DarrenBarefoot.com

As a prairie dweller who just spent the last 2 weeks driving in and around Vancouver - I can safely say that there is nothing wrong with Van traffic. No better or worse than Calgary.

And as a bonus - Whenever you are driving around in Vancouver - no matter where you look, you realize you are not in Calgary.
;)

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I commute every day from South Burnaby to Richmond, and I have to say, it’s not so much the traffic that sucks in Vancouver, it’s the drivers.

My job takes me out of town a lot, and in other communities in this province people will actually use their turn signals to indicate their intentions. They won’t accelerate to cut you off should you choose to indicate you’re about to make a lane change, and they stop at red lights and stop signs.

Of all the cities I’ve driven (or been driven) in, Vancouver has by far the most inattentive, aggressive, and just plain rude drivers out there.

It’s gotten to the point, where I’m almost afraid to come to a complete stop at stop signs for fear of being rear-ended.

I think the problem is largely one of education and example. I believe that a lot of drivers out there honestly don’t know that they have to stop at a red light before turning right. Same thing with crossing solid lines, and indicating lane changes.

Can you sense my frustration? :P

My philosophy for driving is now “Take it easy.”

I just wish more motorists shared it.

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Julie: It’s not unreasonable to consider that lions might, in a sense, own the bridge. But I agree with you and Matthew that it’s apostrophe-free.

I plead guilty on the adverb hyphenation issue. I just learned it wrong growing up, and have never corrected myself. I’ve got a simpler rule, which I rarely apply, which is only to use a hyphen when the two words are ambiguous without it.

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There is an interesting First Nations book about the Lions. The book “Legends of Vancouver” by E. Pauline Johnson contains a number of legends of stories of places in and around Vancouver. A must read for anyone new to the area. Pauline’s memorial (I don’t know if it is her gravesite) is at the entrance, just off the right hand side of the road to 3rd Beach in Stanley Park. As for traffic, well is doesn’t get any better with the additional cars on the roads year after year. At least we have Podcasting now which makes it…well a little easier to wait.

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Vancouver traffic rarely bothers me. Suburb traffic, now that bothers me.

I grew up in Cloverdale. I was forced to move home briefly in 2001. Around that time, I started a job in Burnaby. A week after the transit strike started. Yagh.

So, I was driving into work every day from Cloverdale. What should have been a half hour drive took anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. It annoyed me. I would have had no problem with the hour-long transit ride, because I wouldn’t have been sitting in traffic and I could read a book and not think about how much money I was wasting on gas & insurance & other such necessities of driving. Sucked. I moved to Burnaby soon after.

Now that I live downtown, it’s golden. I have to cross the Lions Gate (see? no apostrophe!) to get to work now that I work in West Van, but again, I take transit so the traffic doesn’t bother me much. The few times that I actually take the bike in kind of suck (note: motorcycle, not ten speed) but more on the way home than on the way in. On the way home, it’s actually faster to take the bus over the bridge — I only go one stop… it’s just that the one stop happens to be from Park Royal to Denman & Georgia.

It doesn’t help that I’m going against traffic and therefore only have one lane open to me. Meh.

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it is bad, but there are shortcuts and ways to minimize the traffic. Especially if you’re going in the right direction at the right time of day. It’ll hopefully improve with all the lanes they’re gonna add to the freeway soon.

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Pauline Johnson is the only person ever to be buried in Stanley Park. Her grave was supposed to be unmarked, but a memorial marker was placed there later. I believe it’s near the Tea House / Sequoia Grill.

A friend of mine did her masters degree on the history of the Lions Gate Bridge. I’ll try to find out where the “Lions Gate” part originates. (Is the bridge the Lions Gate, or does the bridge connect Vancouver to wherever the Lions Gate is?)

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vancouver traffic is really bad. we have the infrastructure of a city of about half our size i figure. anyway, it’s not all bad. let’s get rid of car culture here in vancouver and set the bar high for everyone else. :)

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My morning commute from Boundary Road to downtown takes 30 minutes by car, and 22 minutes by bike. Yes, the auto traffic is crap, but the bike routes are fantastic. And if crappy trafic is what it takes to get more people commuting without their cars, then I’m all for it.

Plus my commute home goes right by Darren’s place. I think (along the False Creek bike route - Darren, I’m the guy in the yellow bike jacket).

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I think you folks are thinking to hard in regards to the name of the bridge. It’s a complete name: “Lions Gate Bridge”. Whether ownership belongs to the Lions or not is a moot point. The history of the bridge and how it got its name is also moot.

Heh, I’m glad the grammar police have little authority other than hurting the pride of writers.

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I’ve been driving Vancouver too long (plus I drive for work). In the suburb someone let me turn onto the street past them - after I insisted - but didn’t wave. They yelled at me. And I thought the drivers in the subs were so much calmer.

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Sheesh! The “Lions” in Lions Gate Bridge refers to a pair of mountain peaks which lie beyond the north end of the bridge. These peaks are known as the Lions. Gateway to the Lions. Get it?

Pretty dumb subject for a paper - it’s common knowledge what Lions Gate refers to! You can find the information you want at Wikipedia and probably base your entire masters degree on it - you don’t have to write anything. Just Google Lions Gate Bridge.

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