Around the League Thread | Pre-Season Approaches

[Vector]

i was making a joke. sorry it didn't land

I got it and thought it was perfect timing.

 

[VanillaCoke]

Clearly training camps can't open soon enough

 

[Vector]

Also, I absolutely hate the Japanese bus system but that's purely because I can't read Japanese, the drivers microphones are terrible, and they are all doing a Mifune impression.

 

[Callhee]

Of course we cannot compare to the major European and Asian cities, we simply do not have the density, and thus enough taxes to pay for major transit infrastructure. With that said, relative to the context of North America, Vancouver punches way above its weight. Our transit system has been ranked top 5 in North America, which is amazing given the population size of the Lower Mainland.

 

[Callhee]

Also, I absolutely hate the Japanese bus system but that's purely because I can't read Japanese, the drivers microphones are terrible, and they are all doing a Mifune impression.

I am not a fan of the Japanese Bus System either, the way fares are calculated can be confusing and the buses have extremely poorly designed seating with no thought for tourists with luggage.

Luckily, I can read Kanji, so wayfinding wasn't difficult, can't imagine how difficult it would be if you can't read Kanji, especially in smaller towns.

 

[EpochLink]

Ya'll complaining about the Skytrain system and the metro system up in here.

Go to Winnipeg and see what I lived with 20 years of my life.

 

[Vector]

I am not a fan of the Japanese Bus System either, the way fares are calculated can be confusing and the buses have extremely poorly designed seating with no thought for tourists with luggage.

Luckily, I can read Kanji, so wayfinding wasn't difficult, can't imagine how difficult it would be if you can't read Kanji, especially in smaller towns.

Honestly, you can be perfectly fine living in Japan without reading or speaking as long as you avoid taking buses and pay enough attention. I was in the countryside a lot and ended up rarely getting lost. Google maps was surprisingly competent.

The luggage thing drives me insane. I have yet to travel on a shinkansen that actually has proper space for a suitcase. My wife ships most of our luggage directly from her parents place to the airport but even a small travel suitcase is difficult to bring. It's a complete no-go on buses. JR trains are the best, strangely.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Honestly, you can be perfectly fine living in Japan without reading or speaking as long as you avoid taking buses and pay enough attention. I was in the countryside a lot and ended up rarely getting lost. Google maps was surprisingly competent.

The luggage thing drives me insane. I have yet to travel on a shinkansen that actually has proper space for a suitcase. My wife ships most of our luggage directly from her parents place to the airport but even a small travel suitcase is difficult to bring. It's a complete no-go on buses. JR trains are the best, strangely.

I get the impression that the Japanese are especially eager to help Westerners because they tend to think we aren't very bright and would just wander off and drown ourselves in ponds or get hit by cars otherwise. It's a bit like helping stray dogs find their owners.

 

[vancityluongo]

this around the transit league thread rules

left field hot take: vancouver needs better micromobility options to truly be elite. i barely drive between may-october. don't own a bike, but live on a bike lane. how? e-scooters and e-bikes. a lime pass is $11.99 for three days worth of back and forth trips. it wouldn't help in the 'burbs, but it makes network connections that much easier. this is the only mobility thing albertan cities have done well and it would be cool to see it expanded everywhere.

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.

anyone looking to do this ever, hmu

even if you don't want a huge mcmansion, there's a very good lifestyle to be had, and you can easily fly to vancouver/seattle/toronto/montreal to do fun things multiple times per year if that's the biggest barrier

 

[Vector]

I get the impression that the Japanese are especially eager to help Westerners because they tend to think we aren't very bright and would just wander off and drown ourselves in ponds or get hit by cars otherwise. It's a bit like helping stray dogs find their owners.

They definitely think we are idiots, which is 100% true, but it's purely to get us out of their hair rather than any sort of altruism.

