majoity of people can find "balance" in a "lifestyle" so different from yours. What you don't understand is that your lifestyle is exactly that, a lifestyle and nothing more. You are not more intelligent and you are not morally superior to the the rest of us. You are just different. You clearly feel contempt and condescension towards people who do not adopt your way of life and maybe that deserves some self-reflection. That's what this is. Nothing more, nothing less.
 

Yes, TransLink is ghettoizing the Lower Mainland. Your lifestyle is non-sustainable and in time you will have a fat ass; I just underestimated your age which appears to be less than 40. Move where you can afford to live.

My vote never counts. You and people like you vote for more mindless regional transit and force people like me to pay for it. Is that democracy? Perverse form of it in my opinion! 

@jamie, your troll card has been formally revoked. as a troll, you need to realize that you need to be less obvious in creating flamebait comments.