Bicycle Blog Cyclelicious

$1 million for bike park and ride I just want to say that I don't think the TriMet and Caltrain projects are comparable. I'm guessing that Caltrain is probably going to take out a set of seats (or doing something else simple if the total cost is $200K) vs TriMet is actually going to be building brand new things (or at least purchasing them in the case of the lockers). Also, the Caltrain project will not accommodate 1000 bikes at one time (and bike capacity might be fine during off-peak periods), but the TriMet project will accomodate the 350 at one time.

Also, providing on-vehicle facilities can be better, especially for those wishing to bike at both ends, but many transit systems can not easily scale up. Specifically, due to platform length limitations, TriMet is limited to two cars per MAX or WES train. "Caltrain has provided four times the capacity of TriMet's bike parking at one fourth the cost and in less time."

Caltrain hasn't provided anything... yet. Remain vigilant. Jason, you make good points, especially about modifying existing infrastructure vs building brand new, but that's kind of my point: you can do a lot by just rearranging things.

Yes, seats are being removed, but those are just dead space anyway. There's apparently some sort of fiction going around that fewer seats = less passenger room, when the opposite is actually true.

"350 at one time" is right -- and that's all you'll get. Right now Caltrain transports 2,400 bikes each day every week day.

Caltrain also has the facility problems -- they looked at going to six cars consists, but many platforms can only handle 5 cars, so right now they're pushing for electrification so that the trains can run more frequently.

BART is already at capacity at a couple of stations along their line, and there's no room for platform expansion or more frequent trains. BART is ripping out seats to expand passenger capacity, but for bike capacity they're expanding bike parking like TriMet. BART's a little different in that they have monstrous park-and-rides in the suburbs and reasonable transit connections in San Francisco, so bikes on board isn't a critical issue.

I've only played on TriMet (the LRT and a couple of buses, no bike and only on a weekend and late night) so I don't know what the real world issues are for Portland's system. Is TriMet LRT mostly 'local' traffic in Portland, or is there a lot of longer distance traffic to/from Hillsboro, Beaverton and Gresham? I see the TriMet trains run more frequently than Caltrain.


Murph: Well yeah, it's still mostly vaporware. fewer seats = less passenger room, when the opposite is actually true

Well, if the area is used for people to stand, it may mean more room*. But if the area is getting used by bikes, it does seem to reduce room for passengers.

Overall, I'm assuming that the extra Caltrain bike capacity is only needed during peak periods, and would only get used a few trips a day, not the full 1000 times it could be.

As for MAX (TriMet's light rail system), it is a much more local system than Caltrain is in Portland (though in Beaverton/Hillsboro and part of eastern Portland is fast with fewer stops). The real problem is that it runs on-street in Downtown Portland, which means that trains can only be two cars long and limits throughput/speed.

*TriMet actually has taken out some of the seats on some old buses, but has said that WMATA (in DC) or some other agency supposedly did a study showing that it doesn't increase passenger capacity on trains. Caltrain: Expect more consistency in bike car configurations My opening quote "I am very excited and optimistic about what I heard from Mr Harvey, but I am also keenly aware that this is only happening because we have been riding you guys for the last year" uhhh.. so they will NOT be consistently having 2 bike cars on 329, 323 OR 225?

fantastic. Kit - you got that wrong...

They will be consistently NOT HAVING 2 bike cars on 329, 323, or 225. The trains listed indicate where they will be shipping the 2 car consists up and down the peninsula - if the train is not on that list it will almost never have two bike cars.

Now, they could not just cherry pick the best runs because the trains actually have to be running up and down the peninsula, but what is annoying is that Caltrain chose the trains to target from data on bumps taken last September. More accurate data could come from a survey of bikers asking them - "If you could take any train you like - which would you take?" Less people get bumped from 369 in Palo Alto specifically because the PA people know the train will most likely be full at Mountain View. So more bumps are recorded from 267 - it becomes a more popular train because it's less likely to be overfull.

Of course this concept would never occur to Caltrain because they aren't that observant, and they don't ask for help. That was the theme of my rant today. Kit: It looks like you can expect to be see bumps on a consistent basis on the express and limited trains at Sunnyvale at Mountain View. Only single bike cars for the trains you take to the City. Caltrain meeting NOT Wednesday (it's on Thursday) Note that on the unmodified cars the seats block the windows. And with these crappy racks, the bikes are harder to secure and would thus be harder to get over anyway.

