New Media

No excuses. Let’s play to win, Canucks.

Good luck tonight, boys. We believe.

Texting feels like it’s been around forever — years, anyway. In retrospect, it seems odd that until now, no cab company in big-city Vancouver (or in British Columbia, for that matter) had thought of letting their customers text them to get a pickup. Finally, the oldest cab company in the city (established 1911), MacLure’s Cabs, is the first to embrace the technology of texting for your ride.

By simply sending a text to “222 222”, including the riders name, pick up location and destination, a cab will be sent as quickly as possible. “This effectively takes out the dispatcher conversation” continues Mr. Poonia. Once a text is received by MacLure’s, an auto reply is sent confirming receipt and when to expect the cab to arrive.

“There are often times where it would be impolite to make a phone call, or even impossible due to too much background noise,” explains Mr. Poonia “This solution is fast, inexpensive and can be done virtually anywhere.” No phone call also means not having to wait on hold for a dispatcher, meaning the passenger has more time to do their own thing.

I suspect this will catch on pretty quickly, like how we already instinctively use our smartphones to pay for parking or check for the fastest route wherever we’re going. Works for me. Thanks, MacLure’s.

A video I made a little while ago of one of nature’s wonders in my Vancouver neighborhood of Mount Pleasant.

The leaf is hanging off a very thin spider web, in case you were wondering.

Vancouver-based journalist, blogger and city-watcher Frances Bula has some good questions following the release of new census data. Best question of the bunch:

I’d like to hear some explanation from the data nerds on why the city of Vancouver’s population is only 603,000 when all the provincial projections have been pegging it at around 630,000 for the last couple of years. Were the projections based on the numbers of units built and, in fact, those units are not occupied by people counted in the census?