This Week in Amtrak...

Eastbound California Zephyr at Grand Junction
Originally uploaded by Dornoff Photography

Here is the weekly posting from the United Rail Passenger Alliance.

This Week at Amtrak; July 21, 2008

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org http://www.unitedrail.org


Volume 5, Number 21


Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

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1) Thanks to all for an overwhelming positive response to last week’s TWA. Let’s continue on that theme, but this time, with an emphasis on making Congress more aware of Amtrak, and why Congress should take positive control of Amtrak.

Let’s first establish a perspective.

Whoever is the current tenant in the White House at any one time selects the members of Amtrak’s board of directors. The nominees from the White House (often with the input of powerful members of Congress) are sent to the United States Senate for hearings and confirmation.

The Senate Commerce Committee holds nominee hearings, and votes whether or not to send the nominees for a full confirmation vote by the entire Senate.

Depending on the whims of various members of the Senate – everyone from Senate leadership down to the most rookie senator – anything can happen to a nominee.

As has happened during the past eight years, if any senator doesn’t like any nominee for any reason (perhaps the color of the nominee’s socks are not to the senator’s liking), any senator can place a "hold" on a nominee. As long as the "hold" stays in force, nothing happens. The nominee simply goes into limbo.

In some cases, pleasant and productive hearings are held by the Commerce Committee, and a nominee is voted out of committee and sent to the Senate for full confirmation, but someone in the Senate leadership doesn’t like the nominee for whatever reason, and the confirmation is never brought up for a full vote. Again, the nominee simply goes into limbo.

Let’s say the rare thing happens, and a nominee makes it through the vetting process, the committee hearings process, and is finally confirmed by the Senate. Oh, boy! We have a new member of the Amtrak Board of Directors.

However, it’s a pretty good chance under current law, while the nominee does make it onto the board, they are not qualified to hold a position on the board. You see, there are these pesky legal requirements that all members of Amtrak’s board must meet certain requirements, such as every member of the Amtrak board is required to have transport or corporate/financial management expertise [49 U.S.C. 24302(a)(2)(C)(I)].
The White House, lo these many years, has pretty well ignored this requirement, and continued – with the cheering on of the Senate – nominating all sorts of members to the Amtrak board who have more political connections than professional experience. Since no one legally challenges these shenanigans, the board members stay on the board.

As a result of this chicanery by both the White House and Senate, Amtrak’s many unqualified board members (Especially after the departure of David Laney, who will go down in history as Amtrak’s best Chairman of the Board.) have come to rely almost exclusively on Amtrak corporate staff to tell them which end of the train has the locomotive, and which end has the coaches. Therefore, these bearers of a big rubber stamp for all Amtrak business haven’t done much research on their own outside of the company, and don’t necessarily have the background to know where to begin looking for proper research (Although www.unitedrail.org is the logical place to begin looking, as do hundreds of people every day, according to web site visits statistics.)

In short, for there to be real and effective change at Amtrak, Congress needs to take control of the company, and start mandating change. No change? No funds. It’s that simple.

2) "But," you say to yourself, "Smilin’ Jack is my Congressman, and the only way he can find the House Chamber is because it’s in that big building in Washington with the funny round thing on top. How am I supposed to intelligently talk with him about Amtrak?"

Well, you don’t need to talk to Smilin’ Jack. That’s why all members of Congress have staffs, and usually there is a staff member who specializes in transportation issues. There are also excellent staffs for each committee in both the House and Senate, and these fine folks usually are the real experts in what’s going on, especially in matters relating to Amtrak. It’s the staff members you want to target, not directly the sitting members of the House and Senate.

3) Keep in mind, too, how many members of Congress and the Senate have absolutely no interest in Amtrak because it has nothing to do with their state.

Senators from Alaska, Hawai’i, South Dakota, and Wyoming represent states without any Amtrak service. On the House side, URPA had determined there are roughly 100 House districts with no Amtrak service, nor any nearby Amtrak service. Add to that figure the House districts where Amtrak only blows through without any station stops, and you can add dozens of more districts.