Shirley is investigating if the number of emergency exits required is a function of number of seats - with only 8 seats in that level 4 windows seems like overkill... It's not a function of the number of seats. 4 emergency windows are required on each passenger level, in addition to two doors, with a "reasonable exit rate" of 35 persons per minute. I imagine bikes would get in the way of this "reasonable exit rate," but the high back chairs would not (I looked). The only exception is for private berths -- only 1 window and 1 door required for those.

There's also a requirement that "emergency window exits shall be distributed throughout the passenger car body to reduce interior travel distance." I don't know if the bike car portion of the Gallery cars and the passenger-only side would be considered different levels or compartments, but I imagine that's the case.

See http://www.aptastandards.com/portals/0/PRESS_pdfs/Pass%20Systems/PS%20Reaffirm/SS-PS-003%20EEU%20mark-up%202-6.pdf Ummm dude...

http://www.caltrain.com/info_board.html

The board of directors meets the first Thursday of the month at 10 a.m. in the Edward J. Bacciocco Auditorium located on the second floor at the San Mateo County Transit District Administrative Offices, 1250 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos.

translation - the meeting is umm... Thursday... California budget agreement eliminates transit funds What!!! Okay I am a little confused didn't we just pass SB 375 that mandates better transportation and land use planning. It pushes smarter growth patterns that depend on transit and walkability to cut down on green house gases.

So now we won't fund the transportation. This is just like California, proposed great things but just don't fund any of it. Anon: It's maddening, isn't it? Caltrain approves modest bike space increase Caltrain bicycles on board: ideas and proposals "In the mornings, relatively few passengers boarding at 4th and King in San Francisco have bikes, leaving hundreds of empty passenger seats, while cyclists are routinely bumped even in the winter."

I think there is a syntax error there. Do you mean relatively few passengers *don't* have bikes? That's not really true. While San Joser and Sunnyvale have copious parking, 4th/King is a major MUNI connection spot with "some" parking, and 22nd St has "a lot" of parking. The reason we see less SRO crowds is because the SB AM commute has a far more "tech-heavy" crowd that can show up at 10 AM for work, so the entire SB AM commute spreads across more trains.

Additionally, since the NB AM commute is so "Drive to the station" centric, I am guessing that earlier trains become more attractive because the parking lots are filling up, people shoot for the same earlier bullets because later trains cause parking hassles.

this of course is just a WAG. SFBC contends there are 'hundreds' of empty seats on the trains (as evidenced by photos that you forwarded to me and are now posted to SFBC/BoB page). You'd never see passenger cars that empty in San Jose in the mornings. I think you're right this is because more people bike to SF station than to SJ station because of copious parking in the South Bay. Those photos are taken on trains leaving SF at 8:44, 8:59, and 9:07 respectively. What do the trains leaving San Jose at those times look like?

The 8:14 and 7:14 AM trains - the two bullets stopping at PA, are much more loaded down with passengers. But like I said, we don't really "fill" the trains.

The parking in the South Bay is only part of it. All those NB AM commuters arrive in SF where there is a Jitney, cabs, MUNI, etc... whereas the SB commuters get dumped off in "the sticks" and need a bike if your company doesn't have a shuttle. My company has a shuttle - and it runs from Lawrence so I can't take a bullet. Hmm, I don't know what trains that late look like -- my absolute latest departure from SJ is the 8:22 AM train (I like to get home in the evenings in time to see my kids). I think I'd actually prefer them to do nothing over the stand-or-steal option, honestly. Given that I've been biking for around 2 years and I've already had to replace my bike once because of theft.... Not that I prefer the Stand or Steal deal, but if it comes to 16 bikes per bomber or 32 stand, I will take a stand. I want to know I get on and not have to stress over whether or not I am going to get bumped. And one advantage, non bikers will not be wantiong to get on board bikes trains knowing there are no seats. Thus making it faster to board/unboard. Economic stimulus and transit funding Sent my comments to Mike Honda. The Bay Area does need a transit upgrade really bad. More bike access and better infrastructure. I posted to FB (as, I see, did Murph) and I got you some views.

Can you point me at the HTML/blogger code for adding buttons like this?

I will write Anna Eshoo *today*! Thanks all! There's a very important update, including specifics on how to contact House Rules Committee chairwoman Slaughter, at http://www.t4america.org/transitcuts

Nick, I'll send you details in a little bit. I'm on the bus right now with limited connectivity. What Measure B means for South Bay transit? I have to disagree with you on this one. I for one am thrilled that this measure is actually passing (well - passing is a misnomer here really; it is clear the public wants it, bad. We are only talking about crossing the 2/3rds threshold).

