My BC Transit Story: 13 Year Relationship

Only picture I have on hand of me in high school.... ahhh terrible Grade 12 pictures. 

I have been a regular transit rider since the second day of grade eight. I live in Richmond, but attended a high school in Vancouver, so I would take public transit every morning to school and then bus back home after. I still remember rushing out the door and piling into the car with my neighbour to catch the 7:18 AM 480 UBC bus. The 7:18 AM time will forever be ingrained in my mind as I caught that 480 bus 5 days a week for 3 and a half years before the Canada Line was introduced. 

I completed my Bachelors of Science in Food, Nutrition and Health at UBC and then too, I rode the bus to and from campus. Over the years, I have worked for several different companies and depended on the public transit system. Now I work in North Vancouver, but live in Vancouver, but even still, I wake up early, take the Canada Line and catch the 240 at 5:51 AM to make it on time for my 6:30 AM start time. 

The 410/41/43/480/98 B-Line (discontinued) and the Canada Line have played a VITAL role in the last 13 years of my life. Metro Vancouver's Public Transit System has helped me compete high school, my bachelors degree, start my masters degree and aide me in furthering my career. 

I am 26 and for the last 13 years - Half My Life - I have relied Metro Vancouver Public Transit 5 days a week. 

My relationship with transit spans over a decade and I have seen it grow and flourish into the system that it is now. If you complain of having to wait for a bus or its late or its full or its raining outside, then you must be new to transit because back in 2006, the 410 would come maybe every 25 minutes and many times it would not come at all. There have been times when I was 12 years old and my 11 year old neighbour we have waited out in the summer heat or drizzly cold Vancouver fall for over an hour for the 410, the final leg of our transit trip to get home from school ONLY FOR THE BUS TO PASS BY FULL. But now --->  the 410 shows up every 10 minutes and we are not being packed into them like sardines, not to mention they are air conditioned and super clean! 

When I was young, I hated transit because it sucked having to wake up at 6:30 to take the already full bus to high school. However, it helped me become an independent young female and allowed me to never depend on anyone. Now, I choose to take transit because it decreases my carbon foot print. It helps lesson congestion on the roads and sitting on the bus gives me time to decompress, zone out and relax oh and the Canada Line cuts right through all the nasty traffic in Vancouver thus resulting in shorter commute times compared to if I drove. 

So that is my story, my transit story. What is yours? #MYtransitstory

BYES