One thing that generally comes with moving is the learning of a new route to work. For those of us who commute by transit, that’s learning a new bus route.

Of the very few things I’m missing about the old place (along with being mere steps from Tatlows, the Naam and the Flying Tiger) is the fact that we were on a pretty major transit crossing of routes. The buses there were such that we could get to and from downtown - without transferring - on 6 major bus routes, all going slightly different ways.

We didn’t really bother learning when exactly the buses were showing up, because we knew there would always be another one coming within 5 or 6 minutes.

That abundance of transit options has now been reduced to one. The formidable #17.

In the mornings it really isn’t a problem, since we have a pretty good handle on when it comes by (every 10 minutes on the 7’s).

Going home is an entirely different matter.

Not only is the closest downtown stop a good 3 block walk for each of us (instead of the 1/2 block or directly outside options we had before), but we seem to be experts at showing up exactly when the latest bus home for us is pulling away - meaning a 10-15 minute wait in not entirely pleasant weather for the next one.

We went through the same song and dance again today, and stood outside in the cold as we watched The #17 pull away when we were too far to catch it, and hung around waiting for the next one.

Finally another bus came by, and Neil and I walked up to get on it.

And somehow broke the time-space-continuum.

We both saw the #17 turn the corner.

We both watched it pull up to the stop.

We both walked up to the bus and got on.

Then about halfway through the ride, realized we were on the #4.

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?

We have no idea where the hell our brains/that bus went, but somehow we managed to get on the wrong bus. I’m assuming it pulled up to the stop around the same time as the #17 and we just walked up to the wrong one - but that’s a bit boneheaded, even for us.

We didn’t even realize it right away, since all the buses from that stop take the same path out of town, so it was really 2/3 of the way through the ride that we clued in we were going the wrong way.

Dude in red toque, standing toward the front of the bus: I’m glad you got a snicker out of our brainfart. If I were you, I’d have laughed at me too.

Anyhow, it wasn’t completely tragic, since the #4 happens to stop about 5 blocks from our place (and across the street from our favourite butcher, helloooo dinner), but I suppose that’s our sign to actually learn a little more about our new chauffeured coach and make more of an effort to get on the right bus from now on.

It’s either that, or invest in some far more comfortable shoes to stand and wait in, then endure the 5+ block hike.

I received an unexpected message in my inbox the other day, from a Province reporter, looking for someone to interview for a story about CAN. I’m guessing my kitslinao.ca entry on car-sharing showed up in her google search.

In any case, it turns out that the Cooperative Auto Network has just been audited, and is facing the prospect of a very hefty bill.

Content skived from yesterday’s Province, since I’m too busy to write the story again:

Car co-op dinged for rental tax
Cheryl Chan, The Province
Published: Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Vancouver Co-operative Auto Network is facing a possible car-rental tax bill of up to $300,000.

“This is a big hit for a very successful small business here in Vancouver,” said New Democrat MLA Gregor Robertson.

The provincial tax of $1.50 per vehicle rental is meant to charge renters, mostly out-of-towners, for the use of roads in B.C., said Robertson.

When the co-op was set up, he said, it was not directed to collect the tax.

The Ministry of Small Business audited the co-op and ruled in February that the tax is payable, retroactive for three years.

Executive-director Tracey Axelsson said the co-op is submitting documents for a formal assessment, which is the next step if the tax is to be paid.

“It could be an assessment of zero

. . . or it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Axelsson. “At this point, there is no way of knowing which way it’ll go.”

Kitsilano resident Jennifer Wiederick doesn’t need a car, but as one of the 3,500 members of the Vancouver car co-op, she has access to one whenever she needs it.

“It works out great,” said Wiederick, 27. “I save money, mostly on maintenance and insurance.”

Wiederick said it would be “unfortunate” if the co-op was taxed. “The co-op was created with the spirit of reducing cars on the road, so charging them a tax for road infrastructure goes completely against the spirit of things.”

Car co-ops in Victoria and Nelson also may face the tax.

Susanna Grimes of the Victoria Car Share Co-op, which hasn’t been audited, said they are monitoring the case. “It’s a concern of ours, of course.”