Misanthropic Amtrak supporters often boo and hiss at House members who declare their disdain for Amtrak. Well, these representatives usually have absolutely no stake in the success or failure of Amtrak, and because Amtrak represents approximately the same transportation output as motorcycle riders in the United States, there isn’t a huge rush to embrace Amtrak by these members who often don’t even know what an Amtrak train looks like.

Those members who do have Amtrak service in their districts are often underwhelmed by the either one daily train in each direction, or tri-weekly trains in each direction for their cities and towns.

Even though Amtrak correctly issues state fact sheets each year to demonstrate how many Amtrak employees are in each state, and how much Amtrak spends in each state, again, it’s usually a drop in the bucket compared to other federal programs. So you say, "But, wait! That’s the problem! There isn’t enough money for Amtrak." You’re wrong, again. There is enough money for Amtrak, but Amtrak isn’t spending it wisely or doesn’t have a good enough business plan to expand its own services using its own resources.

4) Let’s veer sharply to the right for a moment (If you’re a registered Democrat, feel free to veer sharply to the left.). The common misconception, as started by Amtrak and picked up by its various wholly owned lapdog organizations, is it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix up current static rolling stock to put it back on the road. Nope.
That’s zero-based budget thinking.

Let’s say there is a SuperLiner sleeping car currently bad-ordered, and sitting in the weeds somewhere, unloved, and not generating any revenue.
Perhaps’s it’s something as simple as an out-of-date required FRA inspection, or maybe a malfunctioning air conditioning system.

Just for the purposes of our discussion, Amtrak says it costs $10,000 to put that car back in service, but it doesn’t have $10,000 in the maintenance budget. Oh, really? Let’s break that analysis down a bit further.

Presuming we’re talking about an FRA inspection, we’re talking primarily about labor costs, plus some replacement parts costs. Okay, is Amtrak going to hire a mechanical forces worker just to inspect that car? No, Amtrak will use someone already on the payroll – someone already in a budget somewhere. The replacement parts? Probably on an Amtrak maintenance department shelf somewhere, waiting for a chance to be used.

Okay, so we have the labor already, and we have the replacement parts already. Isn’t it simply a matter of mating the waiting car, the labor, and the parts? Yes, it is.

Now, on someone’s books somewhere, all of this is recorded, and costs assigned, because we would never want to disappoint some bean counter and cause them to have stress headaches. So, costs are assigned and duly recorded. There, the car is completed, ready to be reassigned for service, and ready to create more revenue for the company.

"But," you continue to protest, "where is the cost of the replacement parts coming from, since there always has to be something on the shelf for the next broken car." Right you are. Here’s a shocking discovery: The revenue generated by the SuperLiner sleeping car being back in service will probably pay for the replacement parts before that now-moving SuperLiner makes it to its first station stop after leaving its departing terminal.

That, in the real world, is how things work. Maintenance departments are not given static numbers carved in stone. Funds are made available as a budget year progresses, as money comes in from earned revenue.

In Amtrak’s rather warped world, since it relies hugely on free federal monies each year, whatever paltry money is assigned to national fleet maintenance AFTER the needs of the Northeast Corridor are met, and AFTER the needs of states which are coughing up state monies are met, then the leftovers go to the national mechanical department budget. In other words, money earned by a particular set of equipment isn’t considered when maintenance budgets are set for that equipment. Only priority budgets for the NEC and other corridors are met first, then whatever is left over goes to the real money-making part of the system, the long distance routes and fleets.

5) This brings us back to your favorite member of Congress. You must take the position they know even less than nothing more than Sergeant Shultz knew on Hogan’s Heroes.

Anything they are likely to know, they either learned directly from Amtrak (Always a scary thought.) or from the great unwashed American news media, which often doesn’t know a good Amtrak story when it hits them in the keyboard.

Of late, many members of the news media have started consulting professors at various colleges and universities which offer transportation programs.

