Around the League Thread | Pre-Season Approaches

[RobertKron]

This is pretty wrong. Compared to pretty much any other city in North America (other than New York), Vancouver has great public transit. Skytrain is 10x better than rapid transit in any other non-NY North American city. People who've come to the Lower Mainland from elsewhere have told me the same thing.

Plus with bike infrastructure + ride share stuff, it is becoming relatively feasible to not have a car. I've been in Calgary, Edmonton, and lived in Ottawa and it's simply impossible to say the same for those places.

Yep. 100%.

Vancouver doesn't hold a candle to the transportation in East Asia or Europe. but nowhere really does. By NA standards, it's about as good as it gets.

Honestly, if you live and work in the core of the city (I'll vaguely define this as like, east of Oak or maybe Cambie - west of maybe Renfrew - North of 25th or maybe 41st) - obviously ignoring individual physical constraints, and like, if your work requires it or whatever, for the sake of the point - it has been entirely feasible to not have a car in Vancouver for going on probably a couple decades now.

 

[bossram]

Honestly, if you live and work in the core of the city (I'll vaguely define this as like, east of Oak or maybe Cambie - west of maybe Renfrew - North of 25th or maybe 41st) - obviously ignoring individual physical constraints, and like, if your work requires it or whatever, for the sake of the point - it has been entirely feasible to not have a car in Vancouver for going on probably a couple decades now.

Yeah, if you live in Vancouver proper it's been feasible for a while.

I'm talking more about the Metro Van area as a whole.

 

[RobertKron]

Yeah, if you live in Vancouver proper it's been feasible for a while.

I'm talking more about the Metro Van area as a whole.

This is absolutely nitpicking, but I have a perpetual bee in my bonnet about how overlooked municipal politics tends to be so here we are: Agree with you for sure, but OP explicitly mentioned Vancouver's city planning, which won't be the same as Langley or West Van or Delta or whoever else's city planning. Even with Translink being a regional body, you only have to look at the drama over that West Van bus route for an indicator of how this can be influenced by politics and not just density.

 

[Vector]

*grumbles to myself*

Abbotsford's public transit f***ing sucks.

*folds arms and pouts*

 

[RobertKron]

*grumbles to myself*

Abbotsford's public transit f***ing sucks.

*folds arms and pouts*

Storm the Abbotsford capitol building.

 

[bossram]

*grumbles to myself*

Abbotsford's public transit f***ing sucks.

*folds arms and pouts*

Takes a lot to drag me to the Valley.

Storm the Abbotsford capitol building.

Send a convoy.

 

[RobertKron]

Takes a lot to drag me to the Valley.


Send a convoy.

I tried to make something work around the transit being bad because everyone was too busy convoying around but I couldn’t quite get there.

 

[VanillaCoke]

It's beyond belief how defensive Oiler's fans are. I posted the rather flattering predictions I made for their roster there and have had nothing but flack from idiots who haven't even looked at what I posted.

They're lost in understandable delusion, absolutely convinced their team got better in every way, pod is going to be better than holloway, and the scf series is basically guaranteed.

I don't think so, outscoring your issues only works until it doesn't.

 

[Jyrki]

Yeah, if you live in Vancouver proper it's been feasible for a while.

I'm talking more about the Metro Van area as a whole.

I've gone carless all my adult life in the Metro Van area. Only period that sucked was commuting from Burquitlam to UBC, but otherwise it's been fine. I even did a RIchmond-Newton commute for a while and only had to transfer once.

I do wish that we had more connection between non-Van municipalities, it feels like all roads lead to downtown.

Speaking of living out of province, the cost of owning a car alone makes a move to Alberta moot for me. If I had my own family to raise, I'd be looking into it.

 

[EpochLink]

Thank goodness I ain't married, I'd be cheating already.

 

[Bubbles]

Storm the Abbotsford capitol building.

Better known as the Costco on Sumas Way.