Being an active rider of VTA bus/light-rail, Caltrain and BART services, I think a few of our assessments are incorrect. At the very least, you are being overly pessimistic.

I think the VTA has done a great job in turning around the bus services over the past year. (I am thinking of the changes that came thru on Jan 14). The addition of new express buses and altering of routes to serve busy routes better has really worked, IMO. They did this without increasing their budget.

Try getting to San Francisco from San Jose via the following route - VTA 180/181 Express to Fremont, and BART to SF, on a sunday. You s hould see how packed 180/181 is on even a Sunday; and ditto for the BART ride. Compare that to taking Caltrain, which runs practically empty on Sundays. The reason: BART works. Due to BART's higher frequency and late schedule, you don't have to *think* or plan too much about when to leave and when to return.

Connecting to East Bay means connecting to two more cities that are a lot more public transit oriented than South Bay/Peninsula - Oakland and Berkeley. This means that the San Jose leg will also get increased ridership due to accessibility for a population that's already used to public transit. In other words, San Jose will see a lot more people from the east bay come through; all the better for the economy.

Students form a huge share of public transit ridership;
connecting SJ State to UC Berkeley - two of the largest universities in the Bay Area - can only be a good thing.

Bringing BART to San Jose/Santa Clara means direct connectivity between BART and Caltrain. This is good for Caltrain, not bad - among other things, it will mean increased ridership on Caltrain.

The ridership on the Alum Rock -> downtown San Jose/Santa Clara stretch alone will be HUGE - you have to ride VTA 22 one of these days to get a sense of this. (just like one of the most heavily used sections of BART is 24th St-Mission to Embarcadero).

Also, it is no coincidence that housing development in neighborhoods near BART are overwhelmingly high-density, multi-use, mixed income. Lord knows we need that in the South Bay.

And I am not even going into the countless other reasons why it is imperative to have better public transit and get cars off the road, period.

my more than 2 cents,
- Ram
(a Measure B promoter who doesn't drive his car to work) There's a more basic problem. Even with federal funding, VTA doesn't have nearly enough money to build the full project.

http://www.novtatax.org/wordpress/2008/10/facts-about-measure-b/

http://www.novtatax.org/wordpress/2008/10/piecing-the-puzzle-on-the-true-cost/

http://www.novtatax.org/wordpress/no-on-measure-c/ Hi MikeonBike,

Thanks for the links. I visited the "facts-about-measure-B" page and I have to say I found less facts and more propaganda.

I agree with the point that bus services are vital and should not be on the chopping block as a result of this. But that is the extent of what I agree with there..

How can a post that starts by blaming VTA for operating the "worst-performing" light-rail system present an objective opinion? I mean, come on. Why blame the VTA for problems that are fundamentally a result of city planning (sprawl, etc)? IMO the VTA has to be commended for doing a fine job despite the South Bay/Valley being one of the WORST developed places from a public transit perspective.

Also, that page contained a link that argued that the route was "outdated" because it doesnt' serve the tech corridor! Frankly, that's a bogus reason.
(A) The tech corridor is extremely well served by VTA Light Rail; and VTA LRT will connect to BART at various locations incl downtown SJ. (B) - from a ridership perspective, the current route that serves east San Jose is not at all outdated. East San Jose is the neighborhood that sees the highest amount of public transit usage, already. The VTA's system really is the worst performing system in the US, in terms of ridership, cost-per-passenger mile, however you want to measure it.

Light rail has been successful pretty much everywhere else it's been built. I'm pretty sure Denver, Salt Lake, and LA are as sprawly as San Jose. So that's no excuse. The reason it's been a flop in SJ is pretty obvious if you try to ride it: the routes are stupid--they zigzag, don't go directly where people want to go, and they're slow.

So is this an organization that we should trust to build an even bigger, more expensive transit system? It's not a question of whether the BART extension would be useful. It's a question of whether it's the best, or even a good, way to connect the south bay to the east bay. Google up "caltrain metro east", a suggested alternative, and judge for yourself.

I also have my doubts about whether the VTA is financially competent--and I'm really concerned that if they commit to funding BART, this will steal money from their LR, bus operations, and commitment to CalTrain. Caltrain hits truck in Burlingame I was on the 312 train. There was a small thump and then all the lights went out and the train rolled to a stop. #&*(*@ We were told the train had "hit a truck". Then we were told the delay would be indefinite and we could get out and look for alternate transportation.

