FLEET-FOOT Fridays: How Does Vegas Compare?

Here's an interesting comparison, from the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, of Sin City and comparably-sized cities with regard to their transit options; let's hope they extend the casino-friendly monorail to McCarran International Airport someday to make Las Vegas earth-friendly, as well.

WHEELS Wednesdays: Progressives Whine About Bike Lanes?

How far behind is the U.S. in accommodating bicyclists? Way behind, according to this Yale piece. And The Atlantic magazine studied the issue and found it was, essentially, college towns that were friendliest toward bicycles. And--as Al Gore might say--another several million tons of pollutants head into our atmosphere, while we fight about it -- even in progressive Park Slope, Brooklyn, where normally progressive urbanites want to help the environment--just not in their neighborhood.

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: The Hubbub's About Transit Hubs

Transit hubs are the latest thing; from Anaheim in southern California to Greensboro in North Carolina, hubs to aggregate transit, taxicab, auto and bicycle transportation are being built by the scores. Driving these mostly publicly-funded projects is a need to make transportation more efficient, and less costly to both the environment and travelers' wallets.

Home to Disneyland, Anaheim also sees frequent train service via Metrolink and Amtrak, at its train station, across from the Angels baseball team's stadium. The massive construction project opening in just two years will expand the footprint of the station many times over, and provide a place for area buses, cabs and carpools, to meet train riders.

Greensboro is rehabbing an older building downtown to serve as its hub. Amtrak sends two trains a day through the city.

Other cities building hubs include Burbank, Calif. (airport), Calgary, Alberta; Kalamazoo, Mich., New York City (World Trade Center); St. Paul, Minn., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Nashville, Tenn.

SPECIAL: Mobile Bus Times Texted to Your Phone in L.A.

New apps help you find out when you're next bus is arriving. Here's one for the Android market in L.A. And, look for the blue "Next Stop" signs at L.A. Metro bus stops; type the stop-number on the sign, and text it 41411, to get the next bus time arrival. Cool!

WHEELS Wednesdays: New York's Gettin'em; Canada's Gettin' Rid Of'em

Guess which city is welcoming bike lanes? And guess which one is set to remove them? If you guessed some European or Canadian city for the first one, and a U.S. one for the second question....well, you'd be wrong.

New York City, according to DNAinfo.com (the Ameritrade founder's nifty news operation) is adding bike lane's to busy First and Second Avenues in Manhattan--the capital of traffic congestion (and Calgary; San Mateo, Calif., and Salem, Ore. are also adding lanes). Toronto, of all places--progressive, flat, Canadian--may be removing lanes on busy Jarvis Street, InsideToronto.com reported.

MULTI-MODAL Mondays: L.A. - The Ballona Creek Bike Path

Needless to say, the number of dedicated bike paths/bikways in the LA. Basin is fairly limited, relative to total roadway mileage. But, that is slowly changing. One of the bike-paths that has been around for a few years is a little far from my place in Burbank--it's the Ballona Creek bike-path that runs along the (mostly) concrete-sided path of Ballona Creek from near downtown Culver City, rougly10 miles to the ocean, where the creek spills into the sea, between Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Rey, two seaside neighborhoods quite close the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

The hope for this day-trip was to make it all the way from Burbank, via subway and bike, to the ocean, and then, using the beach trail to skirt LAX, grab the metro rail at Aviation Blvd. back; however, as is often the case in the summer in Los Angeles, once I got within a half-mile of the beach, the coast began to fog over, and the temperature plummeted by about 20 degrees, from a pleasant 85 to a less pleasant 65, plus a stiff breeze, making it feel even chillier. Normally, I wouldn't care, but I was dressed very lightly for the higher San Fernando Valley temps.

The trip began with a quick bike ride to Universal City station, a speedy seven-minute ride under the hill to Hollywood, and a series of streets recommended by the L.A. Bicycle Coalition to Venice Blvd., on which I traveled along the capacious Venice Blvd. bike lane, southwest toward Culver City. One lovely salad from Trader Joe's later, I resumed the finding the Ballona Creek trail -- even if you don't have a map, it's easy: just head south from downtown CC toward the Baldwin Hills--you can't miss them, as they loom over CC. The creek runs along the northern edge of the hills. However, there are specific access points to the bike path--you must enter at one of those access points: I entered at Duquesne, and rode southwest about 7 miles to Lincoln Blvd. (Route 1)--at that point, afternoon fog drove me back.

Turning around, I headed back the way I came. But at Venice Blvd., and Hauser Blvd., I turned north on Hauser into the Miracle Mile section, then headed east on Wilshire Blvd., for a very bumpy (slow lane is horrible condition) ride to Wilshire and Western, where I grabbed the Purple/Red Line subway, back to the Universal City.

Notes: Do not use Wilshire when traveling east west--choose a parallel street to the north or south--most of which go all the way through. Wilshire is not that busy on a weekend, but the slow lane is full of patches and potholes, and you may break your bike...or your back. The creek trail is charming and flat, and eventually goes near/through what remains of coastal wetlands. It's as pleasant a ride as you will find, off the beach, in developed L.A. Excellent benches, rest areas and nature/historical signage along the way make this a worthwhile route to travel. You can, of course, put your bike on one of the numerous bus-lines that cross this route, and shorten the total length and time of the ride.

FLEET-FOOT Fridays: Tour de France Stage 1

Too cool: the official site for the Tour de France provides up-to-the-minute information about the race, plus maps and more. If you want to know how this famous race fits into the 'grand tours' international racing scheme, click here, and scroll down to "Grand Tours" section. The race runs in stages, all over France.