WHEELS Wednesday: The Truth About Truing

Thinking about how I forgot my patch kit, and hoping that I won't need it on my trip, led me to thinking about bicycle wheels in general....

What do you do when your bicycle wheels are wobbly? Most people ignore the problem, or turn it over to their local bike shop. The solution is to straighten it, or 'true' the wheel, i.e. make its rotation perfectly correct, or true to the path it should take when spinning. I've seen many variations on this, and I even got a mini-lesson at the Bike Oven in L.A. The reality is, you can do this yourself--it's easier if you have a bike stand. But it can be done without one. Online videos are tremendously helpful, including this one from an Atlanta bike shop that defines terms, and these, Part 1 and Part 2.

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: BART Not That Smart; OAK Link Not A-O.K.

On the one hand, the well-worn path via inexpensive ($3) "Air BART" shuttle bus from Oakland (Calif.) International Airport (OAK) to the nearest BART/Rapid Rail, the Coliseum/Airport Station, works predictably and efficiently. Buses are capacious, schedules are frequent, drivers are professional, and there's room for luggage. Given that it's four miles, and multiple traffic lights, from terminal, buses make it in a relatively fast 12-15 minutes.

On the other hand, (Re: my recent trip from OAK to Millbrae/Burlingame...)...signage and communication remain, ahem, challenged:

*There is no clear signage at the BART station indicating that a regular stored-value BART system card, can also be purchased for the Air BART bus. Signs above the ticket machines note "Air BART" but little information beyond this. Station attendants repeat information about Air BART verbally, in lieu of adequate signage. There's also no indication at the station about frequency of bus service.

*There is no indication at OAK that you could use a BART card -- if you had one in your wallet, as I did not see a BART ticket machine in eye-range. 

*There is no indication that Coliseum/Airport BART Station is an overpass and short walk away from Amtrak's Coliseum/Airport station, served by Capitol Corridor service (San Jose-Sacramento)...nor is there any indication that the Air BART bus could be used to access this latter station, via the BART station.

*There is no indication, for those who are visiting (and it stands to reason that many visitors use this BART station), which platform/direction at the station is the correct one to head toward downtown Oakland or downtown San Francisco. You must look at the map, know what to look for, and deduce where you must stand to board the correct train.

*BART uses a nonsensical platform numbering system, with one platform labelled "1" and another labelled "2" (but what's the logic? It could be the other way around. Correct signage protocol would place terminal names with arrows below the station names along the outer walls (i.e. <<DUBLIN/PLEASANTON<<Montgomery St.>>DALY CITY/SFO/MILLBRAE), and this would be repeated along the length of the station outer walls. 

*It remains a challenge to see station names from a given seat on a given train. There are not enough outer wall station signs, and lighted station identification signs suspended from the ceiling are often unlighted, and they are not close enough together to guarantee a seated passenger can see any station sign. Barely audible train-driver announcements of the station, once arrived, are infrequent, inconsistent and not repeated at all. 

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: A Very Ferry Friday

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                                                                                                                                                     Governors Island Ferry, NYC

Some rights reserved by Ed Coyle Photography
Hong Kong Harbor

Some rights reserved by Draco2008
Tyne River, South Shields, UK

Some rights reserved by Will Merydith
Bainbridge Island - Seattle Ferry

WHEELS Wednesday: Repair Your Bike for Free (or Almost...)

Why let the recession torpedo your bicycling? The bicycle repair co-operative is ascendant, with many large cities--and a few small ones--sporting these oases, where the budget-challenged (these days, that's most of us), can repair their bikes with trained volunteers, obtain free or low-cost parts, buy re-conditioned bikes, and donate their time. Many bike clubs also sponsor repair clinics.

Some rights reserved by ubrayj02

Examples of co-ops include The Recyclery (Chicago), Bike Oven (L.A.), The Bike Kitchen (L.A. and in S.F.). In NYC, Recycle the Bicycle has three locations (!); Five Borough Bicycle Club offers many classes and services. Bike Parts swap meets are another resource for repair and instruction: the Bridge Storage Swap Meet, in Richmond, Calif. (BART/Amtrak accessible), near Oakland, is monthly.

BTW, these venues almost always pop up near established commercial bike shops--and the symbiosis seems mutually beneficial. I'll be updating and expanding this list for perma-links on TraVERSatility. Google or Bing "free bicycle repair."

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: the 411 on L.A. Transit System Information...