Zipcar, a similar but for-profit private company launched in Vancouver last April, pays the tax.

chchan@png.canwest.com

The part I said that wasn’t quoted in the article is that since joining the car co-op, I not only pay less to drive, I drive less. Because I’d have to go through the issue of booking the car, walking to it, taking it where I need to go, parking, driving back and walking home again, short trips are rarely worth taking a car for. I carpool a lot more. I take the bus. I walk.

Belonging to the car co-op means that my driving activity (and impact on local transportation infrastructure) is reduced. I assume it’s similar with other members.

Also, the Hon. Mr. Robertson has it dead wrong when he says it’s a “big hit for a successful small business” because the co-op isn’t a business. Nobody is making money off of the use of these cars (unlike competitor, zipcar, which primarily operates as a short-term repeat-rental agency) - they are collectively owned by the members and shared. Any fees that are paid go toward the ownership and maintenance of these cars and any administrative charges to pay staff to look after the cars’ collective insurance and well-being.

Arguing that because CAN has staff to manage the fleet and members buy shares and pay fees it is a business that owes the rental tax is akin to saying that because I have a mortgage, and sometimes have friends and family stay over (and sometimes stay at their place, where they pay their mortgage) and we pay housekeepers come in to dust and vacuum every couple weeks (I don’t have that - wishful thinking - but if I did), I should be assessed a hotel tax.

I sincerely hope that the formal assessment results in the Ministry of Small Business pulling their heads out of their collective asses and reversing their decision to levy the rental tax.

Because if this action results in an unaffordable special assessment to members, or even the death knell of CAN, I’ll be purchasing a car again (because what I’d spend on Zipcar would amount to a car payment).

And that seems like a lose-lose situation for an already overburdened road and transportation infrastructure, CAN, the environment, my bank account, and my vote for the government who thought levying the tax on CAN was a good idea in the first place.

Oh gentle readers, I am stymied!

Neil and I are heading off on a canoeing trip next week, and are trying to figure out exactly how we’re going to get from Point A to Point B with as little hassle and expense as possible.

I’m convinced there must be a reasonable way to execute the plan - but I’ll be damned if I can figure it out! So I thought I’d turn to y’all and see if the collective Watercooler readership is smarter than I am (which I figure is highly likely).

Here are the details:

We must get from our apartment in Kitsilano to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal with ourselves, 2 backpacks, 1 suitcase and the dog.

–> A taxi is going to be about $60 - I know it’s a long-ass ride, but it seems like there must be a better option

–> We can’t take the bus with the dog (unless someone knows some dog/bus-fu they can share? At 75lbs she is just slightly too big to stuff in a carrier and haul onboard)

–> We could get a co-op car (round trip costs about $30), but one of us would have to return it to its original location, then bus back to the ferry (probably 4 hours of driving/bussing all together - and our time is worth a LOT more than the cab-fare to avoid that)

–> Renting a car and paying to leave it at the ferry terminal for a week is just dumb and far more expensive than $120 in taxi rides. Can you do a 1-way rental from Vancouver to West Vancouver?

–> We can’t think of any friends that live nearby who
a) have cars or access to cars;
b) are available midday on a Wednesday;
c) are in town next Wednesday;
d) would willingly drive from our house to Horseshoe Bay and back for the price of gas and a bottle of wine.
(If you are such a friend, please let us know - we haven’t asked because we didn’t want to impose!)

And that is about where we left off.

Anyone out there have any brilliant ideas, or are looking for something to do next Wednesday midday?

I’m sure many of you have heard of or seen the new car-sharing cars around town. Zipcar has moved into the city, offering up some competition to the homegrown Cooperative Auto Network (CAN).

I think competition in any industry is a great thing, though I think comparing a co-op to a for-profit service is a bit apples and oranges.

Regardless, I thought it would be interesting to compare one of my CAN invoices to the rates for Zipcar, and see how much they differ.

In a nutshell, CAN bills by the hour and the kilometer. There’s also a monthly administration fee. The cars are ALWAYS $2/h, regardless of the type of car you’re booking. Exceptions: the maximum charge is $24/day, and there is no hourly charge between 11:00pm and 7:00am.