Let’s examine that flawed concept for a moment. There are, of course, many good professors at universities, but are often in the minority.

University professors dealing in transportation issues, beyond such distinguished programs at the University of Denver’s Intermodel Transportation Institute, and a few other places, generally deal in transportation theories based on liberal concepts, where the movement of warm bodies is more important than financial performance. Most professors think only in terms of local transit – mostly because that’s all they know – and incorrectly attempt to apply local transit concepts to long distance trains or to Amtrak. Usually, whatever comes from these folks is hogwash, as has been demonstrated time and again in recent newspaper articles about the Amtrak "problem" in America, as related to high gasoline prices.

The other problem with these professors is they usually come from a culture where airline transportation is considered to be the only viable form of public intercity transportation beyond the personal automobile.
These professors would NEVER consider the merits of bus transportation (They have no idea how very successful and comfortable bus transportation is in Canada.), and any transportation related to small towns – the real heart of America – is usually too insignificant to be on their radar screens.

Therefore, Amtrak is mostly a mystery to them, but, since there is no such thing as a professor who doesn’t want to be quoted in the news media as an expert on some subject, they babble something incomprehensible about Amtrak, and the news media, which often knows even less about Amtrak, takes their babbling as gospel.

And, again, another pool of bad information about Amtrak comes into the public’s consciousness.

6) So, here we are. Your congressperson doesn’t have good information available to them about Amtrak. They keep hearing, decade after decade, "just give us the money we need, and we’ll be fine!". They keep reading newspaper clips with stories that inevitably begin, "Cash starved Amtrak today ...". They’ve got hundreds of federal programs staring them in the face, begging for funding. And, practically everyday, someone like Senator John Kerry makes a grab for regional money like he did last week, seeking $1 billion to upgrade the NEC into Boston, while huge cities like Houston and Phoenix and Tulsa either have tri-weekly Amtrak service, or no Amtrak service at all.

Here’s the bottom line: It’s up to you to educate your representatives in Washington. It’s up to you to give them real facts, and demand something beyond "business as usual" takes place. It’s up to you to force Amtrak into becoming a productive and contributing part of our domestic transportation network.

Here are some pointers to begin the education of your representatives.

– Remind official Washington of Amtrak’s mission: to create a viable passenger rail transportation system for ALL Americans, not just denizens of the Right and Left Coasts, and those living near Chicago.

– Jacksonville Representative Corrine Brown, chairwoman of the House subcommittee for railroads, is trying to make sure Amtrak restores the ever-missing Sunset Limited between New Orleans and Florida. She’s put a provision in an Amtrak bill providing (way too much) money that Amtrak must spend to "study" the restoration of the Sunset and then report to her and others in Congress why the Sunset hasn’t returned.

If more representatives took this initiative, it would be difficult for Amtrak to ignore multiple members of Congress, even though Amtrak has successfully achieved that in the past.

– Members representing districts with no Amtrak service or only "blow through" Amtrak service need to demand a plan which will provide service to their districts. This does NOT indicate every streak of rust masquerading as a railroad track should have Amtrak service. But, it does indicate there are many huge gaps in the Amtrak system which need to be rationally filled.

– Rolling stock maintenance, restoration, and new acquisition is an on-going process in all forms of common carrier transportation, unless you’re Amtrak. Congress needs to implement a procurement system, perhaps through the FRA, that determines equipment needs of all sorts, and makes sure equipment is reasonably in place for ALL of Amtrak’s trains, not just the NEC trains. This system would include the delights and wonders of bootstrap equipment procurement and leasing, where the economic value of operating a car takes into account the acquisition and ongoing maintenance costs, and bases decisions on economic terms, not political terms, such as Amtrak uses today. Amtrak passengers in Denmark, South Carolina deserve a train with rolling stock that is as comfortable as an Acela trainset serving Metropark, New Jersey.