 

[Diversification]

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

I can only speak to Boston, Washington, New York and Vancouver. NYC’s mass transit system is gross but it’s much more functional than the others. You really can get everywhere on a single integrated payment system that integrates with other sister transit systems like LIRR, NJ Transit and Metro North. The other 3 cities to varying degrees suffer from the same shortcomings namely, spotty access and service outside of hubs. The headaches you mention for people away from Skytrain stations are felt just as acutely by people living in Woodbridge Virginia or Newton Massachusetts.

 

[Callhee]

Honestly, you can be perfectly fine living in Japan without reading or speaking as long as you avoid taking buses and pay enough attention. I was in the countryside a lot and ended up rarely getting lost. Google maps was surprisingly competent.

The luggage thing drives me insane. I have yet to travel on a shinkansen that actually has proper space for a suitcase. My wife ships most of our luggage directly from her parents place to the airport but even a small travel suitcase is difficult to bring. It's a complete no-go on buses. JR trains are the best, strangely.

There are specific seats with luggage storage (usually at the rear of the car) but you have to book them quite a bit in advance. Our last trip to Japan, we were able to book nearly all of our Shinkansen seats with luggage storage (5 separate rides), but we booked like 2 months in advance.

I agree with Google Maps being surprisingly good, we rented cars in Hyogo and Kanagawa on our last trip and the included Nav system was indecipherable. Google maps got us to where we needed while providing helpful insight on travel times and the road toll costs.

 

[EpochLink]

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

But what about Winnipeg's transit system

 

[credulous]

But what about Winnipeg's transit system

finally a city vancouver can beat

 

[Peen]

i was making a joke. sorry it didn't land

knowing you, this was an intentional play on words. it did not go unnoticed.

 

[bandwagonesque]

this around the transit league thread rules

left field hot take: vancouver needs better micromobility options to truly be elite. i barely drive between may-october. don't own a bike, but live on a bike lane. how? e-scooters and e-bikes. a lime pass is $11.99 for three days worth of back and forth trips. it wouldn't help in the 'burbs, but it makes network connections that much easier. this is the only mobility thing albertan cities have done well and it would be cool to see it expanded everywhere.

I think e-bikes are a huge component of the future of urban transportation, and many of my friends own the big kid-hauling ones. If I had a 5-10km commute and didn't want a car for a bunch of other reasons I might get one. On the other hand ... as I get older in a relatively sedentary job, there will never be a time I wouldn't rather just exercise for half an hour if I'm going to be on a bike anyway.

On a related note I don't understand how all the public e-bike infrastructure works. In a few specific locations in Port Moody I see e-scooters just scattered on the side of the road every day. Maybe there's a specific workplace nearby with a lot of employees that use them. Does someone come pick them up and take them back to a charging station? If I left one at the top of Mt Seymour and someone would come along and get it?

 

[quat]

Also, I absolutely hate the Japanese bus system but that's purely because I can't read Japanese, the drivers microphones are terrible, and they are all doing a Mifune impression.

Are the "Obatarian" elbows as sharp as they were in the past? I got a fair amount of exercise fighting middle aged Japanese housewives just to get onto the buses in the small town I lived in. Have the scars to prove it.

 

[Tables of Stats]

I think e-bikes are a huge component of the future of urban transportation, and many of my friends own the big kid-hauling ones. If I had a 5-10km commute and didn't want a car for a bunch of other reasons I might get one. On the other hand ... as I get older in a relatively sedentary job, there will never be a time I wouldn't rather just exercise for half an hour if I'm going to be on a bike anyway.

On a related note I don't understand how all the public e-bike infrastructure works. In a few specific locations in Port Moody I see e-scooters just scattered on the side of the road every day. Maybe there's a specific workplace nearby with a lot of employees that use them. Does someone come pick them up and take them back to a charging station? If I left one at the top of Mt Seymour and someone would come along and get it?

For e-bikes to really take off we'll need to go from having bike gutters to having proper bike lanes physically separated from larger vehicles. Currently, there is too much risk of death or injury for the average person to risk themselves on what would otherwise be a perfectly suitable form of transportation.

