Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion II

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Helvetia

I don't have a car, and I'd still choose to take transit even if I did. But I'm not going to pretend like I enjoy someone's bag of heavy metals banging against my leg, or to have someone slowly collapse centimeters in front of my face (both of which happened).

Yeah I feel like a lot of transit advocates gaslight people on their actual experiences on transit.

I'm a fan of skytrain because of the speed, and I take it sometimes even though I have a vehicle. But it's a big stretch for me to get on a bus to go anywhere. I'd hate to have to rely on it.

[WBC]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Yeah I feel like a lot of transit advocates gaslight people on their actual experiences on transit.

I'm a fan of skytrain because of the speed, and I take it sometimes even though I have a vehicle. But it's a big stretch for me to get on a bus to go anywhere. I'd hate to have to rely on it.

Same here. I do have a car but I almost exclusively SkyTrain downtown twice a week. I would much rather space out or read in the train then drive in bumper to bumper traffic. I only take bus on a rare occasion and I would never organize my life around bus use.

And yes SkyTrain is a zoo, but bad smells and noise are not enough to dissuade my from using it.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Yeah I feel like a lot of transit advocates gaslight people on their actual experiences on transit.

I'm a fan of skytrain because of the speed, and I take it sometimes even though I have a vehicle. But it's a big stretch for me to get on a bus to go anywhere. I'd hate to have to rely on it.

I've personally had to come to terms with the fact that my tolerances for things are not the same as others, and you really can't argue against people's vibes and feelings.

One of my friends grew up in East Vancouver but now lives in Coquitlam and would much rather drive downtown than take the Millennium Line because even the Skytrain is apparently such an uncomfortable experience for them. To some people, once that trust in the system is broken there aren't any second chances.

And I'll be honest, there's really only one destination that I find transit conveniently takes me to compared to driving, and that's downtown. Transiting to my job is extremely inconvenient to me (as soon as you're not transiting to a city centre, good fucking luck), transiting to most of my friends and family is extremely inconvenient to me (North Van? South Vancouver? We're talking two, maybe three busses), and transiting to most of the destinations/recreation I want to go to is extremely inconvenient to me. I'll take the Canada Line sometimes to Richmond, but love it or hate it, that city is still designed with drivers in mind.

Ultimately, user experience is pretty important for customers, and a lot of transit fans sound more like engineers than product designers. "It works if you just use it the right way and ignore the faults!" I can be in that mentality too, but there's a reason why people feel comfortable using Windows for decades and get immediately scared off of the "better" Linux.

[RedArbutus]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Ultimately, user experience is pretty important for customers, and a lot of transit fans sound more like engineers than product designers. "It works if you just use it the right way and ignore the faults!"

That assessment could be lobbed at a looooot of people on this forum...myself included

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by chowhou

And I'll be honest, there's really only one destination that I find transit conveniently takes me to compared to driving, and that's downtown. Transiting to my job is extremely inconvenient to me (as soon as you're not transiting to a city centre, good fucking luck), transiting to most of my friends and family is extremely inconvenient to me (North Van? South Vancouver? We're talking two, maybe three busses), and transiting to most of the destinations/recreation I want to go to is extremely inconvenient to me. I'll take the Canada Line sometimes to Richmond, but love it or hate it, that city is still designed with drivers in mind.

The scary thing is it used to be worse than it is now. Decades ago (pre-TransLink when BC Transit was in charge) almost the entire system was based around getting to / from downtown Van. If you wanted to go pretty much anywhere else...

Go figure I moved from SoF to Burnaby near a Skytrain station and a lot of my travel is to areas near other Skytrain stations. I will take a bus sometimes but it's usually as a short 'last mile' trip. Given the choice I'll take a RapidBus even if it means walking further than if I took the local bus.

[Migrant_Coconut]

TBF that's how most highly-developed transit networks operate: the metro does most of the heavy lifting, and buses are just there to fill in the gaps. It's obvious when you say it, but if you can't get to everything important by SkyTrain and walking alone, that means we don't have enough SkyTrain.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

TBF that's how most highly-developed transit networks operate: the metro does most of the heavy lifting, and buses are just there to fill in the gaps. It's obvious when you say it, but if you can't get to everything important by SkyTrain and walking alone, that means we don't have enough SkyTrain.

