FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Air-Rail Links Keep Growing...Ever so Slowly

*Bangkok: Airport-to-city rail service will improve at Bangkok's five year-old international airport, Suvarnabhumi, including more rail cars and better service, various government agencies are claiming.

*Albuquerque: Hey, did you know you could get from Albuquerque's airport to the city, and to places like Santa Fe and Sandia with a quick bus/rail connection? Well, at least you can do this on weekdays. The Rail Runner train operates between New Mexico's capital, and Belen, south of the Albuquerque, Monday through Friday. How about weekends?

*Washington, D.C.: Patch reports that the Washington, D.C.-Dulles International Airport rail link is slated to open in summer, 2017.

*Madrid: The Spanish capital's speedy commuter rail link between its airport and the major downtown train terminals has been operating for over six months; it's 25 minutes from the airport to Atocha and 11 minutes to Chamartin, the big Madrid rail stations. This supplements a subway link with many more stops.

*South Bend, Ind.: Notre Dame fans (and students) will be pleased to know they can make an in-terminal connection between planes at South Bend Regional Airport, and the South Shore train service to Chicago--service has been cut in half to adjust for a single-track situation west to Michigan City, before double-tracks take over the rest of the way. Maybe double-track that stretch to bring us into the 21st century?

Rail service from London's Heathrow to Reading, and from Scotland's Inverness Airport to Aberdeen, as well as onward rail connections from Brussels airport to Paris, are all under discussion. Los Angeles? Not so much--it's on the drawing boards, but is way down the list.

WHEELS Wednesday: Bike-Sharing Shifts Into High Gear

Bicycle-sharing programs are taking off. There's one starting up in Chicago, the Sun-Times says. Bike-sharing already exists in Denver, Colo.. Here's a blog about bike-sharing.

And, Boulder, Colo., home of the University of Colorado, is experimenting with the "Bus Then Bike" program, that provides bike lockers near bus-stops, so bicyclists can bike to the bus, but not have to take their bike on the bus that has limited rack space, or chance locking it up against a tree or post near the bus-stop, unsure whether it will be safe during their time away.

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Get Walking...Don't Trail Behind!

Trails, urban and rural, along with extensions, improvements and expansions, are sprouting all over. 


The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail is under National Park Service development around the eponymous bay, although parts of it already exist under other federal, state and local designations--untangle the information knot here and here. New trails and improvements continue in Paso Robles, Calif., And the Permanente Creek Trail extends over the 101 freeway in suburban Mountain View, Calif.

Meanwhile, Colorado Springs, Colo. pundits contest its low walk-ability ranking, bested by places like Oakland, Calif. Click through city scores at walkscore.com.

Get more trails info from The Urban Trail Conference (NYC), American Trails (national U.S.), the American Hiking Society, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, and the National trail systems, in the U.S., the UK and Canada.

WHEELS Wednesday: Tune Up Your Ride

Keeping your bike working properly is important--whether you commute with it, ride for pleasure, or take part in races. Here's an overall tune-up run-down in text and pics from a Connecticut bike shop. About.com offers a text primer on the subject. And, here's a video tutorial on tune-ups from BicycleTutor.com (membership fee).

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: Hub Dreams and Doubts Abound

One of the Minnesota Twin Cities--state capital St. Paul--is building a giant multi-modal transit center downtown by renovating its historic Union Depot railroad station, but there are doubts about its efficacy as a hub of productivity, growth and activity. The transit center will be connected to the light-rail line, now under construction and scheduled to open in 2014, which will link the state's capital burg with its larger twin, Minneapolis. Of course, it will only have a fighting chance if it's a true hub...for local buses, light-rail, Amtrak, bicyclists, and intercity buses (those are part of the plans).

Will it connect to bicycle paths? Will there be bike lockers? Will there be adequate signage designed to international standards that clearly display where all the various transit modes are located, and show clearly departure and arrival times? 

Stay tuned.

(Perhaps the good news in all this is that the opening of the light-rail line will connect St. Paul, by rail, and via the existing light-rail line from downtown Minneapolis, with MSP, reducing the carbon footprint of one of the largest airports in the Midwest)

Meanwhile, in the lower Midwest, Indianapolis is doing some soul-searching about how to how to improve public transit, after the bus system cut routes and trips. A Hoosier Transit Hub is still some years away.

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Transit Wheels Grind Slowly in South's Hub

Some rights reserved by kla4067

The wheels grind slowly on the multi-modal hub-building front, with many municipalities hearing the message of greater efficiency and productivity, lowering carbon-footprints, while building a bulwark against inevitably rising energy costs...but unable to prioritize this sort of infrastructure for fiscal, political and bureaucratic reasons.

