Vancouver B.C. meet-up? Jan 2013?

[MetroMPG]

I'm in Vancouver until the end of Jan. Anyone interested in getting together after the holidays?

I'm in town, near Little Mountain/Queen Elizabeth Park. I do have use of a vehicle -- Honda Odyssey van (V6, oink, oink) ... though I've managed to avoid driving it so far.

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I get a kick out of spending time here. Part of the enjoyment comes from seeing a very different automotive scene vs. small town Ontario.

Some efficiency-themed observations on this visit so far ...

1. Prius & hybrid taxis. They're everywhere!



Can't step off the curb without risk of being run over by one of these!


2) Old Metros / Fireflies!



Even the older generations! These are long, long gone from rust-belt Ontario. I'm pretty sure I literally have the last Metro/Firefly on the road in my city back home (and my "BlackFly" is the last generation car)!

3) Electric Smart Car



I saw... correction heard, then saw ... one of these go by yesterday. Haven't seen a Leaf or Volt yet, but surprisingly, I did see ...

4) Fisker Karma



Saw one cruising down Main St last week. Unmistakeable looks. OK, a Karma doesn't really belong in a list of "efficient" cars - It's a hog whether running on electrons or gasoline. It's only efficient in EV mode relative to other gas hogs.

5) Car sharing services

The Daimler-owned Car2Go smarts are everywhere.





The "Modo" car co-op has a wider variety of cars. I've seen a Prius C, and a few other conventional compacts/sub-compacts.



And spotted this Hymotion-converted PHEV Prius (2009 according to their site: http://www.modo.coop/phev

6) Various blasts from the past...



One of these VW pickups lives a block from where I'm staying. It's being used as a work truck.



Saw a Civic like this on my first day here. I had one of these for a few months about a dozen years ago: bought it for $265 and it got 50 mpg (US) easily, cruising at 90 km/h / 55 mph in summertime conditions. Then the head gasket blew & I cracked the head.

There seem to be tons of 80's & 90's subcompacts still on the roads around here. Far more choice for the efficient used-car shopper than anywhere that uses salt on the roads!

[mechman600]

I'm in for a meet up!
Within eBooger driving distance?
Any plans to go east out of the city towards me? There's a nice new bridge to check out - you can say you've driven over the world's widest long span bridge if you do!

[MetroMPG]

Cool! I definitely still want to see eBooger. If we don't end up meeting within eDriving distance, I'll head out your way for sure.

There are a handful of other active members in this area that I can think of off the top of my head ... orange4boy , War_Wagon , ecomodded .

And there are a pile of others who list "Vancouver" as their location who are just lurkers / fuel log users only. And there are undoubtedly others around here who haven't posted their location at all.

Hopefully more will chime in over the next couple of weeks and we can set something up.

[darcane]

I'm a bit farther south (near Seattle) but find your car observations interesting. Other than the electric Smart car, you could be describing Seattle. I do see Volts and Leafs regularly as well. We have lots of Prius taxis (and Microsft uses them for on campus shuttles) and I have even seen Fiskers (there was a dealer a few blocks from my work).

Some of those with "Vancouver" locations might be from Washington rather than BC...

[MetroMPG]

More sightings I forgot to post...

7) Kei cars ...


Nissan S Cargo Van club

I've seen a few cargo-type Kei cars and micro-vans like this Nissan S-Cargo. Also a pile of non-Kei JDM right hand drive cars.

8) Electric city buses ...

[orange4boy]

Hey, Darin

I'm in for a meet up! What brings you to the wet coast?

My vehicles are embarrassingly not in full eco-regalia due to our construction priorities. A meet up will give me an excuse to get on that at least partially.

We need to figure out a good time and location.

[MetroMPG]

Oh - I took the opportunity to come to Lotusland to look after my friends' hound and house while they're away traveling.

So far (today notwithstanding), it's lived up to the Wet Coast stereotype! I've been here since early Dec., but I've been here 5 or 6 times before in all seasons and for various durations (from days to months) but the last 3 and a half weeks have been the greyest/wettest by far!

Meet-up... Any time before the 9th or after the 19th works best for me.

I'm open to suggestions on a place to get together, but would be more than happy to have you guys over to the place I'm looking after (near Main & 29th). And if it's near a meal time, we could fire up the BBQ too!

[MetroMPG]

So assuming weekends work best (I'm actually flexible - I can meet during the week too), how about:

Jan 5 - Sat
Jan 6 - Sun
Jan 20 - Sun
Jan 26 - Sat
Jan 27 - Sun

[2000neon]

Good idea, we need one of these once you're back in Ontario.

[MetroMPG]

I've been thinking about that too. It'd be nice to host an economy run in the 1000 Islands some day. (The tough parts are the wet bits between the islands )

I was thinking I could host travelers at my place, but it's currently mostly gutted. And at the rate I'm working on it (hello! I'm in BC, not working on my house!) it's probably not going to be ready in 2013!