– The model for airports used by airlines since Shirley Temple sang "On The Good Ship Lollipop" while dancing down the aisle of a twin prop DC-2 needs to be used by passenger trains.

Amtrak owns and operates many trains stations that instead need to be in local government hands and ownership. Scattered through the country, like in Kissimmee, Florida and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, are locally owned stations which are nicer than any other comparable Amtrak-owned stations in the system.

If local governments (If they even know Amtrak exists.) want Amtrak service for their city or town, they need to provide the station. Amtrak could lease the ticket counter and set certain safety and continuity standards, but local authorities could own and maintain train stations far better than Amtrak, such as in Tampa, Florida.

– Demand Congress force implementation of a better business plan than is used today. Today’s disastrous plan to fleece participating states of money for regional corridor routes does nothing to bolster Amtrak overall, since these programs do not contribute to the overall financial health of Amtrak, but only pay for the specified service. The real financial stability is in Amtrak’s long distance passenger trains (see below), as discussed many times in this space.

– Demand Congress pay better attention to the overall infrastructure needs of Amtrak’s host freight railroads throughout the country. There are rail traffic jams out there to be unsnarled, but there are also a multitude of solutions to those problems which clever people can figure out where everyone is a winner, especially the American train passenger.

In essence, Congress needs to override the wishes of Amtrak’s Board of Directors, since the Amtrak board continually fails to steer the company in the right direction. Think this is unprecedented for Congress to take control of an entity that is under the direction of the executive branch of government? Think again.

Amtrak’s principal stock is held by the United States Secretary of Transportation, on behalf of the American people. Congress, however, is Amtrak’s banker.

More than once, for a company in dire financial straits (And, make no mistake, Amtrak is by definition a financially bankrupt company.), that company’s bankers and lenders have taken control of the company and nursed it back to financial health. This is why Congress needs to exert more fiscal control over Amtrak. Amtrak has proven for decades it is incapable of managing its own finances, nor make prudent business decisions. Amtrak has been enabled in this wretched enterprise by it wholly owned lapdog organizations, which have bleated like sheep year after year Amtrak is a sound organization, and only "needs to be given a chance to succeed."

That time has come and gone. Billions of dollars have been thrown at Amtrak with no appreciable results except a corporately handicapped company that is so dysfunctional it can’t even figure out who its best customers are, and where its true future lies.

7) It’s election season, and this year it’s likely to be a healthy turnover in congressional seats, as well as senate seats. That’s okay, new faces in Washington are new opportunities to get to these people and their staffs before the false indoctrination from Amtrak and its vile minions begins.

What of a new White House administration, and its stewardship of the Amtrak board? Well, not many vacancies will come up anytime soon; most board members are recent appointees and will be around for another three to four years.

Will a new administration be any better at appointing new board members who are legally qualified? If Amtrak’s complete history of the past 37 years proves accurate, some very good board members like Paul Weyrich, Haley Barbour, Ralph Kerchum, Charlie Luna, and David Laney will probably make it onto the board, but, most likely, they will be far outnumbered by the usual political hacks which typically are appointed to the board by both political parties.

What about Amtrak’s president and chief executive officer? Alex Kummant has almost completed his second year of stewardship of Amtrak. His own resume says he’s nearing the average length of time he stays in any one job with one company, plus, other than the late Graham Claytor, Mr.
Kummant is also approaching the average length of time any one individual stays on as Amtrak’s president and chief executive officer.

What most likely won’t change at Amtrak any time soon, unless a new president and CEO makes a clean sweep, is the executive corps that runs Amtrak on a daily basis. While there are many bright gems to be found, such as Vice President Richard Phelps, there are still far too many failures populating departments like strategic planning, which often make a real difference in prosperous companies.