 

[sandwichbird2023]

This is pretty wrong. Compared to pretty much any other city in North America (other than New York), Vancouver has great public transit. Skytrain is 10x better than rapid transit in any other non-NY North American city. People who've come to the Lower Mainland from elsewhere have told me the same thing.

Plus with bike infrastructure + ride share stuff, it is becoming relatively feasible to not have a car. I've been in Calgary, Edmonton, and lived in Ottawa and it's simply impossible to say the same for those places.

Yep. 100%.

Vancouver doesn't hold a candle to the transportation in East Asia or Europe. but nowhere really does. By NA standards, it's about as good as it gets.

I guess it depends on your lifestyle and family situation. I live in Surrey and have a young child and I cannot imagine not having a car. Currently, going from Surrey to Richmond, Delta and Langley is a pain and takes a very long time on public transit. Going to Coquitlam on skytrain is doable but you will be spending a lot more time on the commute comparing to driving (except during rush hour). Not to mention all the extracurricular activities for the child after school, without a car it would be pretty tough. And I wouldn't want to carry my hockey gears or golf clubs on public transit or Uber/Lyft every time I play.

Unless you are willing to use Uber/Lyft extensively, there are still pockets of Metro Vancouver that is pretty tough for car-less families.

None of this is to say that other North American cities are better. I'm strictly replying to the "feasible to not have a car" part of your quote.

 

[credulous]

This is pretty wrong. Compared to pretty much any other city in North America (other than New York), Vancouver has great public transit. Skytrain is 10x better than rapid transit in any other non-NY North American city. People who've come to the Lower Mainland from elsewhere have told me the same thing.

Vancouver doesn't hold a candle to the transportation in East Asia or Europe. but nowhere really does. By NA standards, it's about as good as it gets.

toronto, montreal, san francisco, chicago, philadelphia, boston, washington, mexico city and even like minneapolis-st paul and guadalajara are arguably better than vancouver

vancouver has good transit if you live downtown or in mt pleasant/east van, metrotown, parts of coquitlam and parts of richmond but is miserable if you live more than 10 minutes from a skytrain station

 

[bossram]

I guess it depends on your lifestyle and family situation. I live in Surrey and have a young child and I cannot imagine not having a car. Currently, going from Surrey to Richmond, Delta and Langley is a pain and takes a very long time on public transit. Going to Coquitlam on skytrain is doable but you will be spending a lot more time on the commute comparing to driving (except during rush hour). Not to mention all the extracurricular activities for the child after school, without a car it would be pretty tough. And I wouldn't want to carry my hockey gears or golf clubs on public transit or Uber/Lyft every time I play.

Unless you are willing to use Uber/Lyft extensively, there are still pockets of Metro Vancouver that is pretty tough for car-less families.

None of this is to say that other North American cities are better. I'm strictly replying to the "feasible to not have a car" part of your quote.

I actually agree with you. I grew up in Surrey. I was going make a caveat that Surrey is an "exception" to the mostly decent transit in Metro Van. Surrey's previous mayor was a doofus that decided to prioritize building rapid transit (while scrapping the existing, ready-to-go LRT plan) to another municipality and set back rapid transit South of the Fraser by five years+

Once the Langley Skytrain is ready, Langley will be pretty good for transit. I had very close friends in Coquitlam and transiting was pretty good. Same with Richmond. Very convenient.

But yeah, if you have to shuttle kids everywhere every day, you do need a car. I'm speaking currently as a DINK.

 

[bossram]

toronto, montreal, san francisco, chicago, philadelphia, boston, washington, mexico city and even like minneapolis-st paul and guadalajara are arguably better than vancouver

vancouver has good transit if you live downtown or in mt pleasant/east van, metrotown, parts of coquitlam and parts of richmond but is miserable if you live more than 10 minutes from a skytrain station

Idk, I haven't rode most of those systems, but the reputations I've heard from transit-oriented folks and writers for them aren't great.

Toronto is good around downtown as well, but the service to suburbs is a lot worse than Metro Vancouver. Montreal is not bad.

