2 posts tagged “commuting”

Since I spent most of May not blogging, here's a random update to kick off June.  (You're welcome.)

• I bought a bus pass/student ID holder at the dollar store last month to use in my commuting.  It is awesomely: a) originally from Korea (and came with a subway map of Seoul), b) called a "Multi-Trance Pass" (pretty sure they meant transit), and c) has a picture of a cartoon dog wondering, "Are you happy?" on the front.  (Answer: yes, but only because of this pass holder.)
  

• Shane accompanied his tennis partner, Etienne, up to the Lynn Headwaters in North Vancouver recently to get some fresh mountain spring water.  They stopped by the side of the road and simply filled up some jugs from an aquifer there.  It was easily the best water I've ever tasted.  (Fuck you, Aquafina.)
  

• The herons have been back for awhile now, so we are well within the months of late-night heron brawling (which sounds not unlike a ten-car pile-up) and all-night chirping heron babies.  Ah, nature.
  

• Two of my seven classes ended last week, so I can now enjoy five weeks of no school drinking on Fridays.  Woohoo!  I plan to savor this time, as the term after this is supposedly downright hellish.
  

• The weather here has been ridiculously beautiful lately.  The sun has been shining, the temps have been warm, the breeze has been cool and the bikinis have been plentiful.
  

• With all my recent school-inspired hoodie-love, Shane decided he wanted to give hoodie-dum a shot.  In the past couple of weeks, he purchased three new stylin' hoodies, all of which look fabulous on him.  (If you bother him enough, maybe he'll let me take a picture.)
  

• Our new favourite joint along Denman Street is the place that moved in to the old Cupcakes location: Qoola.  They sell a fantastic frozen yogurt (among other goodies, including loose-leaf tea) and the majority of their trash is biodegradeable.  Compost that, bitches.
  

• I was recently inspired by one of VeryScaryCarnival's posts to start assembling a "Things I Miss About the States" post.  So for those of you worried we were so over the U.S. of A., look for that in the coming, uh, weeks?  (Or at least sometime before August.)
  

• Shane is gearing up for a 5K PR on June 12th.  He's been training to beat his old record while running a race out at UBC (on a Friday night, strangely).  I have been training to steathily sneak myself some of the post-race veggie burgers.
  

• I just learned that Dollhouse has been renewed for another season!  While this news was not met by the insane rejoicing of FNL's multi-season renewal, our household is pleased.  (Especially since Without a Trace had its series finale last month and Grey's Anatomy is still sucking lots of ass.)  (Thank god The Office is still funny.)  (Oh, and the first person to mention 30 Rock will get a complimentary shot to the nuts.)
  

As the start of school approaches, I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to travel out to class each week.  BCIT is located in Burnaby, the city just to the east of Vancouver.  The total distance from our place to the campus is about 14k (approximately 8.7 miles), but like all distances in this area, it will take me a lot longer than you’d expect to travel that.

Since biking is out of the question, I have two main options.  By car, I should be able to get there in 30 minutes, but that’s if traffic is good.  In rush hour, I could be driving for up to an hour.  The cost of commuting this way would include gas ($??) and parking ($3.50/day).  Using public transit (a combination of bus and Skytrain) I should arrive there in 60 minutes, regardless of congestion (or lack thereof).  The cost of commuting this way would depend on what type of pass I purchase, as I can either buy a monthly one ($73 for a two-zone with my student ID) or a book of passes (10 two-zone tickets for $28.50).

Price-wise, the two transportation modes are similar.  I would spend $203 for the first term on public transit (48 days of travel) versus $168+gas if I drove.  However, I received my actual schedule on Monday, and it turns out I have late-night classes twice a week.  This would mean leaving the school at 9:30 a couple of nights, and thus arriving home no earlier than 10:30.  Not exactly my cup of tea, especially since I could have an easy drive home that late.

Which is all to say: I think I am going to try a combination for the first term.  I’ll take transit the three days my classes overlap with rush hour (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays) and drive the days I'm at school in the evening (Mondays, Thursdays).  That will force me to become more comfortable with both modes of transportation AND help me determine what I want to do for the rest of the year.  (I’ve been told this is the easiest term of the four, so the time for experimenting is now!)

Provided I don’t need to be at school on days I don’t have class, it works out to be around $230+gas to do both.  Kind of a crappy deal considering what it would cost to do all my commuting one way or the other, but I guess that’s the price I pay for wanting to mix it up.