I had boarded in Millbrae so I walked up to ECR, waited for a bus, and bussed back to Millbrae where I just missed a southbound train going through (the 7:32??). Then, unsure about trying to catch another train and not knowing what the delays would be, I drove home and worked from home for three hours.

I finally completed my trip to work (in SUnnyvale) at noon. Ugh.

What I fail to understand is how we have this sort of accident so often. How is it that some people are so blindingly stupid? Thanks for leaving your comment Vicki, and sorry about the headaches.

The train hits and truck and it's a "small thump": I think that's pretty amazing.

295 Bus has his idea to prevent this sort of thing. I don't know if it would fly or not. Caltrain bikes on board: Compare and contrast "Nearing capacity"? For serious? Has Caltrain ever discussed the cost of building in more bike carrying capacity? Have they ever talked about how much it would cost to either purchase a new bike car or retrofit a passenger car for bike carrying? Or how many total riders the typical bike car carries vs. the typical passenger car?

I'd be interested in seeing that sort of financial analysis because it would tell activists if they need to convince Caltrain to overlook short-term expenditure for long-term goals or if they just need Caltrain to accept an immediately win-win proposition. Chester, much of the anger by cyclists toward Caltrain is that they have done nothing to study what can be to increase bike capacity. The technical advisory group that wrote the draft for the Caltrain bike access and parking plan gave several of their own suggestions on improving bikes on board capacity, but Caltrain staff specifically removed those ideas before presenting the document to the Caltrain Board.

The Caltrain Board decided in their meeting today to investigate improving the bikes on board program, so that's a win. Jennifer - yes, many of our transit systems in the Bay Area are now at capacity, and the new state budget that was finally approved this lsat week does nothing to improve the situation. Those cars don't look very full of people, though. Or do they fill up later? That was kind of hte point of that montage, to show how much more bicyclists use Caltrain versus non-cyclists. He's showing traffic from San Francisco, however. From the South Bay (where I ride from) there's a crush of non-cycling passengers, probably because we have parking lots. they are all great views. I specially enjoyed the analysis by Holier than you.
I dont use caltrain as a source of commuting but it looks like it could become a nightmare if actions and effectiveness are not done soon. crazy.
-
funny I had just posted a link, also about caltrain, in today's article by the SFchron a bit more focused on fashion tho... ;) Thanks, Yokota. I had always wondered about it -- the least that could be done is to do a cost analysis. My vague personal suspicion is that there will be significant short-term costs but those will pay off in the long run by greatly expanding the potential passenger pool. Hello,

My name is Solly, I am a 6th grade student in Los Angeles.

I am on a team competing in FIRST LEGO League, which promotes science and technology for kids. This year’s theme is Climate Connections, and our team chose to study the connections between rising temperatures and car emissions in Los Angeles. Did you know that these two things both affect each other?

Our team needed to think of a creative solution for our topic. We found that a lot of car emissions come from people who drive a long distance to work every day, such as from Palmdale or Riverside to the downtown area. These areas have commuter trains called MetroLink, and our idea is to add a rail car for bikes only. This would encourage more people to leave the car at home, and get to work with bike and train.

We were surprised to learn that MetroLink has room for only 2 bikes per train car. The other LA train system is a subway called Metro that travels shorter distances. Metro is adding bike lockers at some stations, but this means you have to buy two bikes if you really want to stop driving the car to work.

In LA and other cities, train companies do not want to remove more seats to make room for bikes, because it would reduce their income. Passenger train cars are expensive and take a long time to get. So our idea is to take older rail cars that were used for something else, and make some changes to allow bike racks and ramps to get on and off. After parking your bike in this rail car you just go sit down in a regular passenger car. Adding these simple rail cars to the commuter train would not reduce income, and might even sell more tickets from all the people that could now take their bike to work.

We made several designs of rail cars that could hold between 34 and 80 bikes. We estimate that each bikes-only rail car could reduce 408 to 960 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, if these commuters stopped driving 60 miles each way. This is based on 0.8 pounds of CO2 per mile driven.

We also researched to see if other parts of the world have tried this idea. Some cities in the US are adding more room for bikes by taking out seats, but this is going slow. Some cities in Europe have taken out most or all of the seats, with people standing next to the bikes, but this was on subways and different than our topic of long distance commuters.