 

[F A N]

It's beyond belief how defensive Oiler's fans are. I posted the rather flattering predictions I made for their roster there and have had nothing but flack from idiots who haven't even looked at what I posted.

You're kind of twisting the truth here aren't you? From what I see, there were only a few posters who bothered to respond to you (more after you made this post) and they told you to get out and you were like confused as to why they didn't find the stats you posted interesting?

I would agree if you said they aren't welcoming. But you are basically like a less than attractive male walking up to a group of women and trying to join their conversation and confused as to why they didn't appreciate what you had to say.

 

[Flik]

I'm looking forward to the Edmonton and Vancouver rivalry picking up steam and hopefully becoming the defacto rivalry between two two tier cup contenders within the league.

I'm seriously hoping this can turn into a Detroit/Avalanche type rivalry from the late 90s into the early aughts type ditty.

(I guess the Kings/Hawks rivalry from the early 2010s would also be acceptable )

 

[arttk]

It's beyond belief how defensive Oiler's fans are. I posted the rather flattering predictions I made for their roster there and have had nothing but flack from idiots who haven't even looked at what I posted.

lol you predicted that Bouchard would have 55points, of course they are going to want to kill you.

ask any Oilers fan and they are going to tell you Bouchard is going to score 90 points next season.

 

[arttk]

lol 102M out of 112M is in bonus. Dude is not a fan of escrow.

 

[Jyrki]

14M is less than a mil above Matthews' caphit and only 1.5 higher than MacKinnon's. In the grand scheme, the Oilers are probably paying fair value given the rising cap and Draisatl cashing out at the absolute best time.

Trouble for the Oilers is that with him and McD as the centerpieces and the team not being in a position to have big-time ELCs, they just can't afford other big contracts to not pull their weight. Paying Nurse 9.5M while he's not trusted to log 20+ minutes in the bloody SCF is not just terrible on its own but it absolutely wrecks their ability to shore up their depth. Even though they don't need as many scoring threats as other teams across the lineup, when they're basically wasting 5-6M at the margin on a single player, that's two or three good depth forwards they're not allowed to have. That's on top of the Campbell buyout taking ~2.5M on arguably the two worst cap crunches they'll have while trying to stay competitive.

 

[supercanuck]

I keep on telling myself that no GM would be stupid enough to help the Oilers out by trading for Nurse, but then someone was dumb enough to trade the 9th OA pick for OEL.

 

[Scumbag Frank]

toronto, montreal, san francisco, chicago, philadelphia, boston, washington, mexico city and even like minneapolis-st paul and guadalajara are arguably better than vancouver

vancouver has good transit if you live downtown or in mt pleasant/east van, metrotown, parts of coquitlam and parts of richmond but is miserable if you live more than 10 minutes from a skytrain station

Lived in Boston for years - nooo way on that one. Skytrain >>>>> the absolutely atrocious T/commuter rail in terms of commute time/price/wait times/convenience of stations/safety. And the bus system is an absolute joke compared to vancouver.

Helps that metro Vancouver is a circular layout with Vancouver relatively in the center while Boston proper is at the very east end with major suburbs mostly lined up one by one linearly to the west making for super inefficient commutes into the city
But mainly the infrastructure in Vancouver is just so much better than there

 

[Peen]

@credulous that list is like when imac made a 5 years from now lineup to gas it up

https://x.com/i/web/status/933430939530665984

the imac prospect list of transit rankings

 

[credulous]

i'll concede boston but i just landed at yvr and it's 8 minutes to the next train to waterfront. transit in this city sucks

 

[F A N]

I'd love to move to Calgary. Cost of living is an enormous upgrade especially if you are from the mainland.

I love to be able to move to a much cheaper city and be happy. I had a former colleague who moved to Edmonton because his wife is from there. He had a high income job + detached home in Kitsilano. He bought a huge home with McDavid-home like views. I had another colleague who was from Edmonton who moved back. He went from renter to home owner quickly.