Have you consider why ppl don't take transit?
1. On weekends (Sundays and Holidays espeically) bus pass my house very 30mins Meaning if someone miss a bus they will have wait 30mins So 30mins here and there and you wasted a ton of time JUST waiting for the bus. Sorry but time is money.
2. Their schedule sucks. On weekends and holidays the stop skytrain/bus service extra early Don't even get me started on the night bus. It operates on such a small area we mind as well get rib off it. LOL skytrain leave Waterfront at like what 12:30am on a weekend as the last train. That's when the party started. Same the bus also at night there is less bus. Would you want you gf to be all alone waiting at a bus station for 30mins coz she miss a bus?
3. Way too crowded during rush hour. Between 8am to 9am and around 4pm to 5:40pm the skytrain is literally fill with ppl. With the evergreen line good luck getting on at boardway. If they want ppl to start using it run the train more frequent during rush hour. If it is pack now think about HOW pack it will be when the evergreen line is built.
4. Outages. While it doesn't happen a lot IT DOES HAPPEN A LOT DURING WINTER. Is every year they have the same issue in winter so why haven't they learn from it? I still remember one winter I have to take the skytrain and there was as outage and ppl waited in the stations for more than an hour. That's unacceptable. And this doesn't happen only one,IT HAPPENS EVERY WINTER.
5. Those people that checks tickets are a joke. They check maybe 5ppl and wave the rest go on. Why hire them? Either do what Hong Kong does install some gates . I free load the skytrain for a few months before and never got caught. They skytrain cop is so dumb they only block one exit so all you have to do is use the other exit.

I don't see a point in expanding their if they can't even manage the current transit system. Fix the issue first then we can talk about expanding.

1.Holidays and weekends can be quite problematic. But not as many people work on holidays and weekends so the need for more buses isn't really there and the demand for quick travel to work is far lower then weekdays.

2.I totally agree with you here. I hate the night bus schedules and the routes. A nightbus should run for the entire night. And skytrains should be running 24/7, would make it so much easier for people like me who have to go to work at 5a.m. Then I'd have more reason to take the bus or train. But on the other hand if the skytrain is running at 4a.m on a weekday then it's going to be losing a shitload of money because barely anyone is going to use it. Same with the nightbus.

3.Broadway is going to be a hardcore nightmare because it's such a small area and it's a really big bottleneck. But if they are going to put more money into the translink system then hopefully they will have a lot more trains running and the 99 will be less busy with the train there.

4.They definitely need to pull up their boots when it comes to delays and problems. I'm not sure how they will fix it, but with more money they better atleast be fixing a lot of the existing problems.

5.The honor system of the skytrains is being replaced with gate entrances. So the need for police checks will be minimized and it will be incredibly difficult to get on the train without a ticket, therefore more people will be buying them. I was really poor for a 4 month stint and I rode the skytrain every weekday without paying. Never got checked once. Now if they had gates, they probably would have made 300$ off me in that time.

yay, live in abbotsford where the only transit we got is a few fucking buses. yet we now have to pay a tax that people are using as an excuse to pay for some fucking useless skytrain (to us). And this tax is not going to disappear. we should just tax the air we breathe ffs.

And who do you think currently pays for those buses you DO have? That's right: everyone else in the GVRD and BC. Even though they'll never use them. Ditto all the other SkyTrain lines. And buses. And SeaBus. All of transit is subsidized by people who'll never use it, or only use a little bit of it in their own corner of the world. Get the fuck over it and don't be so fucking selfish and short-sighted.

Are the new taxes in place now? Gas prices has shot up this wkend.

nope not til april 1 2012 afaik

i'd maybe, just maybe support this shit if translink operated their trains and buses 24/7 like new york city or other cities. That was its actually worth it for people. Anyways, fuck icbc and translink and fuck the mayors who want this, they are robbers.

Just Sat night around 6pm skytrain was having issue where ppl waiting for at least 30mins. and again on Sunday morning which lasted for about 10mins. Just wait till Winter and see how bad our skytrain is.

There are very few cities in the world that operate their metro systems 24/7. I was in NYC in August ans while their subway runs 24/7, it runs on a very reduced schedule after midnight. HK, which some argue has the best system on the world, shuts down at 1230. So does Paris. And buses do run pretty much 24/7 here - they're called the nightbus. Does it make economic sense to run buses on a regular schedule during the night to satisfy a couple of thousand club goers every weekend? Probably not.

