I had two occasions to head into the Big City this week.
On a Friday afternoon I had to drive into Main Street and pick someone up.
I left Brookswood about 2:15 p.m. and drove over the Port Mann in a driving rain storm. Hopefully, I would be in and out before the rush hour.
At 3 p.m., I was on the way back out, still driving in an El Nino-fed monsoon, and when I turned on to Grandview Highway we stopped.
I punched some buttons on the radio, got a traffic station, and sure enough there was a stall in the curb lane, at 3:15 on a Friday afternoon. It was almost 4 p.m. when we finally hit the freeway.
In my former capacity as the emergency co-ordinator for the City, I would have to attend regional meetings for the GVRD Emergency Planning Committee.
There were only a few of us that had first responder operational backgrounds and we would shake our heads when provincial or regional planners would show how designated evacuation routes would assist in the “orderly evacuation” of Vancouver in the event of earthquake or tsunami.
When one stalled vehicle can bring thousands of cars to a standstill, we can only imagine the scene created by tens of thousands of people hitting the roads in a panic.
I got home after 4:30 p.m. with a knot in my neck and much sympathy for those who drive that route every day.
On the weekend, a kind friend offered me two tickets to a Sunday night Canucks game.
I went to my local 7-Eleven and found out I could get a senior day pass for $7 for SkyTrain.
At first I thought being out on a ‘senior day pass’ sounded a bit institutional, but the price was right.
I left home at 5 p.m., took the South Perimeter road and was at the Scott Road Station at 5:30 p.m.
I paid $3 to park and boarded an almost empty train, which dropped me at Roger’s Place just after 6 p.m.
The home team won and I headed back to the station along with 16,000 others and jostled from the crowded platform into the packed train car.
Again, I was wondering how this system would work if everyone was told to “orderly evacuate the City of Vancouver.”
I was home before 11 p.m.
Way back in the 1970s if you wanted to go to a Canucks game, you could meet at Lloyd Bellamy’s Super Value store at 6 p.m. and climb on the Langley Bus Lines bus for $5.
You were dropped off at the front door of the Pacific Coliseum at 6:45 p.m.
The bus was waiting at the same spot when the game was over and you could listen to the CKNW after game show on the bus radio on the way home, another 45 minute drive.
I like driving my car and the independence it provides.
Having to plan ahead, purchase tickets, wait in lines and stand packed together is not something most of us like to do.
We like to jump in the car and go. But if we had a SkyTrain station in walking distance of our house, we might use it more often.
Apparently, in the not too distant future, I’m going to have thousands of new neighbours in Brookswood.
I really hope those professional planners are figuring out an “orderly method” to move them all around.
At least that’s what McGregor says.