8) Let’s review. It’s time to stop depending on Amtrak’s Board of Directors for any worthwhile direction for the company. Internally, Amtrak is on a completely wrong track and has no realistic business plan.
Congress can – and should – step in and force major changes in the way Amtrak looks at the future, conducts current business, and serves American taxpayers. Only Congress has the clout – and financial pressure – to reform Amtrak and help the company achieve its real potential. Only Congress can force Amtrak to dump its totally wretched current business plan and create a new business plan which focuses on all Americans, not just citizens on the extreme coasts. Only Congress can stand up to Amtrak and say, "No, that’s not the way things are going to be."

You can help make this happen by being correctly informed about Amtrak, and passing your knowledge along to the news media on all levels, and members of Congress and their staffs. It’s no wonder so many members of Congress don’t like Amtrak; they have no reason to like or support Amtrak because Amtrak has absolutely no impact on their districts or states.
Turn these members of Congress into productive forces of change by letting them know Amtrak can become relevant in their districts and to their voters, but that will never happen if Amtrak is left to its own sordid devices.

9) Below is some information repeated from last week’s TWA which is relevant background as you seek to intelligently discuss Amtrak. More information can be found at URPA’s web site, www.unitedrail.org .

There is still a great deal of junk science to overcome when it comes to passenger trains.

– First, there is the silly belief Americans don’t want to ride long distance passenger trains. On Sunday, July 13, a columnist in the Knoxville (Tennessee) News Sentinel opined, "who wants to spent three days on a train to travel to California?". Well, actually, a lot of people already do, and many more would if there was any inkling Amtrak was available to all Americans, and there was enough equipment to handle all of the demand if the secret of Amtrak was every unleashed on the American public.

– Second, there is Amtrak’s constant promotion of short, regional, and very expensive to operate corridors instead of a healthy focus on high-revenue producing long distance trains.

Let’s review the facts, again.

– In Fiscal Year 2007, the Empire Builder, a single daily train in each direction, operating between Chicago and Portland/Seattle on a route of over 2,200 miles, generated total revenue of $53,177,800, and 390,824,000 revenue passenger miles carrying 505,000 passengers an average length of trip of 773.9 miles. The load factor for the Builder was 60.7%, with
13.61 cents of revenue per passenger mile. On average, the Builder carried 206.7 passengers for every mile it traveled.

During that same period of time, Amtrak short corridor Hiawatha service ran an interstate route of 86 miles between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin with seven daily trains in each direction (six on Sundays). The Hiawathas generated $10,230,000, and 47,619,000 revenue passenger miles carrying 593,300 passengers an average length of trip of 80 miles. The load factor for the Hiawathas was 37.7%, with 21.48 cents of revenue per passenger mile. On average, the Hiawathas carried 110.7 passengers for every mile one of the Hiawathas traveled.

Here’s the bottom line: The single daily train Empire Builder carried 88,300 fewer passengers than the combined seven daily Hiawathas, and generated $42,947,800 MORE in revenue, and generated 8,536,600 MORE revenue passenger miles than all of the combined Hiawathas.

– This same story is true all over America, no matter what comparisons are used. The long distance trains, consisting of the Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Cardinal, Empire Builder, Capitol Limited, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, City of New Orleans, Texas Eagle, Sunset Limited, Coast Starlight, Lake Shore Limited, Palmetto, Crescent, and Auto Train are the really money makers and passenger haulers of Amtrak.

– When you add up the performance of the regional services outside of the Northeast Corridor, including the Ethan Allen, Vermonter, Albany/Niagara Falls/Toronto, Downeaster, New Haven/Springfield, Keystone, Empire Service, Chicago/St. Louis, Hiawatha, Wolverine, Illini, Illinois Zephyr, Heartland Flyer, Pacific Surfliner, Cascade, Capitol, San Joaquin, Adirondack, Blue Water, Washington/Newport News, Hoosier State, Kansas City/St. Louis, Pennsylvanian, Pere Marquette, Carolinian, Piedmont, and Amtrak Thruway busses, all of these services, many state sponsored, generate $312,192,500 in revenue, based on 1,550,341,000 revenue passenger miles, and ridership of 11,993,200 souls. There is an average load factor of 40.1%, and revenue per passenger mile of 20.14 cents per mile, with an average of 112.8 passengers carried for each mile all of the trains travel.

