Transit It!
Since the conference that I’ve been at this week is in Vancouver, I’ve been taking Skytrain. And I have to tell you, I so much prefer taking Skytrain to work instead of driving! I can read and drink my coffee and not have to worry about terrible drivers like I do when I’m driving!
Granted, it’s been beautiful and sunny these past two days, so it’s been great to walk between the Skytrain Station and the conference hotel – a little bit of exercise that fits nicely into my day! – and it wouldn’t be quite the same if it were cold and rainy. But still – better than driving. Also, the trip home this afternoon was in peak rush hour so I was sardined into the train so tightly I couldn’t even get my textbook out of my bag to read. But still – beats driving!
Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and since I have to go out to UBC afterwards, I’m driving instead of Skytraining it ((As getting home from UBC afterwards would take one million years if I were taking transit.)). Driving into Vancouver during morning rush hour is craptacular, so I’ll probably go in extra early to avoid the traffic and work at a coffee shop until the conference starts. Because if I have to be sitting around, I’d rather sit around a coffee shop and get work done than sit in traffic!
But never fear, I have to go to Vancouver both on Thursday night and on Saturday, so my transit pass will continue to get a workout
Getting to your place from UBC might take an hour if things were bad. It’s like… 99 to Skytrain, Skytrain to home. Hard to get much simpler than that. đŸ™‚
I didn’t say it wasn’t simple, just that it would take one million years. And while one million years may be a wee bit of an exaggeration, it would take 1.5 hrs vs. only 40 minutes by car.
1.5 hrs is based on 1 hr 20 mins according to Google Maps directions – plus ~10 minutes to walk across campus to the bus stop.
Or waiting for three 99 buses because they are filled to the brim with UBC students and a pleasant mix of weirdos.
Or you could take the 33 from UBC to 29th Ave Skytrain, and wave to my cats as you go past my house! (bonus: avoid Broadway in general and the Commercial Drive SkyTrain station in particular)
Do they not have that 99 express bus anymore? It used to shave a bit of time off the first leg of my long trip home to Burnaby. I would still take 1.5 hours on transit over driving back to New West. You could use that time to read a book!
That 1.5 hrs is using the 99 B-line! I just checked Cath’s suggestion of the 33 to 29th Ave Station and that looks like it would be even quicker (though still ~1/2 hour longer than driving!).
Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind spending a bit of extra time using transit (vs. driving) so that I can read, but after 3 days at an intense conference and then a 2 hr math class, my brain would have been in no shape to retain anything I would have read anyway.