By: Yagya Parihar, SFU Student
Some time back, a friend told me about how “embarrassingly high” her car insurance is. Soon after, I read an opinion piece in The Peak complaining about parking on campus. I thought to myself, “You people are driving to campus?” In my view, driving a car is just the worst way to get to university, or anywhere for that matter. Public transit is the superior mode of travel for multiple reasons. As a longtime transit user and member of the SFU Transit Enthusiasts Club (yes, it’s real), I feel it’s my duty to spread the gospel.
To begin, cars may seem superficially faster, but in the time a transit user can take a joyride on any of the bus routes up Burnaby Mountain, dozens of students with cars have circled the full parking lots so many times that they just give up on attending their lecture and go back home. It means there are more open seats in class, so I’m not complaining. Of course, when heading off campus, rather than having to go hunting for wherever you parked your car because it isn’t where you swear you thought you left it, all you do is head to a bus stop and wait until a professional driver arrives to chauffeur you off campus. Honestly, I’d trust their driving skills more than half of my friends (or myself if I knew how).
Transit use also puts you ahead of the curve in technology. Tesla owners have long had to deal with Elon Musk’s repeatedly broken promises that they’ll get real full self-driving cars someday. SkyTrain users have enjoyed fully autonomous vehicles that each cost as much as a handful of Lambos since the ‘80s. I’d rather be in the front seat of a Bombardier ART Mark II speeding through New Westminster than pay hundreds of dollars a month for the “privilege” of being stuck in traffic.
While you’re riding, one of the best parts of the experience is seeing all the interesting people who inhabit this city. The spontaneous conversations you have with someone or the interactions you get to see really make you feel more connected to everyone else . . . oh, who am I kidding? Most people are probably going to be looking at their phones or something.
If you don’t care less for other people, though, you can still benefit financially. As part of your tuition, you already have a U-Pass that’s a pain to opt out of. Why would you waste additional money on insurance payments, oil changes, or installments on a car which you know deep down in your heart cannot possibly compare to the glory of a 60-foot New Flyer Industries XDE60? Instead, you can donate all that money you save to a non-profit organization like the Transit Museum Society of British Columbia, where they put all that money to good use by showcasing the region’s transit history at numerous community events throughout the year. Or you could just blow it all at Breka like I would.
Health benefits from transit usage also abound. Transfers are absolutely great for cardio. One great example of this is when you accidentally walk the long way around trying to figure out how you’re supposed to get from Vancouver City Centre to Granville because The Bay closed their entrance for some unknown reason, and end up having to walk an extra block. Between that and the endurance exercises that are the staircases at Metrotown or Commercial-Broadway, I’m befuddled as to why you’d ever want to pay extra for a gym membership.
Finally, transit usage can be great for mental well-being too. You get years of experience waiting for infrequent bus routes, getting to the stop just in time to watch it leave, being passed up by jam-packed express buses where no one will move to back despite that hellish automated voice playing over and over, and having to stand on crowded trains where no one puts their bag on the ground. This instills a sense of patience deep within the typical transit user. You learn to accept that things take time, and in an age where we have access to all the information and entertainment we could ever want at our fingertips, it serves as a reminder that you can’t get instant gratification for everything. The struggle is a part of life, and you just have to accept that.
However, your struggle will not be in vain, because when the bus enters a bus lane and blows past all the cars and trucks stuck in slow-as-molasses traffic, the transit user gets the last laugh.
