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Commuting in Vancouver, BC
Doc
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
I'm about to make a move from Seattle to Vancouver. I currently have a car, a motorcycle, and a bicycle. I'd like to be able to ditch the car in favor of public transit.
I plan on living in Vancouver proper (a friend that is moving with me wants to either live in Yaletown/surrounding area or near Commercial Drive; I am comfortable with either), and I have to commute to SW Burnaby. I am okay with riding my motorcycle in the cold and light rain, but real rain and any sort of ice sucks.
If I am comfortable with the commute taking ~45 minutes each way via public transit, should I be okay without owning a car? I'll have those big aluminum side boxes on my bike by then, so I'll be able to carry a limited amount of stuff (groceries, etc) around if I can't just walk to the store.
I am also willing to rent cars every once in a while if I need to. I just don't want to pay $200-300/month for parking (depending on the neighborhood) and insurance if I can avoid it.
I plan on living in Vancouver proper (a friend that is moving with me wants to either live in Yaletown/surrounding area or near Commercial Drive; I am comfortable with either), and I have to commute to SW Burnaby. I am okay with riding my motorcycle in the cold and light rain, but real rain and any sort of ice sucks.
If I am comfortable with the commute taking ~45 minutes each way via public transit, should I be okay without owning a car? I'll have those big aluminum side boxes on my bike by then, so I'll be able to carry a limited amount of stuff (groceries, etc) around if I can't just walk to the store.
I am also willing to rent cars every once in a while if I need to. I just don't want to pay $200-300/month for parking (depending on the neighborhood) and insurance if I can avoid it.
Doc on
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Are you going to be working near Metrotown?
Go south of there until you hit water. That's about where I will be working. It's a short-ish bus ride from the Skytrain.
I wouldn't worry about a car, personally. My wife and I went without one for quite some time until it became a necessity what with me commuting all the way out to fucking Abbotsford from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby, and 70th and Oak in Vancouver before that.
I am so glad that I now live in a city where the furthest place worth going is a 15 minute drive max.
EDIT: Are you working in the industrial area near the river? What are you doing there, if you don't mind me asking?
There is a large office park down there by the golf course. I work as a software dev for a company that makes phones and rhymes with "chokia."
Here is their website: http://www.translink.ca/
Pretty sure you can get a door to door timetable/directions.
I am actually quite glad that I had to get one, despite the costs involved (though I negotiated my salary to offset this). If you're into any kind of camping or outdoors stuff, it is so damned nice to have. Though, you have a motorcycle so that would work if you wanted to go somewhere for a day hike. It is also very nice for Costco runs and whatever else where you need to move big stuff.
For car rentals, a few friends of ours use and love zipcar. There are tons of parking lot locations around Yaletown and Commercial area.
I'm one of those guys with the full synthetic suit and big aluminum side boxes on their motorcycles. Camping isn't a problem.
I saw that there is also a car co-op that's similar to zipcar.
Your commute should not be too bad. Typically, most traffic in Metro Vancouver (you may also hear the term GVRD or Greater Vancouver used), moves West towards downtown in the morning and East towards the burbs in the evening. A quick google maps lookup shows about a 25 minute travel time from Yaletown to South Burnaby if you decide to drive. I've also found Google's travel time estimates to be extremely cautious.
Oh, about rain, I did a quick look. On average it rains even more here than in Seattle, so just keep that in mind for cycling. We had our coldest, snowiest winter in ages last year, so I have no idea whats going to happen this year. Hopefully it wont be too bad, as the region goes to hell when it snows seriously.
Also, I believe I saw something on a bus-stop recently about Translink ceasing production of paper schedules, something about being able to get in on your phone. And while Transit is good within the urban core of Vancouver, outside of Vancouver and Burnaby and possibly Surrey, it is mediocre to terrible.
You will also probably want, and I think be required, to get BC insurance for your bike. In BC you're required by law to buy your basic insurance from ICBC, which is a Crown Corporation (government owned agency). ICBC also adminsters drivers licenses in the province.
That and finding parking in Yaletown is an exercise in frustration.
Seattle's only really notable for rain because it's nearly constant, not because of volume. I get the same feeling about Vancouver. That's not to say that there aren't downpours - it just seems like there is an ever-present sprinkle in the winter in Seattle, and I imagine it's similar.
My personal experience, for example, was that I had two choices:
- take a series of buses from my apartment in Vancouver to my office in Richmond, spending over an hour, close to half of which was waiting for the next bus
- buy a car and drive to the office in about 20 minutes
I bought a car. The personal time it saved me was simply worth it.Also, Vancouver's public transit time estimates on Google Maps are not to be believed when multiple bus routes are involved. The route from my old apartment to my old job is estimated at about 40 minutes, which is a dirty, dirty lie. With normal wait times, it never took less than an hour, and sometimes as much as an hour and twenty minutes. This was because buses would often show up later than scheduled, which meant I'd be dropped off at a transfer a few minute after a bus on the connecting route had just left, with ten minutes to wait for the next bus on that route. A couple missed connections like that and I'd spend almost as long waiting as I spent riding, and end up late for work.
Our public transit is 100% fantastic. Ditch the car. Everyone I've known whose had a car has sold it ... with the exception of bombardier because he HAS to have his.
Yeah, as I mentioned earlier. If you work and live in the areas Sky Train serves, or places with frequent bus service, its great. But fantastic is a term I'd reserve for cities with full fledged rapid transit systems, like London or Barcelona.
One dumb thing I did while in Vancouver was not know that public transport shared fares. You buy your $2.50 fare ticket, and it's good for like 2 hours IIRC. You can use it as many times as you want between buses, skytrain and ferries during that 2 hour frame.
I didn't know this at first and would buy multiple fares. Duuumb! Best bet is getting a Buspass of course.
Yeah, those are all areas served well by transit. Once you get east of Burnaby, or south of Richmond, things get crappy pretty quick.
If you're living in the Commercial Drive area or Yaletown you're going to be within easy easy walking distance of a skytrain, or a bus that'll get you to one really quickly. The skytrain-feeding busses run every 5-10 minutes and you don't even have to sit on them for very long.
fyi. Commercial Drive and Yaletown have very very different atmospheres. Kits is also pretty nice in terms of living and it's between Yaletown and Commercial in price range.
I live in Richmond, and shit, son, the skytrain has made a world of difference in terms of getting around.
They cast a shadow like a sundial in the morning light. It was half past 10.
Basically this. Vancouver/Burnaby == great.
Once you get out to the burbs (surrey/delta and such) it takes a drastic drop.
Very aware of it, yeah. Basically I'm looking for something different than where I live now, and both fit the bill.
I lived in Kits (until I for some reason decided to live in a mud hut in Africa... I miss the beach!) and worked for the bus company when I was there. Fantastic transit system if you live in the area. If you don't though, you are SCREWED. Case in point, I lived in Surrey for yeeeeaars and started taking the bus when my car broke down. Only bus stop was 2km from my house, with service every 30 minutes, and I remember one cold cold coooold rainy morning when everyone decided to take the bus and I got passed up twice. 1.5 hours standing in the rain, with my house just outside of the reasonable walking distance (it would take 25 minutes to jog there and back). Seriously wanted to scream.
How many vancouver peeps here in PA anyway? Seriously the best city in the world... coming from Seattle you should have no problem with the weather. Coming from anywhere else and people start to go crazy. I actually like the rain because I grew up there, so now in the middle of Africa I am going stir crazy from all this frikken sunshine!
Oh yeah - check the bus stop signs, there's a number you can text for schedules. Or call translink customer service and spam zero to talk to someone.
PSN - sumowot