blame canada

[rone]

Vancouver's traffic lights tend to blink green a lot. I don't see the point. Many also seem to exist only along the main street, and the cross street only gets stop signs. The lights turn red so pedestrians may cross safely. It seems like a half-assed way to save on traffic lights.

Vancouver is very similar to San Francisco in many ways: surrounded by water, a bustling Chinatown, a large park in the northwest, a suspension bridge that leads out of the northern part of the city, large clusters of homeless people. Commercial Drive is a collection of New Age-y shops and vegan/vegetarian restaurants that reminded me a bit of Berkeley.

The ferry ride to Victoria is beautiful. So is Victoria. Here we found the same painted orca statues we found in Vancouver, a series similar to the cow statues in Kansas City. We took a walk to the end of the Ogden Point seawall and back, and saw a bunch of starfish (including a fuzzy purple variety), lots of two kinds of jellyfish (one about cantaloupe-sized and dark reddish, the other basketball-sized and eggyolk yellow), as well as one lazy seal who cruised by for a couple of minutes before returning to deeper waters.

We saw the first episode of "Medical Investigation", and the characters can be summarized as the hardass, the tightass, the badass, the dumbass, and the piece of ass. We also caught Napoleon Dynamite, which was weird, often surprising, goofy, funny, and cute. Not great, but good.

On the ferry out of Tsawwassen to Victoria, there were prominent signs that forbade further transportation of BEES.

We're leaving Victoria now, heading back to Seattle.

Comments

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

The flashing green is the signal for left-turners to go.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

Not in B.C. - it's "pedestrian-controlled light, go only if intersection is clear". Left turn is indicated by a green arrow, which may or may not flash depending on whether the intersection also allows you to go straight. See the ICBC licensing manual (http://www.icbc.com/Licensing/rsd_ch03(052004).pdf).

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, my Toronto friend has been doing it wrong for decades now. Fortunately he's never struck a pedestrian, though, so perhaps not.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

Victoria and Vancouver are in B.C., but Toronto isn't - it's in Ontario. I think the Ontario rules are different. Just from observation (I learned to drive in B.C. but hardly ever drive in Ontario) it does look like Ontario uses flashing green for left turns.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Good grief. Having the driving laws differ so much from province to province seems less than ideal.

The main things that vary from state to state in the US are the speed limits, which are always posted anyway, and whether or not it's permitted to turn right on red.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to tell you that in Quebec they drive on the left. That isn't actually true, but lots of people would believe it.

[ptomblin-lj.livejournal.com]

Don't be silly, in Quebec they only drive on the left side if they're going North or East.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have fallen for it, but I'm sure some people would.

[iayork.livejournal.com]

The Rhinocerous Party ran for parliament one year with, as one plank of their platform, the idea of returning to driving on the left, as a way of returning to traditional British roots. Of course, they understood that making a major change in driving like that would not be simple, and so they were going to phase it in: For the first six months, trucks would drive on the left, cars would drive on the right. Seemed very reasonable to me.

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

But they do have far different street signals than BC.

-- Schwa ---

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

Someone has introduced a flashing green arrow at some intersections in Ontario. It apparently means the same thing as a solid green arrow (you may drive in the indicated direction because pedestrians, opposing traffic and cross traffic havbe been told to stay out of your way). Flashing green lights predated non-flashing lights with the arrow in at least southern Ontario and they were called "advance green". An advance green used to mean what the solid green arrow does today, only you could assume arrows pointing in every direction your vehicle could legally advance.

[dagbrown.livejournal.com]

In Ontario, a flashing green light means "advance green"—it's allowing traffic in one direction to go before traffic in the opposite direction, so those people can turn left without fear of being molested. This is also quite a fast blinking green.

The first time I encountered an Ontario flashing-green, I had no idea what it meant, and it was late at night, and the flashing added all kinds of urgency to the green light. So I floored it. It's "GO! NOW!" It wasn't until a while later that I realized that maybe it didn't actually mean "floor it!".

The BC flashing green light is a much more leisurely flash. It indicates that the current "go" state is the default state of the intersection, but it can be changed at the will of a pedestrian. It means "sure, keep going, but keep an eye open just in case—but I'll give you warning anyway."

Having been a resident of both Ontario and BC, I doubt that I'd ever mistake one kind of flashing green for the other; the frequencies are too different.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Green light means go, blinking green means you have right of way (eg, if you're on a two-way street, the opposing traffic does not have a green light).

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

On the second episode of Medical Investigation, you'll get to see that the NIH has its own lab and office built into a Navy-operated C-130. It's basically the CSI set built into an airplane (well, it doesn't even seem a little bit like they're on an airplane, but you know) with the office in front, lab in the middle, and garage replete with SUV in back.

They started out by telling Jake 2.0 (the dumbass) that it's something they don't get to use that often, but I don't think that'll be the case. Until they get bought for next season, you can bet they won't write in a "home base" setting for the characters, and they'll have to live with a decked-out cargo plane.

Welcome [back] to Seattle!

available for beer?

[lara7.livejournal.com]

I noticed you'd be in town while I was out at Burning Hams, but it didn't occur to me you'd still be around after visiting Canuckland. gimmie a call if you two are in seattle tonight and wanna grab a beer or something. I work til 9pm but will be up late.

206-799-0374

[allknight.livejournal.com]

Rone,

I liked my first and only trip to Vancouver. I flew up to Seattle then drove up there with a friend just to ride a famous old wooden roller-coaster at Exhibition park. I wouldn't mind making back up there some day again...

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

On the ferry out of Tsawwassen to Victoria, there were prominent signs that forbade further transportation of BEES.

When we saw this sign I said in a panicky voice, "Holy shit... the trunk's full of them!"

I want to go back already.

-- Schwa ---

[tongodeon.livejournal.com]

YOU MUST VISIT La Casa Gelato (http://www.livejournal.com/users/tongodeon/128314.html)

[pennyhill.livejournal.com]

Yeesh! That many choices could fry my brain. I thought sorbettos made from Guineass Draught, apple-wasabi, and lime-cilantro sounded a bit odd, but gelatos made from balsamic vinegar, gorgonzola, yam, basil - patoooie! And HEDGEHOG? I hope it's just a colorful moniker and not descriptive of ingredients!

I'd probably settle for Chocolate Black Forest, Chocolate Zesty Orange, or Cinnamon Coffee gelato. :)
What a great place!