Copyright Free. First Published 1974 by  AIGA and U.S. DOT

Rode bicycle over to Universal City Red Line Metro Station, to take it under the hill to do my standard circumnavigation of Griffith Park (via Franklin>Hillhurst>Los Feliz Blvd.>L.A. River Bikeway>Victory>Riverside). At Universal, a confused group of Japanese teens tried to navigate the rather unhelpful ticket machines menu to obtain stored-value cards (I forgot to take a picture of the group, sorry!). Finally, an L.A. Metro maintenance guy showed up, opened up the machine, ascertained it was empty of cards, and waved them onward.

Their questions about how to get to the popular Hollywood/Highland stop (which is just one stop south), led me to muse that signage and fare/payment information in these stations, for this system--and many others--is really sub-par. (By the way, there seem to be no "station pages" on the Metro website, dedicated to each station in the rail system; I know I've seen them, but they are not easy to find online...). Therefore:

TraVERSatility Principle #1: If we're to get more people using transit, we have to get more information about transit to the people.


Admittedly, changing station signage and machine menus is harder and more expensive than moving information around on the Web. But, in a system so heavily used by visitors--especially international ones--the economic impact of improving communication remains important. The more we know about where to go...the better off we'll all be.

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Virgin's List of Bike-Friendly Cities

I'm hoping this isn't an old feature, but the Virgin family of airlines suggests 11 of the most bike-friendly cities in the world: they include...Amsterdam; Berlin; Copenhagen; Basel; Barcelona; Portland, Ore.; Davis, Calif.; Boulder, Colo.; Sandnes, Norway; Trondheim, Norway; San Francisco, Calif.

My guess is that one could add Olympia, Wash., Berkeley, Calif., maybe even Sacramento, Calif.; one or two other cities around the San Francisco Bay Area, and a few of the state capitals and university towns, like Ann Arbor, in the American Midwest, along with some in t. I was a little surprised to see Vancouver, B.C. not included--and I'm not sure whether it would qualify or not.

WHEELS Wednesday: Essential Biking Gear for Commuters, Others

So what do you absolutely have to have when you bicycle, especially as a commuter? I would argue that a spare tire tube and tire patch kit are important--and also easy to carry, because they take so little space in a backpack or computer bag. But why listen to me? Resources advising you on this abound online, including at at About.com, at GetRichSlowly, and even at manly-man Gear Patrol.

Cooler weather will be here eventually in the Northern hemisphere, and you can learn about what you'll need for winter cycling here. And if you just want to know about essential safety gear--and the laws governing them--a law firm offers this very serious primer.

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: What Else Could CA High-Speed Bucks Do?

I'm the biggest fan of rail and high-speed rail. It's critical that passenger rail infrastructure--heavy, light and in-between--be built as soon as possible to encourage related development, and the shifting of transportation patterns away from car-dependency. Doing so would help the environment and our economy. These projects should be integrated with the road system, and encourage bicycle use.

HOWEVER...too often rail projects are used to bolster struggling, small and isolated communities that fail a basic test of passenger rail effiicacy: is there enough population density to support the line to some extent, and to have an impact on congestion and environmental problems? If development and zoning rules are altered, will enough future development around the line justify its existence when judged against some or all of the aforesaid test?

One great example of this is the CA high-speed rail project, which in just a few years has seen costs double. This is never a surprise when publicly-funded projects are being built: developers and construction interests know they can  seek additional public funds through bonds, guilt political leaders into continuing funding "for jobs," and other manipulations. The tax base funding these projects is not going get up and move--although some do--to avoid paying for the project. Hence, costs inevitably--and 'surprisingly'--rise. As well, isolated communities, or those struggling economically, lobby heavily for these lines.

The $14 billion that the initial 164 miles of CA High-Speed rail would fund between Bakersfield, with its 350,000 people, and Merced, a college and farming town of almost 80,000 people--both towns are more than 100 miles from nearest major population centers--could be used to address the environment-killing, economy-crippling congestion in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles (combined population: 20 million-plus), spurring the kind of economic growth that would ultimately benefit the state, and smaller communities.

*$14 billion (let alone the hundreds of billions to complete high-speed rail) could integrate L.A.'s rapid-rail, buses and commuter rail in a way that benefits the 16 million people (more than 25 times the number of people in the initial phase of rail) of Southern California, many of whom can't get to jobs or school, very easily.

*$14 billion would fund the building of 'through-rail' connections in downtown L.A. that allow rapid-rail and commuter rail to go into and out of downtown L.A., increasing by light-years the efficiency of the entire massive system.