The kilometer and administration rates vary, depending on the amount of driving you do in a calendar month. Rates are calculated at all three price points ($6.25/mo + $0.38/km, $15.00/mo + $0.28/km, $40.00/mo + $0.18/km) and you’re always charged the lowest.

Zip Cars are charged by the hour or day. Period. Kilometers (150/day) are automatically included, and rates vary depending on the vehicle you want. In Vancouver, that translates to $9.75/h ($69.00/day) for regular economy cars (Yaris, Mazda 3, Civic) or $11.75/h ($87.50/day) for trucks or “cool” (Mini, Prius) cars.

Both programs include the cost of fuel, maintenance and insurance. With gas prices being what they are, CAN added a “fuel-fluctuation adjustment” when prices went over $0.80/L. It’s based on the average price of gas and fleet fuel consumption over the calendar month.

So how does that translate into hard costs each month?

In February 2007 I drove 199kms. I took seven trips, ranging from 1-7 hours in duration. My most cost-efficient plan was the “moderate” plan, giving me the $15/mo + $0.28/km rate. The total fuel-fluctuation amount was $0.0337/km.

My total CAN driving costs were $116.84, plus the administration fee of $15. CAN total = $131.84. That doesn’t include a discount of $5.11 for keeping my account up to date.

Here’s what the breakdown would look like in a Zip car:
Feb. 1, 2 hours = $19.50
Feb. 2, 7 hours (truck) = $82.25
Feb. 9, 2 hours = $19.50
Feb. 15, 3 hours = $29.25
Feb. 16, 4 hours = $39.00
Feb. 19, 1.5hours = $14.63
Feb. 21, 1hour = $9.75

Zipcar total: $213.88

The Zip car would cost nearly double. Actually more than that, because the only cars available in my neighbourhood are “cool” cars - so I would mostly be paying the $11.75 rate, rather than the $9.75. Though Zipcar does offer discounts (around 10%) for pre-paying at least $50 every month, the $50 doesn’t roll-over if you don’t use it. Also, my average trip length is about 25kms. To use the included 150kms/day, you’d have to be driving to Abbotsford and back on each trip.

The biggest advantage to using Zipcar is the very low barrier to entry.

In the nature of a Co-op, CAN reqires all members to purchase shares. These function the same as in any other co-op; they help maintain a healthy cash flow in the organization, and ensure a certain commitment level from members. It requires a commitment. The shares don’t accrue interest, and unless the co-op becomes insolvent, are fully refundable within 6 months of reneging your membership. The first member of a household is required to buy 50 share for $500, and an additional member must purchase 25 shares for $250. Nobody who’s ever owned a car should balk at these prices - they’re lower than the average repair bill - and anyone who’s truly committed to car-sharing should be willing to make a commitment to the cause, and the organization that makes it possible.

Conversely, Zipcar only requires your $25 initiation fee.

With the ease of access to Zipcars, parked in neighbourhoods and available 24/7 with the use of your secure entry card, they’re certainly a more convenient way to rent cars. You’re paying a for-profit company for the use of their vehicles - at a great premium. But it’s certainly a handy way to do it if you only need a car very occasionally, or regularly rent cars anyway.

But I think that anyone who is truly committed to the principles of car-sharing (which is pretty community minded in the first place), and wants to use car-sharing as their primary mode of transportation, would be A-OK with the initial share purchase. And it obviously would only take a few months to recoup that $500 in share costs with the simple savings of using CAN over Zipcar. Not to mention the fact that with CAN, you do get that $500 initial investment back if/when you leave the co-op.

In addition to sharing a car, I’m also sharing the posting love with Kitsilano.ca.

Check out my post about the Co-operative Auto Network over there.

It’s the end of an era people. J’Lo has officially moved on to greener pastures. Or Coquitlam. Whatever.

The important thing is that she’s no longer my problem. Hooray!

Those of you who’ve been playing along at home for a little while will realize that this leaves the Wiederick/Watkiss household carless! Except not quite.

We joined the Co-operative Auto Network!

