You need to get somewhere. You’re dressed up and ready to go, but how you’re getting there is a question. You can either walk, bike, drive a car, get someone to drive you, or take public transit. Some people prefer one method over the other, while others know when each one is appropriate.

As a kid, teachers during elementary school would encourage you to walk. Most kids lived close enough to the schools to walk so there wasn’t really a need to drive. They mostly did this to promote exercise but also to reduce the amount of traffic at school. As someone who lives close to everything such as bus stops, the dentist, and even a grocery store, there was no reason to use any other method. Since my parents didn’t want to take time out of their days to walk me to school, they would either drive me or they would make me carpool with someone. I only started walking to school frequently towards the end of seventh grade. I also only started walking home more during seventh grade. Although it would take around twenty minutes, it still felt good in the end. I would even walk with some of my friends that lived close enough. Because we didn’t have cellphones as kids, sometimes communication was tough and sometimes we would end up not walking together. To this day, if I had to option to walk somewhere, that’s what I’m going with. A few months ago, I had to film something for an assignment. I could’ve driven there but decided that a half-hour walk one way was the best. Carrying camera equipment while doing that wasn’t fun but once we weren’t just walking for minutes straight, it was a lot of fun. I wouldn’t do that again but if I need it, I will.

(City of Vancouver Archives / Flickr)

Riding a bike, while useful, is actually impractical in most situations. Sometimes there isn’t a bike rack available and you have to share the road with drivers. As someone who crashed on a bike while going downhill at Tynehead, I can’t imagine doing that on the road. My brakes stopped working while going downhill one day and I crashed at the bottom of the hill. My injuries were severe enough to land me in the hospital. I wasn’t able to move my body properly for almost a week because of that. If that happened on the road, I could’ve risked crashing into a car, which could lead to permanent damage or even death. If we lived on perfectly flat land, maybe I would bike more. Crashing into people isn’t fun at all. I was once walking with one of my friends and for some reason, I decided to turn around. One of my other friends was on his bike and had I not seen him, he could’ve crashed into my friend and me. He was known to bike pretty much everywhere. He was even able to bike upstairs which is something that shouldn’t be possible.

(Becky Stern / Flickr)

If your parents didn’t want you to walk to school, they probably drove you. Driving can sometimes be a mess because if multiple cars are on the road at the same time, there can be traffic. When I used to drive myself to school, I had to make sure to leave early enough to make sure I wasn’t in traffic. Thankfully, later in the year, my only class was once a week at seven in the morning which meant no traffic. Leaving, however, is another story. By the time the class ended, people would start arriving at school. Because of this, I would not leave until the regular school day started. At that time, a lot of the cars would be off the road which meant I didn’t have to deal with traffic on the way home. It only took me a long time to get home one time because of a school bus. I could’ve gone around the bus, however, there was no way to tell if a car was going to start heading towards me. This incident led me to wait for ten minutes before the bus finally started moving. At that time, there was a pile-up of maybe ten cars in that lane.

(waferboard / Flickr)

College is a different story. Driving isn’t financially feasible for me because of gas costs. Thankfully, public transit came included in my tuition and since I live close enough to a bus stop, I use this to get to BCIT every class day. While it does take a bit longer, I vastly prefer this over driving myself to school. I will sometimes use this time to do assignments or study for tests. I even wrote a few articles while on the bus since I would get more inspiration on the road than at home. There are a few flaws to this. Wait times are the biggest time waster depending on the situation. If there’s heavy traffic, you will probably wait for a long time before you even get on the road. Sometimes, buses and trains will be too full for anyone else to board. Bus drivers generally don’t like it when people enter through the back doors. One time, a bus driver refused to go until someone that entered through the back got off the bus. If there aren’t any seats left, you will have to stand and hold on to a pole or one of the rubber straps. Since drivers start going when the last person gets on and trains are automated to go, people have to make sure to hold on. One time, a bus had to make an abrupt stop and someone who was standing fell over. I even moved forward quite a bit on my seat and someone’s drink spilt, which led people who put their stuff on the ground to check if their stuff is wet.

(GoToVan / Flickr)

You need some way to get to a place you need to be. If you’re close enough, you can either walk or bike. If you’re a bit further, driving or transit will be your best options. No matter what you choose, you will find your way there.