If you have read all this, thank you very much, because another one of our assignments was to share our project with people who might be interested. Internet blogs are a good way for our team to try and share our work with a lot of people. Hopefully you like our idea, and please wish us luck in our competition.

Solly Thanks Solly; your contest sounds very intriguing and I like your ideas. Do you know if your designs will be available anywhere on the Internet for others to view? Caltrain Bicycle Access and Parking Plan now online for what it's worth, the SF bike coalition sent out a bike theft alert last week for that particular garage:

"Elsewhere in bike theft news, steer clear of the 5th and Mission Garage -- bike parking at this city garage has always been pretty sketchy, but lately thieves have been working double-time to swipe bikes parked here, sadly we've heard that entire racks full of bikes have been stolen. We're working on better, more secure parking at this key location, but until that happens you'd be well advised not to park your bike there." Thx Calitexican. I missed that particular bulletin. Why not register your bikes on the nes national database www.immobilize.net The police can check any property on the site. Once you have opened your account you can register any property on the site- FREE
Also why not tag the bike. The RFID tag has an unique ID number which can be read with a scanner. visit www.immobitag.com and the ciost is around $25. Details of the btag, the bike and the owner go on the immobilize website. The bike is 10 times less likely to be stolen. There are 35 different sites in the UK where the police are tagging bikes to reduce the theft rate.
Regards

John Macintyre Bay Area bicycle and transportation news Caltrain bike car updates to your mobile device Yesterday, my wife said that Caltrain's digital signs at San Mateo indicated that SB134 had no bike car.

I thought they couldn't run a train without a cab (aka bike) car. Yesterday I rode from SF to Millbrae with the intention of riding Caltrain from there. My phone was tweeting away and it was pretty cool knowing that 324 was old style - I lifted it up a notch and made the train by about 90 seconds. If I had known it was a bombadier I would have slowed down and taken 226 which I was alerted had 2 old bike cars. Magic!

Sadly I am missing the JPB meeting this AM - we were riding from SF and easily on schedule to make it to Google, get a free breakfast from my Google friends, and make a Caltrain to San Carlos. Then the BONK hit someone on the ride who didn't know the route. Clearly it was up to me to take it for the team, slow down and ride him to the finish. Ah, Murph, I was hoping you'd make the meeting so I could read your report. I haven't seen anything on the SFBC list yet about the JPB meeting.

Gazer: I didn't realize they posted the signs. I actually hung around the Mtn View station for a while looking for this trainset to take a photo. Apparently there are some Bombardier cab cars without bike racks? Oh, I almost forgot to mention: Here's a PDF to print and hand out to bike car patrons to let them know about Ravi's Twitter service.

I've heard, BTW, that he's been slow lately in handing out keys. A HOW TO on how to send updates will be forthcoming, though. Ravi set me up to submit updates via SMS, which has worked well the couple of times there was anything of interest (Caltrain-wise) in SM.

Seems like a few more people are submitting from SF, which is really cool for me! I blew some minds yesterday knowing that 226 had the 2nd bike car. I haven't been *that* slow on sending out the emails with keys. :)

I'm also working to write some simple web forms that will speed up the entry of bikecar specific updates. That way even if you don't know the train number off the top of your head it can be generated by the form.

I may also create a spelled out how-to guide on my blog too so things are unified. Not that I'm not appreciative for you creating the pdf et al. Depressing. I twittered out that 277 had 2 cars from SV. Delayed in MP and RWC as cyclists run down the platform.

This is awesome proof of concept but we need to get Caltrain to get the info on the electronic signs. Sigh. Murph, I was getting disappointed also twittering the updates but not seeing it put to good use. Hence my efforts now to get the word out.

I hope you don't mind me doing this, Ravi -- I know some people just didn't "get" how Twitter works, hence the step-by-step guide. I hope this makes it a little bit more clear. Far be me to complain when the community wants to improve something. That is what I did by creating the service. Then again I was improving on nothing... but I digress. I love feedback and will incorporate whatever I can to my site to make things easier for the community to participate and understand it.

That said I have created a Getting Started guide[1] which adapts the instructions from your blog post.

[1] http://cow.org/c/getting-started or http://cow.org/r/?3ce5 if that is too long :) Ravi, your guide is much more succint and clear than mine. Thanks for doing that! Northbound and Southbound Caltrain delayed today I was riding South from SF towards Mountain View this AM, usually around San Mateo I start looking at my watch and decide if I want to consider hopping a train. The tweets are very helpful in this regard, though this morning they were a bit misleading - the NB trains were delayed but I couldn't confirm if that was delaying SB trains.

