Derek’s Diary

A few days ago, CTV, the Globe and Mail, and others reported that according to a recent Statistics Canada study, Canadians spent an average of 273 hours (11.38 days) in 2005 commuting to and from work, up from 256 hours (10.65 days) in 1998 and 234 hours (9.75 days) in 1992.

Next to Toronto, where the average commute lasts 79 minutes, Montrealers like myself have the second longest commute time of residents in any Canadian city. In 2005, Montreal commuters spent an average of 76 minutes getting from home to work and back, up from 62 minutes in 1992. I estimate that my daily, round-trip travel time on public transit is about 80 minutes, 4 minutes higher than the Montreal average, but 26 minutes less than the Canadian public transit average of 106 minutes. Not surprisingly, the report reveals that those 20 per cent of urban Canadians who take public transit have a 41 minute longer commute than do those 86 per cent of Canadians who drive to work. But what about the quality of a commute by bus, subway, or train compared to one by car? Unfortunately, the StatsCan report apparently considers only travel time quantity, not quality.

In my experience, travel by public transit can be far more productive and less stressful than travel by car. For instance, while on the bus or Métro, instead of fighting traffic, I can relax and read a book or listen to Podcasts on my Sandisk Sansa audio player. So, not only is my daily BMW commute less costly, less stressful, and less harmful to the environment than driving, it’s also more educational!

Nevertheless, despite the arguably higher quality of my commute experience over those of drivers, I’d still prefer to spend less time in the morning getting to work and more time sleeping!

Over the past month, I’ve been teaching my girlfriend, Desiree, how to ride a bicycle. So far, she’s made impressive progress. Within the first three or four sessions, though I still had to hold her up to start, she managed to keep her balance and ride unsupported for a long block, with me still running along side to make sure that she didn’t fall or hit anything. By last night, our sixth or seventh session, she was able to start and stop on her own and ride continously around a track in a nearby park. Quite an accomplishment in a month, don’t you think?

So does Desiree learn very quickly or is it just much easier than we both anticipated for an adult to learn how to ride a bike? I suspect that the former is true, but before I can conclude the latter, I think I’ll have to talk to more people who have learned how to ride a bike as an adult. Desiree’s sister, Donnabelle, would also like to learn how to ride, so perhaps I’ll teach her, too, and compare her progress with that of her sister. Stay tuned!

This morning, I was disappointed to hear on CBC Radio that Montreal’s last remaining English repertory movie theater, Cinema du Parc, will be closing its doors on August 3. No longer will I be able to go to my favourite theater to see a documentary or international film. Films that I’ve seen at Cinema du Parc include Farentheit 9-11, The Corporation, Sisters in Law, and most recently, the South African film Wah-Wah. Before the theater closes, I’ll try to see a few more films, one of which will likely be The Road to Guantanamo. However, once Cinema du Parc closes its doors, the only place left in Montreal where I’ll be able to watch an English documentary will be at the Grande Bibliotheque.

Modernizing my less-than-dynamic book reading history, I’ll now be posting the titles of the books that I read here, on my weblog. Occasionally, I may accompany each bibliographic entry with a brief book review.

In addition to using my blog to track my book reading history, I’m contemplating posting it to The Library Thing.