The Orion I bus from West Vancouver Transit. Photo by David Lam.
Just wanted to bump this item up in case you were thinking of attending (and also because the details didn’t show on the original post when it first went up!).
David Lam has chartered an Orion I bus from West Van Transit for a fan trip on Saturday, March 20: see this post for the full details. He has also posted the following update:
To anyone planning on attending this charter on this upcoming Saturday, RSVP is mandatory, please fire off an email to me before 12am on Saturday (midnight on Friday) if you are planning to attend the charter! So far I have counted 20 people only…….meaning the cost will be $30 per person (max rate) and I might end up having to subsidize the difference out of my own pocket, or I will have to break the rule and charge $32 per person contrary to my previous promise. So please, if you are planning to attend this event, send me an email ASAP! Thanks!
The Orion I bus from West Vancouver Transit. Photo by David Lam.
David Lam from the Trans-Continental bus photography site has asked me to share the following announcement.
On March 20th, 2010 (Saturday), we will be hosting a charter with a West Vancouver Municipal Transit Orion I bus. This event runs from 2pm – 7pm with no meal breaks in between.
This West Vancouver Transit Orion I farewell charter is just so a group of transit fans can get together and enjoy a day touring around the Lower Mainland, and photo stops will be provided along the way. (The Orion I buses are due for retirement soon.)
Starting at Homer and Georgia (West Vancouver Transit terminus adjacent to the post office HQ, across from VPL Central Branch) at 2pm sharp, we will be travelling onboard this Orion I bus from downtown to Richmond, Ladner, Surrey, possibly Coquitlam/Belcarra, SFU, Burnaby. The tour will end at Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver by 7pm.
Cost per person has yet to be decided, our goal is to simply break-even with all expenses of this charter as opposed to making profits. The estimated cost is minimum $20 per person, not exceeding a maximum of $30, average $25. The actual cost will be announced as soon as we are able to finalize the list of attendees of the event.
Each bus will carry a maximum of 30 people, if there are over 50 people planning to attend the charter, we will consider renting a second Orion I from WVMT. Right now, we have 15 people signed up. First come first serve!
Send David an e-mail if you are interested in going along!
You might get a sweet treat on transit over the next few days, right as the Paralympics kick off!
Starting today, Friday March 12, we’re sending out street ambassadors to thank you for helping to contribute to the success of the Games by going TravelSmart. They’ll be handing out chocolate medals to those who can answer a few TravelSmart questions correctly.
As you may know, our transit system managed to move an average of 1.6 million people every day during the Olympic Games, which is about 50 percent more people on a normal day. And much of the credit goes to everyone in Metro Vancouver, for choosing to leave your private autos behind and using other means of getting around.
Our ambassadors will be on the bus, SkyTrain, SeaBus or West Coast Express today and on the weekend: so keep an eye out to win a medal!
Slate has a fantastic series of articles about signage and wayfinding. The articles include a discussion of the confusing Penn Station signage and new wayfinding for pedestrians in London UK. (AIG, the consultants on the London wayfinding project, are actually helping with our wayfinding work.) Thanks to Stefan for passing this link along!
And visit Jarrett Walker’s blog Human Transit for some profoundly interesting discussion: stuff on social media and transit, kids on transit, and more!
And then, in the comments, Dave2 posted a picture of downtown Vancouver in 1981: a very similar shot to one of mine, but how things have changed! Have a look: my photo is above and Dave’s is below.
A look at downtown Vancouver in 1981, toward where B.C. Place is today. Photo by Dave2.
Here’s what Dave added later in the comments too, after I remarked on how amazing the differences were:
Jhenifer, ain’t that the truth! Even by 1985 that view had totally changed, with all of the rail yards and the associated buildings cleared out, the opening of the Expo Preview Centre (now Science World) and the construction of Skytrain … And now, you can’t even _see_ Science World with all the highrises.
BBC reporter Adrian Warner rides the SeaBus. Screenshot from the BBC's clip about our transit system!
Wow—Adrian Warner, the BBC’s London Olympics correspondent, has put together a news clip and an article commending our transit system and our TravelSmart traffic reduction strategy for the Games.
And rest assured, we are all very mindful that there are still 10 days of the Games left to go—we’re still working hard (and crossing our fingers!) to make sure everything continues going well :)
The crowds outside for the Colbert Report taping near Science World.
On a westbound SkyTrain, I caught this shot of the crowds that formed for a taping of the Colbert Report, out at Creekside Park near Science World!
The taping was at 9:15 a.m. today, and the show will tape again on Thursday, February 18 at the same time, same place. Christine McAvoy has some more great photos of the crowds at VancouverIsAwesome.com.
Crowds wait for Millennium Line trains at Commercial-Broadway Station on Friday, February 12.
We’re four days into the Olympics and of course I have some assorted tidbits and links to share.
Good morning, Vancouver! If you’re heading to work and you’re near an Olympic venue, look out for busier-than-normal transit and traffic as people head to events. Travelsmart2010.ca has some travel tips to maybe make your trip easier.
If you’re a spectator heading to events, Rebecca at Miss 604 has some tips for you.
Fun tidbit! Our Customer Information line had its busiest day ever on Friday, February 12 — that’s 7,400 calls! They’re open 20 hours a day, 7 days a week through the Games, so people with questions are able to get their questions answered (604-953-3333
Another fun tidbit: on Friday, February 12, travelsmart2010.ca received 15,477 visits and the Traffic and Transit Conditions map was viewed 3,578 times on that site. translink.ca received 58,071 visits and 5,888 views of the traffic map. Keep on using those tools!