But instead of telling you about that, I’m going to go roll around in my small pile of cash before it goes to the bank. I’ll gush all about C.A.N. tomorrow.

Effing hell, I nearly forgot to blog today! NaBloPoMo almost got me, but lo, I’ve made it nearly halfway!

Not that I have anything interesting to say mind you - but according to the rules, I have to put something here, so here you have it.

Since I don’t really have anything of substance to say, anybody wanna buy a car?

J’Lo is officially for sale. I’ve had enough of her shenanegans, and am ready to pass her onto someone else. On to bigger and better repairs er, things. I’m sure as soon as I get rid of her she’ll go another 100,000kms without needing anything more than an oil change - just to spite me.

In the meantime, drop me a line if anyone out there knows of someone who wants a good little city runabout - or if you know of a place (other than craigslist) I can get her some attention, and ultimately a new owner.

I want to give you a good car-life, I really, really do!

I got you inspected before buying you a little over a year ago, and other than that seemingly small pulley issue that the dealership said they’d fixed, you checked out A-ok.

Well today marked the day I paid more in repairs for you, in only 18 months, than I paid for you!

That pulley cost over $500 to finally fix properly.

But I suppose it wasn’t soon enough for you, because you rebelled with your broken crankshaft. It’s ok, I didn’t need that $900 at Christmastime anyway.

So I was good to you. I spend about $1500 more on oil changes, filter changes, tune-ups, spark plugs, a new battery, radiator, transmission and brake fluid flushes.

I even went and got you fixed up right away when that idiot backed into you.

And this is how you repay me?

A NINETEEN-HUNDRED DOLLAR TRANSMISSION REBUILD?

Fuck you car.

This is it. Anything else goes wrong, I’m pushing you off a damn cliff into the ocean.

Thanks to an early birthday present from the lovely (and shiny!) Ellis, my car is suddenly lovely (and shiny!) again herself!

While I slaved away at work for the day yesterday, J’Lo was pampered and primped at the Yaletown Auto Spa, getting a scrubdown inside and out. More pictures on flickr of course.

I don’t think my car was even this clean and shiny the day I bought it almost a year ago - and I certainly haven’t taken much time to de-scuzz the inside on any sort of regular basis since then, other than the (very) occasional throwing out of take-out garbage, and vacuuming out of dog hair.

And just in case you didn’t catch that first part, I’m rapidly approaching the wrong side of my Mid-20’s. July 27th is the 26th anniversary of the day I entered this world. While my wishlists are small, I have updated them in case you really wanted to toss trinkets my way to celebrate the day the world got just a little bit peechier (and who am I to deny you what you want, what you really want), you can find them here and here.

That’s the car’s new name. She’s been upgraded from J’Lo. Because she’s just THAT demanding.

Now that I am a little over $900 poorer the car seems to be running well. The mechanic is so convinced his work is going to hold (he refused to say one way or the other before it was done) that he’ll still honour his 1 year parts and labour warranty, and he hopes he doesn’t see me for a long time.

For the car geeks out there: the crankshaft was a little damaged, the main sprocket was a lot damaged and cracked, and the key-way was all but destroyed. The bulk of the damage to these parts is because (thanks to a home-mechanic somewhere) a washer in the sprocket was missing. In order to mask these issues, the harmonic balancer and timing belt were installed incorrectly, and the ignition timing was set way off. The fix (once it was found) was to get a new key-way and sprocket, and manufacture a custom washer for inside the sprocket. The crankshaft is still in good enough condition that those are holding well. After that it was a matter of re-setting the timing belt, and re-installing all of the pulleys in correct alignment (which had been impossible with the damaged sprocket).

Overall I’m pretty pleased with the work and service. Yes, I paid for 6 hours of labour, and most of that was diagnostic time. The car had a few more hours of labour put into her while they dug out the problem, got some new parts, machined the custom washer, and put it all back together again that I wasn’t charged for.

The belt noises that I’ve been complaining about to several different mechanics (some of whom were happy to take my $200, do something to the car, and claim that the noise was “harmless” but wouldn’t go away) is finally gone. The gutless wonder actually has power again, and I don’t wonder if it’ll climb hills or not.

