Calgary Commuting Culture

My Long Weekend!

The Routes:


Friday: I took the Bus to the University, 15 mnutes; the C-train to down-town, 20 minutes, the bus home from down town, 30 minutes; Bus to Royal Oak, 90 minutes with waiting time; C-train from Dalhousie to Heritage 50 minutes! Totalling 205 minutes!!!! or 3 and a half hours!!!!

Saturday: I travelled from Dalhousie to SAIT by Train, 30 minutes and back again, 30 minutes. Totalling 60 minutes.

Sunday: I was on the C-Train from Kensington to the University, 20 minutes;train from the University back to SAIT, 10 minutes; train from SAIT to Brentwood, 25 minutes and the bus from Brentwood to home, 30 minutes. Totalling 65 minutes.

Weekend Total: 350 minutes or almost 6 hours!

The Experience:

Friday was interesting for once as I was actually taking transit with friends so I had someone to have a conversation with! Plus I was headed out of down town close to rush hour so the bus was full and the streets busy. It was also neat when taking my friends up to Royal Oak as they didn't even know that buses went that far!

Saturday was pretty tame. The trains were empty and again I had company!

Sunday was good too. I got everywhere I needed to go in time and again there was not many people using the transit system.

The Highlights:

Friday: When leaving down town the bus was cut off by a car turning into our lane and everyone on the bus moved forward as the Bus driver SLAMMED on the brakes and honked the horn in anger. I was sitting on a sideways seat and crushed the person next to me right into the seat ahead of us. While a fellow who was standing by the back door, whos hands were full, fell into the two women sitting in the seat in front of him. He banged his shins pretty baldly on the heater and just, just avoided spilling his coffee all over the women. After that the two ladies were a little wary and kept looking back to make sure they were not going to get trampled on again!

Saturday was pretty amusing. I was on the train with my two friends and we were chatting and making up silly stories when a fellow sat across from me. It took me a minute to recognze him but it turned out to be the Cookie Giver from my trip to Sunridge!! He was quite and stayed to himself but as us girls starting getting sillier we decided that one of us was going to name their cat Dong and made up all these hypothetical situations where that name would be humorous! Well I guess Cookie Giver didn't like it when other people were the centre of attention on the train becasue I he got up and moved a couple seats back from us!! I guess he likes to be the annoying one and not be annoyed himself!

On Sunday I really learned to appreciate the transit's tele-ride system. I had to get a friend to a stop in Brentwood where she had never been so I accompanied her and then went to catch my own bus. But I had not checked my own bus schedule. Standing in the dark, in the wind, I had no idea how long I would have to wait! It made me feel much better to be able to phone and find out that my bus would be another 25 minutes... NOT! But then I rememberd that I could also catch a different bus there and would only have to walk a couple blocks. It turns out that this bus (thanks to tele-ride) would arrive in only 7 minutes! If I had not of known how long my first choice bus would take I would of never thought to take another bus and I would of been stuck in Brentwood for ever!

How I feel:
The weekend was great. I logged a lot of hours and enjoyed all of it. I either had my own firends for entertainment and or random strangers to provide a laugh! I give the weekend a 9 out of 10!

Labels: Transit