When you head down to 7-Eleven Thursday morning to purchase your monthly transit fare card don’t be fooled — Translink’s fare hikes kick into effect April 1st bumping up pre-paid fares by at least 10%.

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

I put a reminder out on Twitter and @reneestephen replied saying it now costs the same for her to buy a transit pass as it does to drive in and park at work. My mother will now be paying $151 a month for her 3-zone pass to commute downtown from Surrey each day. Even the Vancouver Sun asks if monthly fare cards are a “good deal”.

Many say there needs to be more of a crackdown on those who aren’t paying their fares. In 2009 I did a poll on my site where 77% of readers were in favour of turnstiles or gates at SkyTrain stations.

Fare increases are never popular, especially when Translink has seen an increase in ridership (that was a theme with BC Ferries as well).

The decision to raise prices on the fare cards, fare saver booklets and employer passes was made through public consultations last spring, said Drew Snider a spokesperson for TransLink. “The message we kept getting back was that they [public] wanted more transit, they were willing to pay for it,” Snider added. “At the end of the day there are so many ways you can ask people to pay for things.”

Roughly $18 million will be generated from the fare increase, which was initiated because other options like fuel and property taxes have been utilized, he said. [Vancouver Courier]

We’ve been teased by the free Olympic Line and given that they had over half a million riders on that small route alone in early 2010, it’s no secret that this city does love taking transit.

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The Sport BC Athlete of the Year Awards are being awarded this week as the province’s top athletes receive recognition for their stellar performances. Nominees and finalists have been selected and winners will be announced March 31st at the River Rock Show Theatre.

Award categories include: Athlete with a Disability, Coach of the Year, College Athlete of the Year, High School Female Athlete of the Year, High School Male Athlete of the Year, Junior Female Athlete of the Year, Junior Male Athlete of the Year, Master Athlete of the Year, Official of the Year, Senior Female Athlete of the Year, Senior Male Athlete of the Year, Team of the Year and University Athlete of the Year.

Winners from 2009 already announced are: Jim Armstrong for the Harry Jerome Comback Award, Mitch Berger for the Best of BC Award, KC Emerson for the Daryl Thompson Award, and John Furlong with Sportsman of the Decade.

Since 2009 wasn’t an Olympic year — and boy did 2010 start off with a bang — they have added Fan Vote categories to be able to include Olympians and Paralympians at this awards presentation.

The Fan Vote poll is up online and it’s up to the public to select their favourites. You can select Ashleigh McIvor, Denny Morrison, Scott Niedermayer, Maëlle Ricker, or Shea Weber for the Olympics category. For the Paralympic Fan Vote award, Team Armstrong – Curling, Josh Dueck, and Lauren Woolstencroft are on the ballot.

The 44th annual Sport BC Athlete of the Year Awards gala will begin with a reception at 6:30pm and the ceremony will begin at 8:00pm. I have two pairs of tickets to give away to those who are interested in attending.

Please leave a comment on this post to enter or re-tweet the following:

I will draw two winners (who will each receive a pair of tickets) tomorrow by 12:00pm.

Update The two winners are Stephen (comment entry) and @NatashaCarpio (Twitter entry). Congratulations and see you tomorrow at the awards.

The Easter bunny is making his (or her) way through Vancouver in a few days giving many a long weekend. Around town there are a few activities that you can enjoy with friends and family, especially the young ones.

Photo credit: A Hermida on Flickr

Easter EGGstravaganza
Where: West End Community Centre
When: April 1st from 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Details: Games, crafts, an Easter Egg Hunt and even a bouncy castle will be on hand for children to enjoy. Registration ($5 per child) is required in order to book a spot for the egg hunt. Ages 2-10.

Easter Egg Decorating
Where: Kerrisdale Community Centre
When: April 1st from 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Details: Admission is $6 per child for ages 2-10.

Maritime Style Easter Treasure Hunt
Where: The Vancouver Maritime Museum
When: April 2nd until April 5th
Details: All ages Easter egg hunt the at Maritime Museum including self-guided scavenger hunt with clues. Free with admission to the museum.

Easter EGGstravaganza
Where: Renfrew Community Centre
When: April 3rd from 12:30pm – 3:00pm
Details: Registration ($5 per child) is required in order to book a spot for the egg hunt. Ages 2-10.