Even if Translink wanted to run the system 24/7, how would it pay all of the staff? Even if it broke the union, would you drive a bus at 3 AM for 15 an hour? I wouldn't.
Posted via RS Mobile

Very few cities also have their "nightlife" pretty much be centered in one small area like Vancouver does.

When I was in London - the tube usually closes at around 1130 - 12. A few stations had one last tube come at around 1215, 1230, depending on which direction you're going. Nightbusses come - but just as infrequently as the ones here, or even less so.

I've bussed home from a friend's party in Clapham South to Holland Park where I lived, at night around 1, and it actually took me just over 2 hours using the night busses. It's literally just over 6 miles apart as well.

NYC is great because taxi's are cheap enough because their city is dense enough and many people take it. If I had taken the cab'd home in London, it would have easily cost me £40-50, and minicabs - maybe £30-40.

it finally makes sense for me to buy a 500 litre tank and throw it in the back of my truck. I'll go to the US and buy premium gas for under $4/gal. That will save me about 50 cents/litre versus buying gas here... so that's $250 savings every 500 litres...

Can customs tax you for that?

The last rig I was working on the leasehand decided to use the company card to fill up the slip tank on his diesel truck. The rig manager was pissed when he was looking through receipts and saw a receipt for 450 liters of diesel when our crew truck had a 100 liter tank.

Yeah... I'm pretty sure petrol isn't a non-taxable item like groceries.

but wouldnt that be the same as going down to fill up your car? when they ask me at customs what i'm bringing back i always say i went to fill up my car, they just waive me through...

Technically the second tank wouldnt be considered part of the vehicle though. They could say you are transporting fuel. You can get smaller slip tanks that arent as noticeable though.

It's just a courtesy to let you bring a full tank of gas back across the border. Like how if you go down for a day trip and they usually let you through even though you buy $100 worth of stuff though technically your tax/duty exemption is $0.

I've heard of people bringing jerry cans of gas back and getting taxed, although it doesn't happen unless you are being unreasonable about it.

so how much tax are they charging? 12% HST? if so, it's still cheaper since it comes out to about $1.15/litre

^^ 2 cents/litre.

So what have any of you done about the issues surrounding the whole gas tax?

Some bring good points about the lack of performance with BC-transit, the need to drive to and from work where transit presence is poor or even lacking.

Went back to school and moved closer to take the bus with a U-pass, so I wouldn't get charged for insurance, parking and fuel. Not driving for the next 2 years is my way of telling ICBC and the oil industries to get lost. I also run everywhere I can't reach by bus fast enough, but there are days when I wish I was driving, especially days when I feel sick, grocery shopping, etc... Funny thing is, although I moved closer to school and it is only a 5 min. bus ride on a week day, it is about 45 min (alternate route) or more on a weekend.

All things said, and there are good points, but none are feasible in the long run, like buying a tank and filling it up in the states. I`m not supporting this whole gas tax, I want to know, after all this talk, is there any action any of us can take, or were you all just venting. Cuz we all know how effective that is.

I really want to know what action we can do as citizens

If enough of us disagree we could protest, write letters to our elected leaders and maybe just like the hst, have a vote to get rid of it... If we all stay silent and try and live with it, then nothing is going to change.

I think enough people have documented that HST was a good thing, and getting rid of it will not only cost us more money in the long term, but also affect our economy negatively in the short and long term.

Voting on taxation is not something that should be left up to Joe Public. How many people voting on HST had absolutely no idea what it was about, and properly educated themselves on all the finer details prior to voting?

I like the concept and idea of the Evergreen Line, just like how I like the Canada Line. We have to understand and accept that the money is going to come from our wallets one way or another, whether it be a gas tax, property tax hike, sales tax hike, income tax hike, or cuts to other services.

There is never enough money to go around to fund all the services that everybody wants, and invariably somebody will always complain that their own interests are not being served.

Great point. I seem to see complaints about this more and more often: why should my taxes pay for X when I don't benefit from it?

I mean, there's a tax-free haven next door if people hate taxes in BC: it's called Alberta.