I decided to try to get 322 in Redwood City. As I was rolling towards the station the train pulled in. The gate was down on Broadway and the train was emptying. Here's why you NEVER trying to run the gates - I was watching my train on the platform wondering if the gates would go up in time for me to get to the train and a NB train came screaming by - I didn't know it was coming until it was already past. Where I was standing - on the left side of the road - there really isn't a gate, there is a gate on the right side of the road and on the sidewalk. I could see someone in that circumstance spacing it out. But I digress...

After the gates came up I rode over to the train, the door closed in front of me but the conductor was standing in the other door. He opened the door for me. Good fortune as 324 - the next SB train, broke down. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. Today I was the windshield. South bound horrendous today - 226 never showed in SM, and I biked all the way in, barely making my 10am appt. (And in my sweaty bike clothes at that!)

I'm still trying to figure out how to send updates to twitter/caltrain and twitter/bikecar from my cell phone. (SMS only for me!!)

I might have had better info for murph if I could have actually send my update around 8:55am as I tried! Ravi Pina is trying to figure out how to do updates by SMS. Of course, the real answer is to get CALTRAIN to send this stuff out.

The way I look at it, get as many people to use/contribute to the twitter feed and start to embarrass Caltrain. When the "324 is broken down" tweet came out I mentioned to the conductor "Thanks for letting me on - the 324 has broken down at San Bruno and I would have been stuck". I showed him the SMS stream on my Iphone, he looked at me like I was Zoltar the Magnificent. Yup, ravi is excellent.

I thought I was set up to test out the SMS update, but it didn't work.

Will keep trying, though I'll only be good on days like today, when things get really snarled.

San Mateo is a bit too sedate otherwise...

Too bad I couldn't wait around to see the 324/226 monster train! I've seen them do 10 car trains for MLK day, and that's a sight to behold. Position paper on Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan =v= Some of this has been incorporated into the SFBC's position statement on this master plan, along with some great historical background. It's available as a PDF file, currently at the bottom of the SFBC's Bikes On Board page. Thursday: Bike or transit? if you can ride the whole thing yourself you should, rather than taking up room and burning more fuel or taking room away from someone else.

and being self sufficient is more fun!

you don't have to change your life just to have something to blog about! :-P That sounded harsh, sorry didn't mean it that way. Thanks for the heads-up! I probably would have stamped by 10-ride and then gotten bumped.

I'll probably train it, as getting on mid-peninsula provides a little insulation from the insanity to-be in SF and SJ. Ride. Taking the train will give you more interesting fodder for this blog. But do whatever makes you happy! I'm already planning on riding both directions, SF to Sunnyvale, being able to easily bail out to CT at PA on the way down or BART at Millbrae on the way home. free transit = complete zoo on caltrain. i'll be riding both ways. i will try to meet up @ diridon if you do the same. No question: folder and Caltrain documentation. It's your obligation as a blogger! ;) I agree with 295bus. Take the folder-ride the rails. Some of my favorite stories on life in Chicago were experienced when riding the rails.
Jack Jack - some of us, Fritz, myself, 295bus, are experiencing a little too much life on the rails these days... Caltrain: More bike parking Back in the day when I rode Caltrain, getting bumped was my #1 reason for decreased riding -- even with my free Go pass.

I've always considered bike parking to be failed idea -- it only works if your endpoint has good public transit. Witness Japan, which has hundreds of bikes parked in the plazas outside the station (safety in numbers, as those bikes are locked with wimpy integrated wheel locks).

The folding bike subsidy sounds more attractive -- I seriously considered this option but ended up enjoying the ride more. Caltrain has a folding bike subsidy now? Where can information be found about that? Several of my folding bike customers use Caltrain and I'm sure that they'd want to know about this.

Larry
RideTHISbike.com I think a bike share plus increased bike parking would reduce the need for overnight parking and reduce bikes on the trains. People could ride their own bikes from/to their homes and then use the shared bikes to/from work. Same old same old - run down train services with not enough rolling stock blames cyclists for all it's woes.

I love the we're late because "cyclists take more time to load". Not "we don't have enough carriages on the train for pax to embark in a reasonable time"

The answer is more trains, more often.

And more often on time.

Wieners!