I’m honestly still pretty gun-shy about taking her out on the freeway or any further than the reaches of transit, just in case she decides to throw a tantrum again, so I can at least get home.

The plan going forward is still up in the air. I do still plan on selling this car, but the prospect of buying a new car right now was going to put some serious financial stresses on. So I’m holding off on that. I’m going to drive her around for a few weeks, and see how she treats me. Any further major work required will mean I park her and go carless for the forseeable future.

In the meantime, I’m going to put my faith in Car-ma, make an offering to Tarmack, God of good driving, and hope this was the end of that particular repair road.

Why is it that the first day my car’s outta commission and I can’t work from home so I have to take the peasant wagon (read: mass transit) to work it starts to rain and doens’t look like it’ll stop any time soon?

Three point five more days until eleven off.

P.S. I’m not actually as grouchy as I seem….

Merry Christmas, my car is a lemon.

What do you do when life hands you lemons? Blog about it.

Apparently, the underlying issue that’s been causing my car to need constant attention is that the crankshaft is damaged. Fixing that requires a rebuild of the engine. Goodbye $1500!

I didn’t need that vacation anyway.

But seriously, if anyone’s got some part-time or contract work (writing, editing, data entry, barista-ing) they could send my way, or just some good car juju - I could use it right about now.

I took J’Lo out to the parentals today to change the oil (yes, I do it myself) and give her a good scrubdown.

The Mr.Clean Auto-whatchamacallit car washing system can KISS MY WHITE ASS. It sucks. It would suck a lot less if the 18-frillion connections between it and the hose didn’t leak and spray water all over the place, but it does and they do. Hate it.

Because park under trees every day, my car is covered in sap and needs another wash (because I gave up halfway through the Mr. Clean bullshit) and a good waxing. Note to self, schedule an hour or two to get that done soon, before it eats through the clearcoat.

I also took the time to look underneath, and my muffler is full of holes. I’m torn between replacing it myself (it’s in a really easy location and I think it’d be fun to do) or just taking it somewhere. Doing it myself means taking another weekend off to go to the land of jacks and tools (otherwise known as my parents’ garage).

After the oil change and peek underneath was done, I backed out of the garage, and promptly scraped my car along the side of my mom’s. Oops. After washing, cut polishing and waxing the sides of our cars, hers is (thankfully) good as new, and mine has a slight crease in the rear quarter panel where her side mirror dug in, and is missing some paint off the bumper. Another task: purchase touch up paint and set aside time to paint-in the missing bits on my car.

And then? My brother lent me this, this, this and this. So obviously my progress and productivity on any of the above has instantly regressed to zero.

J’Lo is sick.

I know when I bought her she had a few issues. I mean, how can you be J’Lo without some baggage?

What I didn’t expect was to have the car go past THREE different mechanics before a fourth finally told me what exactly needed to be done.

So I’ve had FIVE car-less days, and spent $500 to get ONE problem fixed (which should’ve cost half that were it fixed the first time), and there are about four more on the backburner. So I’ve had my harmonic balancer - which sounds more like a yoga pose than a car part - replaced.

Apparently in addition to that someone at some point sawed off the bottom half of my timing belt cover, because it was rubbing on a bolt that’s not supposed to be there, and the alternator belt is far too long, causing some other bolt to protrude where it shouldn’t.

All in all, I’m glad it’s finally being dealt with properly, and I want to give huge shoutouts to everyone at Nic’s Garage! They’ve been beyond great to me, and hopefully everything will be tickety-boo sooner rather than later.

Does anyone know of a skilled and honest mechanic within the Downtown/Burnaby/North Shore area?

My car needs a tune-up, and I just don’t have the time to get out to the home of the parental units and take care of it with dear ol’ Dad. Last time it needed some sort of repair, I tried to wait until I “had time” and it barfed up the drive belt all over the freeway. I’d rather not do that again.

Thanks in advance if you can recommend someone. I’ll be sure to drop your name when I go in, so you’ll get any sort of referral bonus or good juju the shop may want to pass your way.