Ten minutes to sum up the first Vancouver TransitCamp

I really haven’t paid as much attention during the first Vancouver TransitCamp as I probably should have, but there are some people here today that have some wholehearted thoughts and views about transit when it comes to Vancouver. Some sessions have been filled with a lot of great ideas being shared, stories of woe, and elements of tension. That’s what happens when you present arguments in any atmosphere. Disagreements can and will happen, just like buses not showing up when you want them to.

There was a small representation from TransLink here today, and I’m not sure how they took an event like this. It’s freeform and open end topics that allow people to speak freely about whatever topic, transit related, they want.

On the flip side, I also mentioned that there were people here on the other end of the spectrum, fighting against some things that TransLink and related entities are trying to do, such as the Gateway Project.

More importantly, I love the idea of the transit system in Vancouver creating identity. I would love nothing more than some of the t-shirts that I’ve seen here today. The buttons were very creative, but the shirt that DaveO made read, “I remember the days before SkyTrain” was the best, attendee submitted concept that I saw. Also, the guy falling on the track and getting electrocuted was pretty awesome.

In the end, there are a lot of people here with a lot of ideas. Some are crazy, some are not thought through with enough foresight or hindsight. That’s where things like these events, in a BarCamp[wiki] type structure, make sense. When you are allowed to enter an open forum with little to no restrictions as to what you can or can’t say or do, you never know what might develop in the end.