On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, Christoph Reuss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Arthur Cordell wrote:
>> I was proud of the idea until after the talk a man came up to me and
>> said, "Dr. Cordell do you know that the only time in my life that I
>> have to myself is when I am commuting. At work the boss is after me.
>> At home my wife is after me. And you want to reduce this time of
>> freedom for me?"
>>
>> Needless to say that was the last time I ever used that example.
>
>Why can't the poor man get a nice hobby (where neither his boss nor his
>wife are after him) instead of long commutes ? Commuting is not really
>time you have for yourself, because you have to pay attention to traffic
>etc. all the time. (And in public transport the level of distractions
>is also too high to make real use of that time.)
>
>I would have given him this advice and continued to use commuting time
>as a social indicator.
This reminds me of an interesting use of commuter time, which I cannot
remember if I have ever made note of here before. Some time ago,
as part of the development of a sort of multifeatured approach
to public transit in Greater Vancouver, time on a section of one of the
transcontinental rail lines running west into the city was rented
out by arrangement with the owner, for the use of a commuter train,
bringing workers into the city from bedroom communities up the
Fraser Valley. The project was a great success, and the double
decker trains are fully subscribed, and housing in the serviced
communities is booming. The trip from the further communities
is a bit over an hour, and a host of people who previously had
been hovering over steering wheels bumper to bumper suddenly
found themselves able to kick back and turn their attention elsewhere.
Now, for this part of the world, this was a truly novel experience.
The track down the valley is dead flat and straight, so the
ride is much more sedate than taking a bus, and being an express,
there aren't the constant stops and passenger shuffling that
goes on with the "Skytrain" overhead rapid transit system.
The commuter train passengers are essentially sitting undisturbed
in a room for about seventy minutes or so. I don't know how
long it was before some of the people on the daily trip started
thinking about a more effective use of their time; nor am I
exactly clear as to how the idea emerged, but with the collaboration
of the extension program of one of the local universities, they
established a travelling classroom, and began offering classes
for commuters. The trip is conveniently one lecture length in
each direction, and with a little tinkering, a couple of the
train cars were developed to accomodate a lecturer. I don't
know whether this program still continues, as their website behaves
horribly broken on my machine here at work, and I can't read
more than one line of the framed-to-death webwriter's whizzbang.
My impression is that enthusiasm may have decayed over time.
For those who might have better luck, the address is
www.westcoastexpress.com, and the program was called "brain train".
-Pete Vincent
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