Remember, follow the TransLink Twitter account for real-time transit info updates! Or try any one of our web and mobile resources for real-time info during the Olympic period. There’s also a number of iPhone apps to help you navigate our system.
Angela Melick's Commuterlympics comic, from her webcomic Wasted Talent!
Here’s a hilarious transit-related comic from Angela Melick‘s webcomic, Wasted Talent! She sent it along in a tweet the other day, and here’s what she says about it:
It’s the latest installment of my webcomic “Wasted Talent”. Webcomics are comics that publish online for free and can be about almost anything, but mine is silly true stories from my life. And since I live and work in Vancouver, that comic invariably features transit! I don’t own a car, so I take the train to get to work and I take the bus to get pretty much everywhere else. When I lived in North Van, I took the Seabus every day, and when I lived briefly in Mission, I took the WCE occasionally, so really there is not a single part of the system that hasn’t been a part of my life for at least awhile :) I even livetweeted my sneak-peak ride of the Canada Line (a bunch of us engineers got to ride it in June)!
This latest comic is based on the fact that the Olympic tourists are so easy to spot in train stations. The locals are ruthless about getting onto trains, but we are all a team. Everyone loves to see a successful sprint, right!?
The City of Vancouver’s public art program has a neat transit-related project from artist Anna Ruth, called Sensory Maps of Vancouver. Check out the video above for more on the project, plus here’s the description from their website:
Sensory Maps of Vancouver is a series of drawings that record the movement of city buses and reflect the experience of public transportation in the urban environment. Using simple drawing tools, the Finland-based artist let the vibrations of each vehicle dictate the lines she translated to paper as she rode and moved from bus to bus during one 24-hour period covering as much of the city as possible. The end result—twenty bus routes, one train line and one Seabus trip later—is a collection of ‘maps’.
Very cool! Look for the maps in bus shelters throughout Vancouver from January 25 to March 21, 2010.
(Many thanks to Derek Cheung for sending this along!)
Here’s a roundup of some transport-related links that you might like – so much is happening right now owing to the Olympics, plus people have sent me some interesting items!
Bombardier gave some media and bloggers a sneak peek of the new Olympic Line streetcar that will be running January 21 to March 21. Check out some great posts and photos from City Caucus, Stephen Rees, and Miss 604! Paul Hillsdon also has a post on making 2010 the year of the streetcar. (Btw, the line is free to ride, and it opens to the public on January 21 at 9:30 a.m.!)
Lots of stories about how to get around Vancouver for the Olympics are popping up: for example, here’s one from the Bellingham Herald, plus blog posts from Amuse Consulting and Miss 604. (Check out travelsmart2010.ca as well, plus we’ll have more in the runup to the Games!)
Wired suggests iPhone apps that commuters would love. Some are US-centric, but if they work for you, go for it. (Or maybe they’re inspiration for making your own app :)
The plush SkyTrain from Bangkok’s transit system, atop my overhead filing cabinet!
The metal fasteners that snap the SkyTrain cars together.
I might just be the luckiest girl in transit. Jason Vanderhill brought me the most wonderful holiday gift last week – a plush SkyTrain from Bangkok’s SkyTrain system!
Here’s the ad for the “pillow SkyTrain,” as Bangkok’s system calls it. You can’t actually order it online: Jason had to phone the Bangkok train system to buy it, and then a friend mailed it over to Canada!
The train pictured has four cars and is quite huge – about five feet end to end. Originally, however, it came in a set of three cars: a front car, end car, plus a middle car, which can all be snapped onto each other with metal fasteners. Jason just got two sets and kept a two-car for himself :)
So many, many thanks for this, Jason! My colleagues have all been coming by to have a peek: everyone thinks it’s a terrific model for a future Vancouver SkyTrain plushie! (Or an inspiration to craft one up at home!)
Here’s another transit holiday gift idea from Jason Vanderhill: a working train set, dressed up in papercraft to look like our SkyTrains!
A video of the trainset is above, and here’s how Jason describes it:
Here is my Super Express SkyTrain Papercraft toy train set, made just for Christmas! You can buy Super Express trains at Daiso, and the blueprints for making your own SkyTrain cars are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmv/sets/72157622988887112
Jason’s blueprints are for a Mark I train and the new grey/blue Mark II 1300-1400 series train. Thanks Jason — what a fun transit craft project for the holidays!
In my line of work, I tend to come across things that fans of transit might enjoy. So I thought I’d put together a list of transit gift ideas for the 2009 holiday season, for those with transit fans in their lives!
Some notes: I’ve tried to ensure these suggestions are reasonably affordable. Also, no one on this list has asked me to promote their items. Please feel free to add further gift ideas in the comments – I’m sure there’s lots of stuff I’ve missed (especially for kids).
Transit Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden
Transit Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden.
Design nerds and transit nerds alike will enjoy Mark Ovenden’s 2007 book, which collects all the transit maps from every city with rapid transit.
It might sound dry, but trust me, it’s fascinating. The book vividly shows how each transit system evolved, and spotlights each system’s different map designs over the years. My particular favourite is Berlin – the book shows how the Berlin Wall chopped up the transit lines and cut some stations right out of the network.
Available at Chapters ($18.15) or Amazon.ca ($17.24). Or check your local bookstore!