 

[credulous]

I think e-bikes are a huge component of the future of urban transportation, and many of my friends own the big kid-hauling ones. If I had a 5-10km commute and didn't want a car for a bunch of other reasons I might get one. On the other hand ... as I get older in a relatively sedentary job, there will never be a time I wouldn't rather just exercise for half an hour if I'm going to be on a bike anyway.

On a related note I don't understand how all the public e-bike infrastructure works. In a few specific locations in Port Moody I see e-scooters just scattered on the side of the road every day. Maybe there's a specific workplace nearby with a lot of employees that use them. Does someone come pick them up and take them back to a charging station? If I left one at the top of Mt Seymour and someone would come along and get it?

i used my ebike all the time when i lived in rochester, mn and it absolutely ruled because they have an elaborate system of bike paths that are completely road separate (check this out: https://www.rochestermn.gov/home/showdocument?id=778) but i'm much more skeptical of ebikes in places without substantial infrastructure. they're kind of a menace on the seawall here for example. i barely use mine in vegas because there's only the american style 'faded line demarcking 3 foot wide "bike lane" there

 

[Vector]

Are the "Obatarian" elbows as sharp as they were in the past? I got a fair amount of exercise fighting middle aged Japanese housewives just to get onto the buses in the small town I lived in. Have the scars to prove it.

Not sure on the buses since I desperately avoided them. This was 10 years ago but my friend broke my arm when she lived their and an obasan got furious my friend wouldn't move so she could sit (there were other people who could move and not just the foreigner with a cast on her arm) and hit her cast with her purse.

 

[Vector]

There are specific seats with luggage storage (usually at the rear of the car) but you have to book them quite a bit in advance. Our last trip to Japan, we were able to book nearly all of our Shinkansen seats with luggage storage (5 separate rides), but we booked like 2 months in advance.

I agree with Google Maps being surprisingly good, we rented cars in Hyogo and Kanagawa on our last trip and the included Nav system was indecipherable. Google maps got us to where we needed while providing helpful insight on travel times and the road toll costs.

We usually just get our shinkansen the day of since we're going to Yamagata and very few people are going there.

 

[bandwagonesque]

For e-bikes to really take off we'll need to go from having bike gutters to having proper bike lanes physically separated from larger vehicles. Currently, there is too much risk of death or injury for the average person to risk themselves on what would otherwise be a perfectly suitable form of transportation.

At least the notion that bikes should share lanes with motor vehicles seems to have been largely abandoned.

Let's take already irrational and irritated drivers and have them reduce their speed to 15km/h so some hippy can ride from 8th and Commercial to Choices in the middle of the road. That's not going to cause any problems.

 

[Tables of Stats]

At least the notion that bikes should share lanes with motor vehicles seems to have been largely abandoned.

Let's take already irrational and irritated drivers and have them reduce their speed to 15km/h so some hippy can ride from 8th and Commercial to Choices in the middle of the road. That's not going to cause any problems.

I think we could have safer streets if we enforced traffic laws more harshly and stopped seeing driving as anything but a privilege, but that's even more of a pipe dream than getting proper bike paths so...

 

[bossram]

This whole conversation ends when Europe unzips and drops its transit dick on the table. There's also very little pride/class differentiation attached to vehicle ownership there.

I mean yeah. Nothing in NA (maybe aside from NY) can hold a candle to major European or Asian rapid transit systems.

If you're traveling from Narita, then it takes a while because the airport isn't even in the same prefecture. Haneda is much closer and has more frequent trains.

Yeah, I know Narita is quite far away, was just needling him.

But the even the frequency with the Kesei Skyliner isn't as good as regular Skytrain from YVR (different kinds of transit, I know, not really comparable).

 

[bandwagonesque]

I think we could have safer streets if we enforced traffic laws more harshly and stopped seeing driving as anything but a privilege, but that's even more of a pipe dream than getting proper bike paths so...

I'm kind of with you, but when society as it is presently constituted would grind to a halt if most people couldn't do a certain thing, it's not really a privilege. That's why there are so many shitty drivers. And cyclists were thrown in to vehicle traffic not as an aspirational starting point but because no one had any other ideas.