And Vancouver partly won that race to the airport because of how close it is to downtown and other major destinations. Montreal, for example, would have to tunnel for many kilometres under a sparsly populated industrial area.

It’s also interesting, though, how much land use affects travel times and vice versa, and how it all affects how we live. Where I live downtown is a place to be avoided except during business hours, rather there is a large shopping plaza maybe six blocks away where people go (think wal-mart supercentre times three). It’s a pain in the arse to get to by any mode other than car, but by car it’s so easy and quick, but that’s the dominant method here, all relating back to land use. Blargh.

It’s interesting how much it’s apparent as a regular transit user that shorter distances are definitely not always faster. I note that if the Millennium Line is ever expanded along Broadway or 10th to UBC, it would still be faster for you to get to Langara by transferring all the way at Waterfront instead of Commercial Drive and Cambie to the Canada Line. Likely not by much, to be sure, but that’s going a few kilometres out of your way!

At this point in my scholastic career (One month, two days until I start!) deciding what I might do after I graduate Langara’s Fine Arts program is pretty easy: There’s Emily Carr and UBC. And not going to school. However, with SFU Contemporary Arts moving into Woodwards at Abbott and Hastings in the next year, that’s now an option. It’d be even faster for me to get to than Langara.

Now if they’d only knuckle down and build the long-promised Evergreen Line!