TravelSmart: join the movement!

We’re proud to launch a new program called TravelSmart today!

Through TravelSmart, we’re hoping to help people make smart travel choices for getting around our region. It’s no coincidence that we’re launching this on the first anniversary of the Olympics—we’re looking to continue the efficient travel choices that we all embraced during the 2010 Games.

To that end, we’ve launched a new website at travelsmart.ca with resources on ride-sharing, teleworking, cycling, walking, and more. And you can follow @travelsmart on Twitter.

Travelsmart.ca has a new Your Neighbourhood Map tool, which lets you plug in an address and discover what services are easily accessible nearby. There’s also a wealth of articles discussing travel choices available to you. Have a look!

Sign up at travelsmart.ca and win prizes!

If you sign up at the TravelSmart website between February 12 to 28, 2011, you will be automatically entered to win weekly prizes or one of our grand prizes!

The grand prize draw includes two Rocky Mountain Bicycles, an iPad, or one of 10 $500 gift certificates from Vancouver Top Attractions (and FareSaver transit tickets to get you to your destination of choice).

The weekly prizes include:

• $100 gift certificates to Park Royal Shopping Centre (and FareSaver transit tickets to get you there)
• $100 gift certificates to Mountain Equipment Co-op
• $25 gift certificates to Waves Coffee (and FareSaver transit tickets to get you to the Waves in your neighbourhood)

You’ll also see some street teams and other folks spreading the word at events this weekend and beyond—so look out for even more ways to learn about TravelSmart and win.

A work in progress: we need your feedback

At the moment, the current TravelSmart program and website is really a work in progress. The website is not complete by any means, and we’re still looking to build better tools and resources to help people try different travel choices.

That’s where your feedback can really help us build a really strong TravelSmart site. Please let us know what you like, where you see opportunities or challenges, and any other suggestions you can think of to help improve our work! Feel free to use the comments below, or e-mail our TravelSmart community manager Sarah Loewen at sarah.loewen@translink.ca.

Right now, we’re aiming to upgrade the TravelSmart site in April 2011, when your site registration will hopefully give you access to more personalized tools—and with your help, we can make sure TravelSmart grows up right :)

TravelSmart: helping build a healthy region for our future

Beyond the small day to day choices we’re hoping to help you with, TravelSmart is actually a key way to build a healthy, sustainable region over the next 30 years!

The program is a big part of helping us to achieve the region’s Transport 2040 vision of creating a more livable community, through encouraging Metro Vancouverites to use efficient alternatives to solo-driver travel.

Smart decisions about how we move around can help us build a better future for everyone—so we really would like you to get engaged and join the TravelSmart movement! Sign up, give us feedback, and stay with us: together we can hopefully build a strong transportation future for our whole region.

Guest post: Average Joe Cyclist on becoming a bicycle commuter – if I can do it, so can you!

With my own winter-ready bike parked nearby, I realized that I have become one of those fearless bicycle commuters – and also reflected on what a long way I have come. Photo by Average Joe Cyclist.

I’m pleased to present a guest post by Average Joe Cyclist, who’s a regular guy who gave biking a try—and wants regular folks like you to try it out too! (I didn’t mean to make that rhyme, but it’s so pleasing that I’m leaving it that way :) Make sure to check out his blog over at Averagejoecyclist.com and at BikeBytes for the Vancouver Observer.

This fall I went out and volunteered at one of the VACC’s Bike to Work Week stations. It was great fun (apart from the pouring rain, but hey, this is Vancouver). Standing there in the torrential downpour, I watched the constant stream of determined commuters cycling by on the Central Valley Greenway, braving the fall dark and the elements.

With my own winter-ready bike parked nearby, I realized that I have become one of those fearless bicycle commuters – and also reflected on what a long way I have come.

When I first moved to Vancouver, I worked with a dashing and stylish woman who cycled to work. I had never lived in a city where this was even possible, and it blew me away. I watched her as she came in every day, flushed and triumphant, and started to wonder if this was possible for me. But I was overweight and out of shape, and the thought of cycling over the Second Narrows Bridge just seemed impossible.

A few years passed, but the fantasy of commuting by bike just would not die.

At last I gathered my courage and bought a reasonably decent hybrid commuter – a 1999 Devinci Rio. I started off with baby steps, cycling a bit further every day. Every day, I got a little bit fitter and a little bit stronger.

Finally came the day that I was ready to take the giant step from recreational cyclist to commuter. I mapped out the route I would need to take to bike to work, and practiced it. By this time I was no longer working in North Vancouver. I was living in East Vancouver, and working in Burnaby Heights. The commute would be about 10 km, one-way, with a lot of hills. The first time I did it, it was a Sunday, and I only went one way, and then put my bike on a bus to get home. But I had done it!

Read more »

Take transit to the Vancouver Aquarium and save $2 on admission

A beluga whale at the Vancouver Aquarium. Photo by Leto A.

If you hadn’t heard yet, the Vancouver Aquarium is teaming up with us to encourage visitors to travel smart!

You’ll get a $2 discount on admission to the Aquarium if you show:

• a valid transit pass, such as a FareCard, U-Pass, or Employer Pass,
• or a DayPass (adult or concession),
• or a FareSaver ticket or farebox ticket valid for that day.

Plus you can visit all year for the discount — this special offer is a permanent new policy!

As the Aquarium says on their special offers page, the discount “helps the Aquarium reinforce its commitment to conservation. By leaving your vehicle at home and taking public transit, your visit to the Aquarium becomes even easier, more economical and lighter on the environment.”

To get to the Vancouver Aquarium by transit, just take the #19 Stanley Park/Metrotown, which ends just a brief walk from the Aquarium. During the summer months, the regular bus service is supplemented by “short-turn” shuttle buses running between Pender and Cambie and the Stanley Park Loop. Visit our Trip Planner to plan your trip.

Find out more at the Vancouver Aquarium’s special offers page, and the TransLink press release about the new offer.

You can also find more tips for travelling smart on our TravelSmart page, and find local attractions reachable by transit at Destinations to Discover.

SAP: how one company is travelling smart for the Olympics

SAP's office in downtown Vancouver!

As we talked about this week, we’ve done lots of outreach with businesses in downtown Vancouver to help them make travel plans for the Olympics.

And with 1,200 employees, SAP is a huge company who has really stepped up and made a plan for the Games!

So here’s an interview with Dorit Shackleton from SAP’s media team, where she tells us a bit about how travelling smart fits into SAP’s business plan, and what they did to prepare.

You might catch SAP’s story on TV too — CBC will have an item on their Games travel plan on tonight’s 5 p.m. newscast, and it will rerun on The National at 6, 8, 9, and 11 p.m.

Read more »