City officials told us to get out of our cars. And we listened.
Vancouver achieved its goal of reducing vehicle traffic by 30 per cent for the start of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
"It was a great start," Dale Bracewell, the city's director of Olympic transportation, said Saturday. "We've now got 16 more days to keep it up."
In addition to reducing vehicle traffic by 30 per cent, a bunch of new records were set on Friday: 12,000 people walked one of the False Creek bridges and 4,000 biked to downtown – a number that's more typical during the summer months.
The number of people who took the Canada Line on Friday isn't available yet, but, on Thursday, there were 150,000 riders -- a daily best. And officials expect Friday's numbers to be even greater.
TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said volume has definitely gone up but it's nothing that the system can't handle.
"Yeah, there are lineups, yeah there are some areas where people are missing a sailing, for instance on the SeaBus, but it's nothing that can't be managed," he said.
Transit riders told CTV News while it's been busy, it's been manageable.
"I waited less this morning to go to work than I do on normal Saturday mornings because they have so many buses," said Jess Paul.
Fellow commuter Ian Anderson said he hasn't encountered too many problems either.
"I don't think the schedule is really on schedule, but you just show up at a stop and hope for the best, and, really, I haven't waited more than 10 or 15 minutes for anything," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Stephen Smart
