BCBusiness

10 BCBusiness JUNE 2016 Portrait: CliNtoN HUssEy; ClotHEs CoUrtEsy oF NorDstroM Oxford definition notwithstanding, the way I'd describe commuting is the distance between where we want to be and where we have to be. That includes everything from shopping expeditions to school drop-os, but for most people the pivotal one is how we get to and from work. The commute, as Frances Bula explains in "Why the Car Is Still King" (p.36), is the big- gest mass movement of people each weekday. Our transportation infrastructure—indeed, the whole urban economy—is built around commuting patterns. That's why we asked Frances, Canada's foremost urban affairs writer, to delve deep into the topic—and why we asked market researchers Insights West to poll British Columbians on their perceptions. Not surprisingly, of those we surveyed, only cyclists and walkers say their work commute is getting better. For those driving or taking tran- sit, the situation is getting decidedly worse. Some people don't mind the growing time they spend in traˆc—like Keith Sones, one of the commuters Frances pro‰les, who drives upward of two hours each way from his home in Squamish to his oˆce in Aldergrove. But for others, like me, just think- ing about such marathon crawls is migraine inducing. When I move to a city, I pick a neigh- bourhood close to my oˆce, shopping and other amenities (good coffee shops and restaurants, parks and a waterfront). Luckily, in all the cities in which I've lived (Toronto, Hamilton, New York and Vancouver), it's pos- sible to ‰nd those amenities near the downtown core. And in my industry, most companies are located down- town, where the creative class lives. That's not true of my current employer, however, so now I take the morning train to BCBusiness's suburban oˆces. While I miss the 20-minute walk I used to have, I'm not willing to trade that for a life near Brentwood Mall. In that respect, I'm not alone: according to TransLink, almost two in ‰ve Vancouver residents now leave the city for work, creating a reverse-commute phenom- enon that's increasingly common in highly desirable urban cores such as San Francisco, London and Toronto's. The political challenge, for those trying to build the transportation infrastructure of tomorrow, is that my lifestyle preferences, as a transit-riding West Ender, often con™ict with those of a Surrey driver or Richmond cyclist. It's the con™ict that TransLink came up against in last year's ill-fated transit refer- endum. And it will remain a barrier to prog- ress so long as parochial concerns, and not the public interest, guide our never-ending debate on how to solve commuter gridlock. C O N T R I B U T O R S Matt O'Grady, Editor-in-Chief mogrady@canadawide.com / @bCbusiness Frances bula has been covering civic issues for more than 20 years, and learning how to get around since she was 12 and using the all-day bus pass to travel to exotic places outside her North Vancouver home. While researching "Why the Car Is Still King" (p.36), what struck Bula were factors that planners don't always think about. "For people with children, any five minutes they could save in order to spend more time with their kids was crucial, " she says. "For others, having a place that allowed them to be close to nature was worth hours of commuting every week." Clinton Hussey says that shooting this month's cover is the sort of photography he likes to do. "There were so many different ways to tackle the direction of what we wanted to say that narrowing it down to something that looks cool and still says the narrative can be tricky." Apart from editorial work, he has shot for clients ranging from Earls and MEC to BCAA and BCIT. The Commuting Conundrum editor's desk IN JULY Our annual ranking of B.C.'s 100 biggest companies. Plus: Christine Day on how to build a Top 100 business

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