See Melbourne .Au last year Intense coverage of the Caltrain issue. It nice to see more people are commuting, I hope the set backs and headaches are temporary... that official *think* about acctual causes and solutions In the past two years I had been bumped once before late May of this year, and the number of instances of passengers being bumped that I observed in that time period could be counted on one hand. Since mid-May I have been bumped 3 times, almost bumped a couple more, seen dozens of instances where cyclists were denied boarding on trains on which I was travelling. Not a good sign.

And all of this was predictable. Problems started occurring when they introduced the Baby Bullets, have been bad on all trains in the summers ever since, and always seem to get worse when gas prices go up. Summer, record gas prices, and what happens? CalTrain is caught with its pants down, exacerbated by not catching 14 cars with cracks that need to be taken out of service.

Parking is a very, very, very tiny piece of the solution. It must be SECURE with a capital S, weatherproof, and then will only work for a minority of cyclists. Not good for anyone whose work and/or home is more than a mile or so from the station. And CalTrain has an awful history with bike lockers, witness the fiasco at the Sunnyvale station post-parking garage renovation.

Folders are a tiny piece of the solution; trains might be able to take a few folders. And folders will not work for many, and are an additional item to buy/maintain. And for those with a conscience, a folder is a $600-1500 cost item; lower priced ones made by factories of questionable repute in China are available, but then one has to lower one's ethical compass somewhat to make the purchase.

It appears we will have glacial progress towards incrementally poor solutions, leading more folks to abandon their attempts at getting out of cars and onto alternative transport. Darn shame. Speaking of lockers... I have been riding Caltrain for 10 years. I know nobody who has a bike locker and have only seen someone open a bike locker once. That makes me leery of bike lockers being a solution - there is no "means test" to quantify that building a locker and renting it to someone will accomplish the stated goal, if the reality is they are rarely used if ever, monopolized by non or infrequent Caltrain users (cyclists or not).

The price point makes the issue. I had occasion to work in Boxborough Mass about 3 times a year. I fly in to Boston, and can take the T/Commuter Rail to South Acton, 3 miles from the office. I found out there were unspoken for bike lockers at South Acton. I seriously considered buying a clunker and renting a locker, for $200 I could get a usable bike and pay for annual rental, and was going to try to convince my company to pay for it given this was less than 3 days rental car. At the price point it was worth using the locker as storage, to be opened twice a year.

Caltrain has a waiting list - yet those owning lockers don't seem to be utilizing them, at least not for the intended means. I could be wrong, but I'm definitely curious. I live 2.5 miles from the station, and my work is 5.5 miles from the station. I need to bring my bike with me on the train! Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan public meeting You're confusing Caltrain with SMART. Santa Rosa = SMART. San Carlos = Caltrain.

Can you tell I am in a bad mood. Off to get bumped now... Argh, totally wrong side of the Bay. I really should get somebody to proofread my writing. Thanks for pointing that out -- corrected now. Thursday June 12: Spare the Air Tips for public transit Crazy bus passenger On the brighter side. the bike rack looks a bit dirty but intact after the ordeal. One of many reasons I stay far away from buses. I can't stand biking near them and haven't ridden one in 10+ years. I talked to a couple of bus drivers at SC Metro -- they told me the bike rack is a little mangled and will need repair or replacement. Other than that, the only damage to the bus was two flat tires.

I guess Baltimore passengers must be different from Santa Cruz passengers. This isn't exactly an everyday occurrence around here. That was strange- expecting cycles clicking Santa Cruz- and a Santa Cruz bus appears!

Santa Cruz was named "bicycle friendly, so I am thrilled my home town recieved that honor; and assumed that coverage of that celebration (downtown Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium ) might be what I would find: but a bus on highway 1 ???

I had better go out cycling to calm down.......;-) Anon, I had seen the news that Santa Cruz was selected as a Bicycle Friendly Community. I think many of us knew that already, but seeing the purple signs up is pretty exciting.

I'd be curious to know what you clicked on expecting to find an article about Santa Cruz cycling to see this one about a crazy bus passenger. Amtrak strike would impact Caltrain, other commuter rail services Strike averted! See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/nyregion/18amtrak.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin Thanks for that news, Dan. VTA: Big route and schedule changes on Monday No time to cycle, I'm too busy being king of the world! I'm so honored the CEO of Microsoft visited! Check out his zany blog, all. Caltrain: Cyclists turned away as ridership surges One in fifteen???!!! During rushhour?!

-jealous in Chicago When I take my bike on Caltrain (1-2 days per week on average) I regularly see bike commuters get bumped, both in the mornings and evenings. Ridership surges, yet Caltrain STILL only has ONE BIKE CAR PER TRAIN -- what gives?!?!? Slightly better link to the car crashes that held you up this morning.

