Life in Hell II

6:59 PM

Well, I rode the Canada Line with my student Emi, for the first (and probably last) time. (If you are wondering why the photos are in black-and-white, it's because they were taken with a shitty, 2MP phone camera). Click to Enlarge

Aside from the obvious problems with the entire enterprise, which I already covered, I would like to share some basic math with you:

Granville at 71st to Seymour at Georgia = 24 min. on the 98 B-Line
Granville at 67th to Seymour at Georgia = 26 min. on the #10 Hastings

It is irrelevant how long it took me to get to Cambie at Marine Drive from Georgia at Granville (the Canada Line was running on its demo schedule, anyway). What is important in this story, however, is that it took me 25 minutes just to walk from Cambie at Marine Drive to Granville at 70th.

Yeah, there is something wrong with this picture (not the picture above, the metaphorical picture). Even if I were to cycle from Granville and 67th to Cambie at Marine Drive, it would still take me at least fifteen minutes, and then I would wait between five and ten minutes for the Canada Line. 25 minutes! OK, but what if I walk down to 70th at French (five minutes), wait for the #100 (15 minutes), and take the #100? 25 Minutes!!! (Don't even get me started on the new #10 extension on September 7: wait for the #10 (ten-fifteen minutes), take the #10 (ten minutes)...) Click to Enlarge

It's crystal-clear now, eh? With the elimination of the 488, 490, 491, 492, 496 and the 98 B-Line, an additional 25 minutes is added to my every commute by the assholes at TransLink. But wait - you might say - what if you take the #10 Downtown the old-fashioned way? Well, if the #10 will indeed "run more frequently," I expect at least 1.5 times much more traffic (if not twice the traffic during peak hours), which would allow me to wait less outside of the bus (-5 minutes) and more on the bus (+5-10 minutes), making the Canada Line a moot point any way you look at it. One step forward, two steps back. What can I say? Joseph Heller would be proud.

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