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I Love Transit Week: share your system secrets

I Love Transit Week: share your system secrets

First off: thanks to everyone who sent an RSVP for I Love Transit Night! If you’re planning on coming, please send me an RSVP too: it’s the Buzzer’s first live meetup and will be on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m.

System secrets: let’s share

Anyway, for the first I Love Transit Week post, let’s talk about system secrets.

What do I mean by system secrets? Well, during your travels on transit, you’ve undoubtedly come across some tricks and secrets to make your trip better in some way.

For example, prewalking a SkyTrain platform can really makes your trip go faster. Urban Dictionary defines prewalking as:

To position oneself on a subway platform such that, when the passenger steps off the train at his destination, he’ll be as close as possible to the exit or stairs to his transfer.

TransitFan has a similarly themed post from last Friday over at Regarding Place, discussing many tips that expert riders use to get around the system better. His tips include:

Getting a seat can be as easy as waiting at the last stop before a major intersection. When everyone disembarks at the major stop, you’ve scored a seat. If you’re headed from Vancouver to Surrey on the SkyTrain, take the trains headed for VCC-Clark, then transfer at Columbia Station to head over the Skybridge. There’s a much better chance you’ll get a seat for most of the ride, since most people don’t want to change trains.

And as for my own shining insights, I’ve noticed that when riding the B-Line in non-peak hours, if no one is boarding/exiting who requires the ramp, sometimes it can be faster to board the bus through the front door. While other passengers are waiting for riders to pour out of the back and middle doors, few are leaving via the front. You can sometimes make it on the bus before everybody else does!

So: what are your system secrets? Let’s share—maybe you can make someone else’s trip better! (But please, no tips encouraging fare evasion or other no-nos!)

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