Julie Ovenell-Carter, noted below commenting on her children’s lives, has an interesting story to tell herself – as a transplant from Bowen Island to Coal Harbour. Here it is in her own words:
I could write a book on my musings about urban transit since moving to Coal Harbour two years ago after 22 years on Bowen Island!
We sold our second car within a month of moving into our condo and joined the Car Co-op, “just in case.” I bought a bicycle for $100 and rediscovered the joy (and freedom) of getting around on two wheels instead of four. I also took advantage of the employee transit pass deal offered by SFU payroll and made the commitment to try out public transit–but only for one year.
The self-imposed 12-month trial period was strategic. I wanted to give myself long enough to really give public transit a fair shake–I still had bad memories of the way it was when I left the city in 1989–but not so long that I wouldn’t see the commitment through. I wanted to be able to bail with a clean conscience if necessary, and felt that a year was just the right amount of time since it would take me through all the peaks and troughs of weather and commuter rhythms.
(My husband is at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver and sadly must drive to get to work since there is no transit up there. He drives 3 days a week and carpools the other two.)
Anyway, the year-long experiment resulted in my conversion to a Travel Smart poster child: I walk, bike or take transit everywhere now–even to visit my mother in deepest, darkest Steveston on weekends. I generally prefer SkyTrain or Canada Line to the bus, mostly because traffic snarls on the road don’t slow my journey. Also, I live a two blocks from the Burrard Station, so it’s a no-brainer.
I have had some of the best (and, admittedly, most disturbing) conversations of my life on public transit. I have also discovered that while in the beginning I had to spend a long time planning my routes and figuring out how long any given trip was going to take, I know seem to have a “feel” for these things. I know, for example, it will take me roughly 40 minutes to get to my mom’s; 40 to SFU; 10 to Granville Island, etc etc etc.
Incidentally, all of this coincided with a trip to Berlin several summers ago, where my husband and I lived happily for a month in a centrally located apartment and walked, biked or took transit everywhere. (For car-dependant Bowen Islanders, these amounted to thrillingly novel experiences!) The day we returned to Vancouver happened to coincide with opening day of the Canada Line and we were among the first users of the new Canada Line.
Until that moment, we had been dithering about whether to move back to the city from Bowen. I remember holding on to the strap in the crowded train and saying to my husband, “Finally, Vancouver is a grown-up city.” That was August. We moved downtown the following April and have never looked back. I honestly had no idea how much time was lost and tension was created by having to commute by car…
Thanks, Julie – we look forward to more perspective from you. And Price Tags welcomes other personal stories from those of you experiencing change in the emerging post-Motordom world.
