Aquada, free me from the tyranny of BC Ferries

Random Thoughts

Been commuting back and forth off-Island for the past week while doing a fortnight of farm-sitting (thank the gods Bike to Work Week is over, as it’s way easier riding from Fernwood than cycling from Salt Spring) and I must say, the idea of e-commuting is growing on me. Of course, it would be a whole lot more effective if there was no need to see people face-to-face, but since that’s not about to happen in my job anytime soon, I find myself undertaking a serious commute for the first time in nearly 20 years. Ah yes, two-hour traffic; now I remember why I left Vancouver. Throw in a ferry ride each way (along with the requisite line-ups and schedule mayhem) and I find myself spending a lot of time driving and thinking of late. So here, in no particular order, are some random commuting thoughts.

• Would that I had a spare $85,000 for one of those splashy three-seat Aquada aqua cars (170 km/h highway, 50 km/h waterway)—then I could skip the whole ferry thing entirely and look totally James Bond while I’m at it. Let’s see, at $40 a crossing . . . that’s 2,125 ferry trips to break even . . . not counting gas, the global supply of which will probably have run out by the time I take 2,125 ferry rides.

• Speaking of ferry rides, I remain convinced that BC Ferries schedules are more like the 10 Commandments than, say, any actual timetable—that is, they seem more like a hope, an idea to aspire to, than anything upon which one can actually plan.

• As somebody who usually either walks or rides a bike to work, I am shocked (shocked!) to see how many drivers are wearing iPod earbuds. People, those white cords stand out a car-length away; bad enough to be yacking on a cell phone while driving—or, like the chap who passed me at speed on the Malahat the other day, apparently repairing the underside of the passenger seat—but wearing earphones? That just seems dangerously silly.

• Will my children ever know the simple pleasure of going for a long drive, or will peak oil forever change our relationship with the personal vehicle?

• Contrary to popular consumer belief, cassettes continue to work just fine in the mp3 era. The latest on my car’s tape deck? Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown, a worthy head-nodding successor to American Idiot. Also heard on my drive-time playlist of late: Woody Herman’s 1963, Feist’s Let It Die, Jets Overhead’s No Nations, CBC Radio 2’s wonderfully revamped format and Barbie’s Island Princess. (Hey, I’ve got a six-year-old daughter.)

• Rain on a Tuesday does absolutely nothing to help heal Sunday’s sunburn.

• An agrarian island lifestyle is only blissful and bucolic if you don’t have to leave it behind every 36 hours.

• I’m sure an airport highway expansion project will benefit some Saanich-bound drivers, but hello? The Western Communities, where the bulk of commuters live and really only have one option for going to and fro? It’s a mess out there. Light rail, sky tram, bike bus, teleporter pad . . . if the ferry was in that direction, I bet there’d already be a solution in place.

• My respect for farmers grows every time I take on farmsitting duties—which mostly means feeding the livestock, watering the veggies and collecting the eggs, with no actual farming involved. My parents are both 73 and it’s beyond me how they do this full time. Side-note: it’s surprising what you can pull with a tractor; I tell you, sheep skiing is the sport of the future.

• Finally, upon leaving the farm, it’s important to remember not to wear your newly manure-enhanced shoes to the office, especially on a warm day—unless you really want to avoid talking to anyone, in which case it would have just been easier to stay out in pasture with the sheep. M