Post-Apocalyptic Detatched Home
Comfortable four-bedroom family home has been retrofitted with an ozone generating solar barrier, a toxic shield and an anti-Zombie sonic emitter.
Shops and amenities nearby.
Contact Eddie Haskell at 555.5555
Commuting by Bike in Vancouver Can Cost You on Transit
So, you drive to work or school, and you want to save money on gasoline and decrease your carbon output on your daily commute. If you are a detail freak, like me, this can become complicated if you make the mistake of doing a cost-benefit analysis. If you want to take your bike across zones in a practicable way, it will cost you more than it should. Unless you work within walking distance or have a solar-powered transporterbeam, you have three options, ride your bike, take transit or combine the two modes. As the spring weather is improving, and transit’s capacity is decreasing, I have found myself wanting to ride more often.
The Obstacle
Where it gets complicated is when you live in one transit zone and work in the next, as I do. Riding a bike is a beautiful and practical transportation technology, until you come up against an obstacle such as Burrard Inlet. Since I live close to Clark Drive, located at Vancouver’s geographic centre point between the First and Second Narrows Bridges; and my office is near Capilano Mall, North Vancouver’s geographic centre point between those same bridges; riding over either bridge would create an equally indirect trip around the city. Even if it were not so logistically challenged, cycling across bridges is an onerous proposal, a grueling ride that leaves me smelly, fatigued and unpresentable for work.
Cost-Effectiveness
The only remaining option is transit, either the 2-bike limited carrier equipped buses or the ill-designed but bike-tolerant SeaBus. Being of a Danish background, I opt for the sea-faring, but no matter. To cross zone boundaries in Vancouver, it costs $3.75, which comes to $7.50 a day. This is a hard pill to swallow, as I am only using Translink to negotiate the one obstacle, and then continuing on my own power. This just feels unfair, and more importantly, it works systemically against practicable solutions to transit problems, in that it is more cost effective and convenient to drive.
The Calculation
To substantiate the above claim, I did a quick calculation figuring in the fuel consumption of my car, current average fuel prices in my area, and distance driven to work. Using an online mapping distance calculator, and Canadian Driver’s specs on my model, I went to work figuring out what I spend daily:
My 2005 Honda Civic gets 38 mpg in the city, which turns out to be 7.5L/100 km. A direct trip from my East Van home to my North Vancouver office is 14.3 Kilometers, or 1.1 litres of gas. At 99.7 cents/litre, it costs about $1.07 cents per trip, or $ 2.15 per day. That is, 3 ½ days of motoring costs the same as one day of riding with a Translink-augmented bike-ride. I want to be good, I want to save the world, I just wish it was more cost-effective. If Vancouver wants to be eco-innovative, this is the kind of thing that needs to be addressed. More on that in a future post.
Welcome to Vancouver Dirt
Vancouver Dirt is about homes in BC; how they are bought, sold, lived in and used. We publish practical information for real estate buyers and sellers, the intersection of real estate with the environment, relevant news, civic policy and stuff we just think is cool... so what’s with the name?
Vancouver is a beautiful city on Canada’s West Coast, and is a great place to buy a home! And while the previous statement cannot be debated, there is nothing particularly compelling about it either. It’s not untrue that Vancouver is lovely, cutting-edge and half-a-dozen other claims, but like any other community, it is a work in progress, it is flawed and therefore, terribly interesting.
“Dirt” can mean several things:
“The Dirt” is slang terminology pertaining to the “real” information, or the “truth” about something or someone. Despite being a four-letter word and its etymology, it is not necessarily filth. “Dirt” is what rises to the surface when journalism is done well.
A piece of “Dirt” is what real estate is about; it is a colloquialism for the property that a home stands on. People in the real estate market essentially buy and sell parcels of the stuff; and to compound this already mixed-metaphor even further, they are either trying to arrive at or to sidestep the “dirt” on a piece of “dirt.”
“Dirt,” connoting “soil” or “earth,” refers to a passion of our times, our natural environment. In this respect, it is especially connected to our concerns, not as real estate brokers, but as fellow travellers on the planet. Our species grows food in it, builds habitation on it, and all too often disrespects it. This blog will connect these fundamental but abstract activities with our everyday ones, because our fate is bound up in our awareness of it.
Often, real estate “blogs” are merely populated with property listings or buying trends, and though there is nothing wrong with this, listings sites already provide such services. Many Realty bloggers write exclusively about Vancouver’s recreational activities, and while that is also good, there is so much more to this city than Stanley Park, sushi and snowboarding.
So just why does a real estate company’s blog stray from that safe neighbourhood of cheerful, upbeat sales language? Well, a business is not faceless, it is run by people; and wherever there is a group of individuals, you will find a collection of ideas, beliefs and passions; these need an outlet. We want to engage readership, and not speak only to the “Real Estate Bored.” We don’t intend to change real estate blogging, we just want ours to be a place where we can question, educate and engage in a way that is not typical of real estate websites.
You might find anything buried in the dirt, you just have to dig.
Vancouver is a beautiful city on Canada’s West Coast, and is a great place to buy a home! And while the previous statement cannot be debated, there is nothing particularly compelling about it either. It’s not untrue that Vancouver is lovely, cutting-edge and half-a-dozen other claims, but like any other community, it is a work in progress, it is flawed and therefore, terribly interesting.
“Dirt” can mean several things:
“The Dirt” is slang terminology pertaining to the “real” information, or the “truth” about something or someone. Despite being a four-letter word and its etymology, it is not necessarily filth. “Dirt” is what rises to the surface when journalism is done well.
A piece of “Dirt” is what real estate is about; it is a colloquialism for the property that a home stands on. People in the real estate market essentially buy and sell parcels of the stuff; and to compound this already mixed-metaphor even further, they are either trying to arrive at or to sidestep the “dirt” on a piece of “dirt.”
“Dirt,” connoting “soil” or “earth,” refers to a passion of our times, our natural environment. In this respect, it is especially connected to our concerns, not as real estate brokers, but as fellow travellers on the planet. Our species grows food in it, builds habitation on it, and all too often disrespects it. This blog will connect these fundamental but abstract activities with our everyday ones, because our fate is bound up in our awareness of it.
Often, real estate “blogs” are merely populated with property listings or buying trends, and though there is nothing wrong with this, listings sites already provide such services. Many Realty bloggers write exclusively about Vancouver’s recreational activities, and while that is also good, there is so much more to this city than Stanley Park, sushi and snowboarding.
So just why does a real estate company’s blog stray from that safe neighbourhood of cheerful, upbeat sales language? Well, a business is not faceless, it is run by people; and wherever there is a group of individuals, you will find a collection of ideas, beliefs and passions; these need an outlet. We want to engage readership, and not speak only to the “Real Estate Bored.” We don’t intend to change real estate blogging, we just want ours to be a place where we can question, educate and engage in a way that is not typical of real estate websites.
You might find anything buried in the dirt, you just have to dig.