(Almost wrote 'accident', but I don't believe in that word when associated with car crashes anymore...)

As for CALTRAIN - I don't usually see passenger train-cars more than 50% full - because each passenger typically takes up two or more seats. That's far from being anywhere near capacity. Time to rip out the other side of the cab car to make room for 32 more bikes!

I love making people grumble by asking them to move their bags so that I can sit near the luggage area and keep an eye on my folder...

(Don't know about bullets - they don't hit San Mateo) I'm in the Chicago suburbs going north and south along the Fox River. My bus route services mostly those who can't afford cars or those that get off at the train station going to Chicago.
My bus has a 2 bike rack and about half the time I'm the only bike. Maybe twice I have seen a cyclist waved off because the rack was full. I haven't really seen much ridership increase in the past few months, but as it gets colder I'll ride both ways on the bus, instead of commuting 15 miles home on the bike. I've updated the post by adding a photo of the bike car interior. The bike cars are provisioned for the exclusive use of cyclists, and there is always at least one bike car per train.

Jim, Caltrain wants to electrify the line so they don't want to buy additional equipment right now until they know for sure if electrification will ever happen, or if they're stuck with diesel for the next 20 years. I have seen the passenger bullets packed full during commute times.

Thanks for the link, Gazer. I guess the CHP info times out after a short bit. And thanks for the comments, all! Caltrain: 2 more trains on weeknights I'm happy to hear about the additional evening train, because it sucks that there's an 80 minute gap between the 189 and 191 northbound trains.

I actually would like to see another bullet and/or express train, because they stop a bit early for me. Google Transit integrated into Google Maps Wi Fi on Highway 17 Express bus begins December 2007 Caltrain nixes WiFi Bummer! Well, I'm not feeling so bad about signing that 2 year Sprint EVDO contract. Sprint EVDO mostly works OK for my Caltrain commute between SF and Mt View.

Allen Bay Area Spare the Air August 29 Well, there were less than the average number of bicycles on my train this morning. I'm guessing a one-off free ticket doesn't do much to inspire people to take their bike on the train.

Probably a few more pedestrian passengers though. The bike car seemed to have about an average number of bikes. Many more non-bike passengers who don't know that the bike car is reserved for cyclists, though. I took the 8:19am express from SF to mt view yesterday, and the passenger load was lighter than normal.

I took the 9:29pm northbound from Mt View all the way back to King st, and that was also a bit light.

I didn't know that yesterday was spare the air day, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the station yesterday morning. Transit General Manager drives to work Imagine that...! I'm not surprised - but it does give a chuckle! He could also join the Ultramarathon Cycling association and get some really nice long commutes in. ;) Mass transit and alternative commuting is for us poor unimportant folk. Public transit is for everybody ;-) The CEO of Mattson Technology commutes by bike and train to commute from Tracy and Fremont. Mattson is a $500 million company that designs and manufactures silicon fabrication equipment. Other notable local bike commuters include Webcor CEO Andy Ball, Brocade Networks CEO Mike Klayko, Palm CEO Ed Colligan, IBM VP Mike Dean, Lockheed Martin VP Len Kwiatkowski and Specialized Bicycles CEO Mike Sinyard.

Santa Clara County Supervisor has also become a regular bike commuter this year and even blogged about his experience. He's become a rather vocal proponent of bicycle as transportation this year.

Chris, your blogger profile is "blocked" -- I can't view it. Can you point to a website that says who you are? Thanks! I am pretty sure that Chris' comment was in jest. Still, I like that list of prominent bike commuters. Very interesting.

It is true that most people assume anyone who uses an alternative to the automobile does so strictly for financial reasons. It reminds me of when my son was in first grade. A neighbor kid told him that he must be poor because of the fact that his Dad rode a bike to work and his Mom walked him to school. My son pointed out to the kid that we lived in similar houses in the same neighborhood, so family must be poor too. I guess he could have been defensive and pointed out that we own 2 cars (we shouldn’t) but I like the explanation he chose much better. Bay Area Regional Rail plans Bay Area bicycle news Caltrain bicycle survey Santa Cruz: Wireless internet possible on the Highway 17 Express Commuter checks for sale Caltrain fare increase Google maps now shows Bay Area transit Building outlines was part of the same update to Google maps, and are available for most larger cities. I'm still hoping for bike paths...