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Brrr! Tips for riding transit in snowy weather

Brrr! Tips for riding transit in snowy weather

Metrotown SkyTrain station, covered in snow this afternoon!

The weather outside is frightful, so it’s a good time to highlight some handy tips for snowy travelling.

Hopefully this isn’t news to you, but if you are planning on taking transit on a snowy day, there are a number of things you might do to prepare for your ride. We listed a bunch of them in the November 2009 print Buzzer, and they include:

  • Have a transit plan in place, so you know your options for alternate routes, if any
  • Check the weather before you go out
  • Leave extra time for your journey, in case of delays
  • Bundle up for cold weather and wear appropriate footwear so you don’t slip
  • Hit the bathroom before you travel, in case of delays (so important!)
  • Be aware that hilly areas may have delays as it’s harder to get through
  • Move to the back of your transit vehicle so others can board

For our part, we’ll try to get you the latest info on the transit situation through a number of channels:

  • A super-handy source right now is our TransLink Twitter account, which is heavily staffed owing to a November pilot project
  • Our Alerts page
  • Our media YouTube account — for audio clips, updated as needed (primarily for the broadcast media, but also available to the general public)
  • Customer Information at 604-953-3333 (may be very busy on a snowy day)
  • The big video screens on the Expo/Millennium/Canada Line platforms
  • The TransLink mobile site: m.translink.ca
  • Radio and TV announcements

You can also view our snow plans in these links: here’s a 2010 media release, a 2009 blog post about CMBC’s snow plan, and a 2009 post about SkyTrain’s snow plan. (Also, here’s a 2009 Vancouver Sun article on how the municipalities are preparing for snow.)

Anyway, hopefully there won’t be snow tomorrow! But if there is, safe travels to all of you and we’ll be working hard to keep the system on track!

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