Celebrating 1 Year without a car

I don't really have anything to add except I cannot let the one year anniversary of being autofree pass by unannounced.

This has been a truly exceptional year in many, many ways. Meeting the love of my life Heather and with her encouragement and support staying car free and becoming more like the "green" person I've wanted to be for some time.

I will mention my horrendous experience with yet another irate bus driver. As I look over my blog for the last 12 months I see, irate bus drivers are a common theme. Last week whilst getting to the bus stop a 135 arrived, as I generally ride over to the zone 2 boundary, the only exception being when a bus arrives at the zone 1 stop at the same time I do, as it did this day.

After a brief heated discussion, the driver told me he would not charge me the extra dollar if I rode over to the first stop across the boundary in zone 2. I agreed and rode over there, even leaving my panier on the bus. however, as I got to the stop at the same time, the driver simply ignored me and drove away, with my panier still onboard. Incensed, I rode wrecklessly up Hastings, finally catching up to the bus at Hastings and Willingdon, the driver seemed suprised to see me. Had I not been able to catch the bus at that point I would have reported my belongings stolen by the driver; had I been injured chasing the bus....

In my complaint to Translink I later found out the driver knew full well he had driven away with my belongings, even though he apologised pretending to not know they were there. I even got a call from Translink asking my side of the story, seems the driver had already field a report as preemptive strike ! In later discussions with other SFU bus patrons so many said they no longer take the bus and have returned to their cars simply due to unprofessional operators; this outcome is simply unacceptable.