Easter EGGstravaganza
Where: Kerrisdale Community Centre
When: April 3rd from 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Details: Registration ($5 per child) is required in order to book a spot for the egg hunt. Ages 2-10.

Eco Easter Egg Hunt
Where: Surrey Nature Centre (14255 96th Avenue)
When: April 3rd from 10:00am – 1:00pm
Details: Registration for the Easter egg hunt at the Nature Centre is $2 per child

Dundarave Easter Egg Hunt
Where: Dundarave (2400 Block of Marine Drive)
When: April 3rd from 11:00am – 12:30pm
Details: Each participant will be given a map to hunt for 12,000 chocolate Easter eggs.

The Great A-Mazing Egg Hunt
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
When: April 3rd from 10:00am – 12:00pm
Details: Sponsored by Purdy’s Chocolates this event is unfortunately sold out already.

Hyack Antique Car Easter Parade
Where: New Westminster, Queens Park
When: April 4th at 11:00am
Details: The largest Easter Car Parade in the Pacific Northwest.

Easter Egg Hunt
Where: Port Moody Museum
When: April 4th from 10:00am – 2:00pm
Details: All ages are welcome, admission is $2.

Should you have a community event you would like to promote, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

Recently the City of Surrey launched a series of webcams, embedded through a Google Map on their site, that take you from the Patullo Bridge down to Serpentine Fen.

It’s unfortunate that they didn’t supply the map in an embeddable form or link back to its source on Google Maps however with images updated every minute this could be a great resource for commuters. There are over 15 cameras alone placed along King George Highway, which runs from the very North end of Surrey all the way down where it merges with Highway 99 just before the border.

I frequent the BC Highways or GVRD webcams when daring a Lions Gate Bridge crossing during peak times, planning a day trip to the States, or road-tripping up the Coquihalla. This will be a nice addition to that coverage.

UPDATE you can access the camera coverage here

After packing up the last of the leftover meat & cheese platters I waved to Marc, I drove home from YVRTwestival in the rain. I had just hosted an event for 250 people that raised over $9,000 for Concern Worldwide.

My automatic windshield wipers began to sway back and forth as I thought about all the people who helped make this happen. Melissa, Azita, Kim, Sonia, Kirsten, Marc and Vivian are the reason that my third Twestival in Vancouver doubled last February’s numbers and tripled September’s. Then help on the spot from Justin, Melissa, Tarlan, Kimli and Miranda as impromptu volunteers allowed my exhausted team to make it through the night.

Photo by Jeremy Lim on Flickr.com

I turned down 100.5 on the car stereo and thought about Mojave, Patrick and Jeremy who provided the awesome music for the evening. The light changed from amber to red as an SUV breezed past me. I thought of Rob Cottingham‘s comedy and giggled.

ING Direct, London Drugs, Amuse Consulting, and Poppytalk, Hester Creek, Road 13, Tinhorn Creek, and Steaz all donated to Twestival allowing us to have food and drinks.

The light turned green as an umbrella-toting pedestrian skips across the street in front of me. I wish I could have had more of that MichiSushi as my tummy grumbled when I popped out the clutch and changed gears.

Pulling into my parking space I thought about how Nordica Photography probably already had their photos up from the evening.

I check my phone and Kemp Edmonds tweets that #YVRTwestival was the number one trending topic on Twitter in Canada that night. I smile as I scoop up the meat & cheese platter, which managed to stay intact during the ride.

Heading upstairs and through the door to greet John I didn’t collapse from H1N1 like I did after the last Twestival, leaving me out of commission for two weeks. I breathed a sigh of relief and got to work helping him fix a hack on my site that’s crippled it in search engines over the last few days. Nothing had sunk in quite yet. It still hasn’t.

Vancouverites got together last night to get out from behind their social networks and meet their contacts in person, face to face. We had people from Victoria, Australia, Port Coquitlam and Cloverdale who came out to enjoy the evening. Every single person there that evening contributed to our fundraising total. Every single person was also on Twitter. If this doesn’t say something about the power of social media for social good, I’m not sure what does.

Thank you Vancouver Twittersphere for showing that you care and that you are an extremely friendly and fun bunch of people. I look forward to following you, meeting you, and working with you again in the future – you are all truly amazing people.

Update: I will add more links & photos as soon as I can, I need to rush out and continue damage control on my site