[You gave your today for our tomorrow]

Remembrance Day is fast approaching, that time of year set aside to show our appreciation for all that was sacrificed for the good of others.

Hundreds of thousands of men and women have given their time, their health (mental and/or physical), and even their lives in an effort to make the world a better place. They might have done this as a fighting soldier, a peacekeeping soldier, or even as a civilian. War veterans and survivors have lived through horrors we couldn't even begin to imagine. For too many, that was the last thing they experienced before their death.

Please, take a moment or two to reflect on what these people sacrificed so we can live the lives we have today. We can't afford to lose sight of how the freedoms we have today were earned.

Vimy Ridge, France:

Inscribed around the base of the monument are the names of those whose final resting places are unknown. My sig is an example of a portion of that wall.

Ypres, Belgium:

As with Vimy Ridge, those are names (54,896 of them) inscribed on the walls of the monument.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae sat at these very bunkers when he penned what is among the best-known poems out there:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

That torch is now in Afghanistan; those men and women fighting over there are now war veterans. They shouldn't be forgotten when it comes to acknowledging the sacrifices made over the years.

(Please, no fighting about Afghanistan here; if you must, take it to another thread)

Photos from my trip can be found in Post 60, Post 61, and Post 62.

[The Official Transit Thread]

(In other news, someone got verbally pwned by another passenger on the 496 bus for not following the "courtesy seat" rules... That was amusing.)

While waiting for a bus, I was chatting with an elderly woman who had all kinds of stories about rude people and courtesy seats (her diabetic husband can't stand for any significant length of time). But my favorite was her story about the rude bus driver. She and her husband were sitting upstairs on a double-decker bus and didn't leave their seats until the bus stopped at the stop they wanted off at. They got downstairs and the bus driver started to pull away. She called out for him to stop because they wanted off, and he told them they should have been at the door when the bus stopped if they wanted off. Her response? "Son you'd better get out of your seat and come read the sign here that says to not use the stairs while the bus is in motion." She won that one.

Some good bus stories for a change:

Had an awesome bus driver heading home from town on the weekend. I got on at the main downtown station, and just before the bus pulled out the driver came on the intercom and gave the full rundown of destination, weather forecast, etc (just like an airline pilot). As we approached the bridge, he said something to the effect of "You may feel the bus shake a bit as I deploy the heat shield for re-entry to Vic West" and he 'shook' the bus by wiggling the steering wheel. He also announced every stop, and often gave little descriptions like "the world famous Esquimalt shopping centre, where only the finest people shop" and so on. It made for a much livelier bus ride than normal.

This morning was just a good commute. The bus pulled up to one stop where someone had written, on the sidewalk in chalk, 'and I think to myself what a wonderful world' which pretty much summed up how I was feeling at the time, watching the pretty pink sunrise.

[The Official Transit Thread]

Looks like Victoria's contemplating a bus route up Bay St. I can't find anything on their website, but I got an email at work about the open house for consultation with the public.

The map doesn't have anything labeled, but it looks like the bus will loop around the Jubilee Hospital; going clockwise that would be:

Bay St -> Lee Ave -> Fort St -> Richmond Rd -> back to Bay

Then it'll head down Bay St across town to the Save-on-Foods shopping plaza and do a loop around there. My best guess for the other end of the route, based on the shape of the loop, would be (going clockwise):

Bay St -> Tyee Rd -> Kimta Rd -> Catherine St -> back to Bay St.

So it looks like it'll swing by Spinnaker's Brewpub (on Kimta) at that end.

[The Official Transit Thread]

In that case, I agree with the complaint in the article posted on the previous page - why are there differences in the prices of the U-Pass? That seems really odd. It's the same transit system, it should be the same price for all institutions in the U-Pass program.

[The Official Transit Thread]

Expand the U-Pass program??? The transit system is already overflowing, lets back off on further expansions for a little while.

As for all this complaining, the asking price for the U-Pass for other colleges is still well below the price of a monthly pass....what more do they want? Of course, schools like UBC and SFU will have lower prices.....it's basic economics, with so many more students.

How does the U-Pass program work in Vancouver? Is it a mandatory bus pass for all students, or do students opt in?

In Victoria, UVic and Camosun have a U-Pass that every student has to pay for as part of their student fees regardless of how often they will (or won't) use it. Some if it works out to free money for BC Transit from the students who rarely ever use the bus pass, but the student body voted overwhelmingly in favor of this system years ago. Because it's mandatory, the U-Pass is around 1/4 the price of a regular adult bus pass. The other post-secondary institutions in town just have discounted bus passes, which works out to about the same as my Pro-Pass.

[The Official Transit Thread]

I don't know how you guys can use transit on a daily basis espicially on the non express bus to UBC from commercial. You usually have someone who reeks and smells so bad that you want to throw up.

You learn to cope with it. It's a lot easier to deal with when you pass a gas station and look at the price of gas.

And I probably save a few hundred dollars a month taking transit (in Victoria):

$63 for a pro-pass VS car payment + insurance + gas + parking

[The Official Transit Thread]

Why would a small city like Victoria need an LRT line for? Now a commuter railroad, they COULD work potentially.

LRT from the Western Communities (which are growing rapidly) to downtown would go a long way to easing the gridlock on the highway. In the morning commute, bumper to bumper traffic starts north of Goldstream and only gets worse as you approach Langford. You stop moving with any speed once you hit Spencer Rd (even before construction started on the interchange). They wanted to put a rapid-transit route along Douglas (I can't remember how far out of town it went) but that's been shelved for now due to significant opposition.

Commuter rail up and down the island would be fantastic. There are a lot of people who commute from the Cowichan Valley to Victoria or Nanaimo for work. Right now there is NO transit option, unless you want to pay $20 each way for the greyhound bus. They're going to try out buses running between Victoria and Duncan - 3 trips each in the morning and afternoon, each trip taking 80 minutes from one end of the route to the other - absolutely ridiculous.

Everyone complains about congestion on the Malahat. Commuter rail to downtown Victoria could go a long way to reducing that. A couple years ago they did a trial commuter run with the Dayliner and it was packed - there are plenty of people who would ditch their cars and take a train to work. My dad would have done so without thinking twice, especially if there was room for bicycles.

Not to mention a train would provide an alternate route between Duncan and Victoria, something lots of people complain about.

Improving the rail line would also allow freight to be taken off the roads and moved by rail. The rail ownership group has companies interested in doing this, but the rail line is not currently suitable for heavy freight - the rail line has to be upgraded before significant freight can be moved that way. Taking trucks off the roads would do a few things:

- no more slow moving trucks on the Malahat to back-up traffic

- reduces wear & tear on the roads

- majority of accidents that close the Malahat completely are jack-knifed semis - removing the semis from the road would eliminate a lot of highway closures and traffic tie-ups

[The Official Transit Thread]

I wish Victoria could get some of this money earmarked for improvements to transit.

LRT >>> poorly thought out rapid transit plan (which has been shelved after major opposition from downtown businesses).

Then there's the hold-up with the rail line that runs the length of the island...the group that owns the island rail line is still waiting for the province to pony up $35mil for improvements to the line to make it usable for commuter rail and freight traffic. The ownership group has already been promised $35mil from the federal government if the provincial government will match it. That's about 2/3 of the estimated cost of upgrading the rail line. The money required is pocket change compared to what's being spent in Vancouver, yet we still can't get it.