Transportation

We all know about Vancouver’s livability. It’s among the greatest in the world, but how about Vancouver’s bikeability? Well UBC mapped out Metro Vancouver’s bikeability and the results really aren’t that surprising. As expected most of the bikeable areas also the most densely populated regions in Metro Vancouver, with downtown, Kits and Commercial Drive leading the pack.

Cars of Summer is a series about cool cars, cool places and cool people in the Vancouver area. This week we visited Ships to Shore 2011 in Steveston, where we ran into pirates, boarded ships and took the 2011 BMW 355is for a tear on the back roads of Richmond.

The Richmond Auto Mall Courtesy Shuttle pulled up at exactly 1145, just like the sign said it would. After a morning of mishaps like arriving at the wrong dealership and having to take transit, this was a welcome sign.

Vancouver has a fairly long history of car sharing. Since 1997, there has been some form of the service operating in the Lower Mainland and this summer marks the arrival of a new player on the roads. Daimler, the good people who brought you such automotive gems as the Mercedes SLS, have chosen Vancouver as the first Canadian city to benefit from their answer to the future of car sharing, Car2Go.

Regular visitors to Vancity Buzz know that I’m a slut for a nice set of wheels. So when the chance came to grope and ogle some of the world’s nicest cars, I knew I had to be front and centre. That being said, if you’ve been to one auto show press conference, you’ve been to them all. The same tours of manufacturer’s areas with the same monotonous speeches by some bureaucrat who’s more comfortable behind a giant slab of teak held high on mirror polished gold and emerald encrusted elephant tusks, than behind a leather wrapped carbon fiber wheel, steering 500 very angry horses.  Geneva, Detroit and Tokyo auto shows may get the big press and concept reveals, but our little coastal backwater managed to lay out a decent, if somewhat overcrowded spread.

In an early morning announcement, Mayor Gregor Robertson held a small press conference to announce that 41st Ave would become the next bike lane as a celebration of Vancouver’s 125 year anniversary. Here are the details of Vancouver’s next infrastructure upgrade.

After months of scrutinizing and voting TransLink has finally revealed the new name for the electronic fare card. Behold the Compass Card! Like many this wasn’t my first choice, however, it’s far better than what most were predicting, T-Pass. Personally I was hoping of the three remaining choices that Starfish would have been selected.