Case in point: Atlanta, Georgia. It's got MARTA, a regional rail system that--unlike so many other major cities in North America--serves not just the international airport, but the actual main airport terminal (much like Chicago's O'Hare set-up). Still, Amtrak is exiled to a postage-stamp some miles from downtown, and Atlanta lacks a central square, bay, river-crossing to mark its exact center of gravity, although several are candidates. Comes the plan...an idea to link MARTA with city buses and 'other transit' in a years-away hub. Will that 'other transit' include Amtrak, or Greyhound? How about bicycles?  It would make sense...but sense--and urgency--is what this process lacks.

One can hope...

WHEELS Wednesday: Big Easy Named a 'Bike-Friendly' Town

Top Bike-Friendly Communities in the U.S. include New Orleans, LA, which received a bronze designation (third place, much like the Olympics). The BFC label denotes "a commitment to improving conditions for bicycling through investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro‐bicycling policies," according the organization that hands out the awards, the League of American Bicyclists.

See if your town's made the list; click here for the full roster of BFCs.

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: The Reno(novation) of Transit in Reno Continues

From the Amtrak Station in Reno, NV you can hop almost any city bus at the hub across the street, or hop on your bike and use bike lanes to the University of Nevada-Reno, the casinos, the whitewater kayaking park along the Truckee River, or dozens of other places in the "Biggest Little City in the World."

Public transit and bike lanes are in evidence in Reno, NV: Fourth St. Station is a massive, modern bus hub in downtown Reno, catty-corner from the Amtrak Station--a restored Union Pacific-built depot. Bike lanes pass by the station. Now, if only Greyhound would relocate--presumably in coordination with the city--to join local bus, rail and bike transit, Reno could unify more completely its laudable transit efforts.

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: CalTrain's Bike Car Beats AmTrain's, For Sure

Heading back from a meeting in Silicon Valley on CalTrain, I found the spaciousness of the bike storage space--plus the racks, impressive. Room for bikes like this would have saved yours truly from the famous 5 hour wait last summer at Oceanside, Calif. for a train back to L.A. that could take me...and my bike. Amtrak's measly four bike spaces on the Surfliner can't compare....

WHEELS Wednesday: Funky Vegan Bicyclists Tour Western U.S.

 Coyright ramblingroadshow.com

It sounds very granola (and who doesn't love home-made granola?), but, candidly, I can't think of a better way to bring bike culture to the country: The Dinner & Bikes Tour is, "traveling the western states this September to tell stories and show movies and bicycle culture while serving up tasty gourmet vegan food," according to their site. Even if you're a carnivore, it sounds like a whole lot of fun. You can read more about it here (with a map and tour sked), and here (with an interesting window in SF bike infrastructure.

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: Taking the Pulse of U.S. MuMo Efforts

The News...Last month, officials broke ground on a new multi-modal transit center for San Francisco to replace the Transbay Terminal--one day, the terminus for Caltrain/high-speed rail coming from Peninsula. Blue-skying, yes, but efficient, if expensive. Cheaper to build the whole thing around existing Caltrain station at 4th and Townsend--big power-politics feed into this whole issue.

What Else? Still, there's some progress, big and small: Boston renovated its South Station railroad terminal within the last decade to accommodate a central bus terminal next to it. D.C. intercity buses can be found within walking distance of Union Station, the rail station. Los Angeles gets a "B-" for incorporating local bus service, and airport buses, into its moderate semi-renovation of Union Station, via the creation of the Patsaouras Bus Plaza--now if only they could bring Greyhound over there, too...it's an idea.


New York City and Chicago are challenged, in part by multiple railroad terminals, sheer size, and the densely built environment.  Philadelphia, which triumphs with its Euro-style commuter rail system (similar to Paris' RER or the London Overground) that goes through downtown--rather than terminating there--and out other sides of the city, still can't combine intercity buses and trains.

And the Winner is...: You would think New Orleans--corrupt, humid, and focused on flood-control, jazz, history, food, and public drinking--would not be among the elite list of cities with multi-modal transit centers. You would be wrong: New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal has hosted Amtrak and Greyhound together for several decades.


Laissez le bon temps rouler, indeed.

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Ride Las Vegas

Although I didn't have time to complete a circuit in Las Vegas, while here, I was able to do some research for a future trip to Sin City. **

A small network of lanes, routes and bikeways does exist. You can ride safely around Vegas, but most of the lanes and separated bike-ways are not connected in a manner that would allow for cross-city, or loop travel. This map shows what exists, thus far. It's worth checking out what kinds of provision for bicyclists do exist here.  And, given the flat terrain and dry air--albeit pretty polluted from the traffic--you should have a decent ride on a weekend. N.B.: Buses tend not to have front-load bike-racks; some do. As well, given the traffic and style of driving here, I would avoid bicycle routes, and stick with streets that sport dedicated lanes, or even a separated path.

**ADDED 9/4/11: Here's another interesting item...Las Vegas funds a full-fledged Bicycle Transit Center. In addition. Also, you can take a marked route--much of it via dedicated bicycle lane--all the way from downtown to Red Rock Natural Conservation Area, where there is a loop. Check out the map above.