For instance I don't even take the bus out or into the west end unless I'm going to the airport at an off-peak hour, and I walk to the SkyTrain or avoid transit all together lol

Getting on the R to East Van is inconvenient enough for me I usually drive.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

For instance I don't even take the bus out or into the west end unless I'm going to the airport at an off-peak hour, and I walk to the SkyTrain or avoid transit all together lol

Getting on the R to East Van is inconvenient enough for me I usually drive.

The West End not having a rapid transit connection is (in my opinion) the most significant gap in the system that doesn't have some kind of long term plan to solve it. Even the Vancouver street car plans don't really extend into the West End.

[Migrant_Coconut]

While I acknowledge past Vancouver's success in getting the Expo/Millennium built at all, you can't help but notice that the Dunsmuir Tunnel (among others) really painted the network into a corner.

[officedweller]

A Nelson & Granville Station on the Canada Line would have helped serve the West End, but it was deleted (or was only on the surface LRT option).

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by officedweller

A Nelson & Granville Station on the Canada Line would have helped serve the West End, but it was deleted (or was only on the surface LRT option).

Just a technical report with various alignments for the entire route that mentioned the Nelson Station (underground)

https://www.projects.eao.gov.bc.ca/api/p...Vancouver%20Segment%20%28Part%202%29.pdf

[BaddieB]

Originally Posted by officedweller

A Nelson & Granville Station on the Canada Line would have helped serve the West End, but it was deleted (or was only on the surface LRT option).

Wouldn't work because of how much of an incline is there (and it's also very deep)

[GenWhy?]

It'll be interesting to see the results of the larger capacity Beach Ave bus and the slow roll-out of reducing the number of bus stops on Davie, Robson, and Denman for improved bus times in the West End. I can't imagine much more than that in the next 10 years.

The east side of the neighbourhood as the #19 and express buses on Georgia... maybe the 22 can fill a gap for the west side of the neighbourhood.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Yeah I feel like a lot of transit advocates gaslight people on their actual experiences on transit.

I'm a fan of skytrain because of the speed, and I take it sometimes even though I have a vehicle. But it's a big stretch for me to get on a bus to go anywhere. I'd hate to have to rely on it.

And add in that most commenters tend to be male. Being a single woman on transit or walking alone to a stop brings another level of apprehension we don't feel in the same way.

[cganuelas1995]

Originally Posted by whatnext

And add in that most commenters tend to be male. Being a single woman on transit or walking alone to a stop brings another level of apprehension we don't feel in the same way.

Yeah there was that woman that was leaving work when she was grabbed from behind and dragged into an alleyway. She was lucky there were bystanders brave enough to intervene but next time she might not have that option.

If the crown prosecution service started doing their jobs properly then we would probably have a safer city, instead we have people with rap-sheets that can go to the moon and back committing crimes while out on probation where a condition is to not commit crimes.

[cganuelas1995]

They could use an announcement campaign reminding people to have their cards ready before they use the fare gates. Too many people I have seen standing in front of the gate rummaging through their bags looking for their card

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

They could use an announcement campaign reminding people to have their cards ready before they use the fare gates. Too many people I have seen standing in front of the gate rummaging through their bags looking for their card

They could be announcing a lot of things (such as people crowding the Skytrain doors and trying to enter the train while people are trying to leave) but...

[cganuelas1995]

Originally Posted by Sheba

They could be announcing a lot of things (such as people crowding the Skytrain doors and trying to enter the train while people are trying to leave) but...

Could probably make them stand out instead of sounding boring

[MIPS]

It still busts my balls that you have to take the damn card out of my wallet. I'm so used to Suica cards and the gates/bus scanners ignoring every other card in your wallet.
The compass fobs are useless when they are only available in limited quantities and are readily scalped.

[The_Henry_Man]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

They could use an announcement campaign reminding people to have their cards ready before they use the fare gates. Too many people I have seen standing in front of the gate rummaging through their bags looking for their card

The ultimate solution is for Translink to make Compass Cards available and compatible with Apple Wallet (or the Android equivalent) so you can use your phone or smart watch instead of having to rummage through your wallet/purse. Several cities have done this already (I believe Toronto is one of them as well?).