*$14 billion would fund rush-hour one-way improvements to major east-west arteries in Los Angeles--one of the few large cities in America that does not do this--which have been delayed for decades (although mostly over political concerns).

*$14 billion would link LAX, one of the worst polluters in the nation's collection of airports, with populations centers via rail, thereby reducing its carbon footprint by millions of tons of emissions per year in reduced combustion-engine trips to the airport complex.

*$14 billion would fund the completion of a network of off-road bikeways and on-street bike-lanes that would be the envy of America--and is taking shape now in ways big and small--and another leg of economic stability for the area.

*$14 billion could upgrade the existing rail line from Santa Barbara to San Diego, eliminating grade-crossings and double-tracking sections that are single-track,along with improving signaling systems, and rolling stock (along with providing more bicycle-friendly coaches on weekends for both the Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink service).

Stay tuned...

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Online Cycle Route Planner

There's a real shortage of accurate bicycle-route maps and information online, although Google now offers a beta-version bicycle-route planner (access through Google Maps>Get Directions><<Bicycle Icon>>).

Meanwhile, A UK-based cycling website--Cycle-Route.com offers a nifty cycle-route planner, with a few U.S. cities and regions covered. You can also share your routes. Check the entire site here.

WHEELS Wednesday: Bicycle Signage Improving

As anyone who's ridden a bike through an urban area knows, route signage can be pretty thin in places. Moreover, general signage for, about, riders, is pretty poor. Now comes a new regime of signage from bicycle-forward municipalities, such as Berkeley, Calif. These signs make an attempt to treat riders as needful of information about their route and traversal of roads as car-drivers--including mileage to destination, route direction and other helpful info-bits.

How is your town, city or county doing in this regard?

NatGeo Map Tool Gives Google Earth A Run for Your Eyeballs

I was quite taken aback while traipsing virtually through the National Geographic* mapping section online to find their nifty flagship web map tool is quite robust. While it doesn't allow the "Flying Nun" (or Earl the Angel from "Saving Grace" or Bill the Vampire on "True Blood," if you like) flexibility of Google Earth, it's "bird's eye view" functionality is quite impressive, and much crisper, photographically-speaking, than said "... Earth" tool--famously hard on disk-usage and video cards. Using NatGeo, I flew down over Cadiz, Spain and got a nice close-up of Railway Station and the Old City...in living color.

In any case, try the tool here.

*I was a little troubled by the choice of web-sponsors on the NatGeo site--namely, Coca-Cola. I'm not crazy about Coca-Cola as a sponsor, given my no-refined carbs blog, Factually Food, but I choose my battles. And, truthfully, 'Coke' makes products other than sugar-loaded soda....

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: L.A. Still Far Behind on Fare Policies

Although L.A. Metro has lowered the cost of a day pass for its stored-value card users (called TAP), and recently revamped the way it calculates the monthly and weekly stored value fees (they've started the clock of month and seven day passes from the time of purchase rather than from the beginning of the month and week, respectively), the Los Angeles rail and bus agency continues to charge basic rail riders by each line ridden--unless you buy a day pass. Of course, this Byzantine calculation puts it behind virtually every other major metropolitan transit system in North America, most of which charge a flat rate for unlimited use, or charge by the mile.

The good news? Rush-hour restrictions on taking bicycles on trains are now a thing of the past--you can ride with your bike at any time.

Someday....

WHEELS Wednesdays: Bike Slots Upped on L.A. Rail Net

Metrolink, the L.A.-area commuter rail network, is enlarging the number of spaces that can accommodate bikes, with customized rail cars, the LAist blog reports. The railroad will put two customized rail-cars able to hold 18 bikes on the rails as part of a pilot program, says LAist. Now, if only Amtrak would try that on the packed Surfliners running the L.A.-San Diego route...

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: Examining Traveler Behavior

Delft University of Technology, in The Netherlands, is studying multi-modal travelers' behavior in Dutch cities, and while it's a little hard to read, it provides some insights into travel decision-making. Meanwhile, "EU-funded scientists are piloting a service that will allow people to determine the best way of making journeys in cities. As well as helping individuals find the most efficient route and travel mode, the systems should cut congestion and lower the environmental impacts of road transport, Green Car Congress reports.

The pilot cities are: Brno, Czech Republic; also, Bucharest, Florence, Oslo, Munich, Vienna.

If that's not enough, the city of Albuquerque, N. Mex., offers a Travel Training Program to help riders figure out how their entire transit system--ABQ Ride, Rio Metro and the New Mexico Rail Runner Express--works together.