f**k.

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I asked my nephew about Uber in Vancouver. He said the taxi companies paid off the government to have a total monopoly.

Vancouver doesn’t have mass transit? When I worked at Naval Research and Development. I was taking Amtrak from Lancaster, PA to 30th St. Station in Philadelphia, then switching to SEPTA high speed to Warminster every day, when I was still living in York. Ditto with Working at the Pentagon: pick up Baltimore Light Rail in Hunt Valley, MD to the Bird’s nests (Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore Ravens) at the Inner Harbor, or BWI airport, pick up MARC rail at either location, transfer to DC metro rail at Penn Station in Washington, and either DC Metrobus or Fairfax Connector to my employer’s headquarters in Springfield, VA.

Unfortunately, I had to give those ideas up, mostly because the fares were eating up my monthly salary, and my employers refused to pay the fares, even though Uncle Sugar was offering tax deductions to employers that purchased fare vouchers for their employees.


Mebbe you should talk to your employer to see if the provincial government offers a similar program, that is even partially funded by the Federal Government in Canada.

first world problem is still a problem. and u have every right to be distressed about it. i personally am using a rucksack to carry things i need (doctor's orders say i shouldnt lift more than 3 kg any other way). ya, i do understand that using ur own car can be paramount. wish u get thru this situation with ur finances and nerves as intact as possible. it allways sucks to have ur habits/plans/finances compromised suddenly. wish u good.

Never seen any in the suburb city I live in. I'm ~45-50km from downtown. Car sharing only really works for people who live and work in the city. Where I live, pretty much everyone with a driver's licence that can afford to drive a car has one. Commuter suburb with pretty poor public transportation compared to downtown.

I like driving.. it's just Very expensive here.

It was only for a day and then I’ve been back on the children’s hospital renovation project all week.

The other site is a new Hermes store downtown (LOL I’m the last guy that cares about fashion. At all.) & I think they wanted me there for at least a few days (or a couple weeks+)to get some work done but the bosses at the hospital asked for all their guys back ASAP. At least I saw my uncle/God father on coffee break on Monday as he’s running the Mont Blanc watch store job next door.

Woulda been Okay to stay at Hermes for a bit as I might have had an opportunity to do a variety of work vs the same basics every day at the hospital. Oh well, free parking and shorter distance! It’s just that if I don’t do anything beyond the first stage in the process over the next few months or so I’m f****d as my wage will be far too high for my skill set and I won’t be able to get a job working for anyone else. Kind of caught at a cross roads where I’m getting frustrated with the management of my apprenticeship & I either have to say something and make some requests/demands or quit my job and work for someone else who won’t relegate my to the most menial tasks vs allow me the opportunity to build a skill set. Hmmm. I also think someone must be falsifying documents to the Industry Training Authority saying that I’ve been practicing all aspects of this trade, which is also not good. I didn’t quit my job, go to school, and forego tens of thousands of dollars in lost income to Not apprentice a trade! Hmmm. f**k. [/Friday rant]

u've got a brain. u will sort it all out.

Sorry to hear that. I wouldn't do that even if meant a pay raise up to six figures. Not worth the time and hassle.

Where I live, there is state-subsidized vanpooling into the state capital and possibly at other urban centers. The state provides a van to someone willing to drive it everyday (for their own commute) and people can join the pool from their origination area into the capital for a very, very reasonable fee. Even so, a lot of people prefer not to work in the downtown area (unless free parking is provided by the employer) because the periphery of the city usually has no parking fee at all.

It would definitely make sense to look for something like this if you were to be stationed downtown for long.

Carpooling is so common all over the world that "carpool karaoke" needs no explanation. I would carpool if I had big name stars singing karaoke in the vehicle! (Requested: Adele.) I would even tolerate a stand-up comic doing sit-down stand-up. (Thinking of Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars getting Coffee.)

They don't pay you enough to afford parking?

Parking is very, very expensive in the cities.

At the very least, if I were to drive into my city, I'd have to pay $300 monthly for a parking space which is about a 15-minute walk to my job. That would be an extreme discount, actually (it's "municipal parking.")

Goldfish would have been lucky to pay that 50 bucks a week. 50 bucks a week is quite a bit of money for a person on "apprentice" wages.

Is it at all possible you could look for a better job than you have now? instead of being stuck having to work your whole weekend to make ends meet because your 5 days a week position can't pay you enough for parking.

Goldfish pays $50 at his current site. The downtown site will be $125 / week if I understand his post correctly. My nephew said that in Vancouver there are "ghost drivers" who operate like Uber, because Uber isn't available. They're just people who offer to drive / carpool others spur of the moment for a fee -- like paid hitch hiking. Obviously this isn't suitable for Goldfish but apparently my nephew used it sometimes when in a jam.

In some parts of Queens, there are "dollar vans" (which actually charge $2) which go along the main streets Or "unofficial" shared taxis which charge the same $2.

I sense that Vancouver, though, is more regulated than Queens; hence, there won't be any "dollar vans" or shared taxis.

But.....it could be a possibility in some "immigrant" neighborhoods.

Arranging new jobs is so inconvenient

Change schedules, buy clothes, tell your friends, update resume


And then the ass holes had the nerve to fire me the third day


Brute demonstration of power

We don't have ride sharing apps - they're still illegal here. The taxi mafia successfully kept them out because the ethnic group that runs the taxis are a huge voting block.

I'm a 2nd year apprentice in my trade at the moment, so my gross hourly wage is only $21.16/hr - which means I Net $1241.xx/2 weeks. Driving is exorbitantly expensive here. It costs me at Least $900/month to drive, and if I have to pay for parking every day & an oil change etc it's nearly $1500/month. I pay cheap rent to my parents, and I gotta eat (I probably spend around $400-500/mo on groceries.) I "waste," $100/mo on beer/weed etc (even beer is expensive here.. typical 12 pack is approx $25, less for cheap stuff, more for premium.) My disposable income is nearly non-existent - but I knew what I signed up for starting at $17.xx/hr a coupe Summer's ago to learn a new trade and progress to $33/hr+ benefits for a total package of $42.50/hr. (which will likely rise a bit with a new contract by the time I get there.)

Public transportation works well for people who live IN Vancouver or a very close suburb city. But from where I live it would take approx 2.5 hours to get to work IF busses ran early enough, and I don't think they do I'd still have to drive to the train I think. Then it would take at least 2.5-3h to get to home right after work, 3-4h+ if I go home in the evening and have to walk the last 4km or 7km depending on which bus I could catch. I've done it before to a worksite not too far from where I work now and it took 2h or so to get to work, 3-4h to get home w/ zero ability to conveniently go anywhere or get anything done after work. Average 5h/day on transit. I did it for 5 months and it was exhausting. That's why people don't do it if they can possibly afford to drive any car.

As for jobs paying enough to pay for parking.. Jobs don't even pay enough to pay for rent! A one bedroom apartment in the city costs $2100/mo to rent and a new apprentice only takes home about $1987/month after taxes. Everything is expensive here and people don't earn a lot of money. At least construction trades get paid above average ($26.53 province wide) wages & I can start saving towards some goals as my wage rises. But until then I'm not willing to dip into my savings/investments while they're in the red and would rather work 6-7 days a week instead.