The long distance fleet generates $377,981,000 in revenue, based on 2,495,482,000 revenue passenger miles, and ridership of 3,818,900 souls.
There is an average load factor of 56.8%, and revenue per passenger mile of 15.15 cents per mile, with an average of 170 passengers carried for each mile of all of the trains travel.

That means, the long distance fleet generates $6,578,850 MORE in revenue than the short distance/corridor trains, and generate 945,141,000 MORE revenue passenger miles, carrying 8,174,300 FEWER passengers than the short distance/corridor trains.

– The discussion becomes the same here as it is in war: body counts.

The empirical evidence is the long distance fleet of few trains is much stronger in actual transportation output than the regional/short distance/corridor trains. In short, fewer trains, costing less to operate, and based on a lower income per passenger mile completely overcomes a much higher number of trains, costing more to operate, with a higher amount of income per passenger mile.

Why is this concept so difficult for Amtrak to grasp, and for the news media to ask Amtrak, "why is your business plan so flawed, that it prefers expensive corridor trains over financially stronger long distance trains?" when the necessity for passenger rail is so prominent?

– Is it more important to carry more people over shorter distances, or carry fewer people over longer distances?

Here’s a better question: Should Amtrak do everything it can to become a stable, growing company, so it will be able to meet the many demands placed on its resources, or should it continue to be a crippled child of government, always waiting for the next financial handout from government?

– Headlines in Illinois the last couple of weeks were rife with speculation the state government would not continue funding on some of Amtrak’s newest state routes, due to budget concerns. The usual hand-wringing stories were written, and this story was presented as high drama by the news media. In the end, a compromise was reached, and the trains will live to travel another budget year.

This is exactly the sort of problem that is inherent on being a child of government, such as Amtrak is today. The "success" of the company is always at the whim of some bureaucrat numbers crunchers, whose only allegiance is to keeping their government jobs.

There was a time, in the glory days of passenger railroading, when both concepts were achieved. How did this work? Passengers work just like freight. The long hauls are where the money is made, and the short hauls are done for customer convenience and as feeders, and paid for by the profits made by the long hauls.

For every San Diegan (the predecessors to today’s Pacific Surfliners) operated by the Santa Fe between Los Angeles and San Diego, there was also a Super Chief, San Francisco Chief, The Grand Canyon, El Capitan, Tulsan, Chicagoan, The Oil Flyer, and Kansas City Chief.

This held true all over America. For every milk run, local train, or mail train, there were streamliners like the Orange Blossom Special, Silver Meteor, Florida Special, City of Los Angeles, North Coast Limited, Twentieth Century Limited, Broadway Limited, and many, many more.

– The Eisenhower Interstate System of highways and the sucker punch of the Boeing 707 jet airliner were too much for the railroads of their day in the 1950s and 1960s. The railroads were not glamorous, or fast enough for a society hooked on speed and the race for space and rockets to the moon.

But, now, the tables have turned, and passenger rail is once again viable. It’s just that America’s sole provider of passenger rail isn’t viable. It’s stuck with a corporate mindset and junk science business plan that dooms it to financial ruin and the inability to serve Americans who want passenger train service.

– Amtrak’s business plan, if put together by rational human beings, should consist of three layers.

The first is a healthy and growing system of long distance trains IN PARTNERSHIP with the host freight railroads. Everyone acknowledges there is a rail capacity problem in this country as more and more freight is leaving expensive highways and jumping on freight trains.

If you believe the Association of American Railroads, of which (even though you would never know it) Amtrak is a full dues-paying member, there isn’t a single mile of railroad in this country which could accommodate additional passenger trains. The translation of that is Amtrak is such a low-paying customer that demands so much attention, it’s difficult for the host freight railroads to accommodate Amtrak trains (Even though by mutual agreement at the beginning of Amtrak the railroads agreed to a federal law being created which REQUIRES freight railroads to give full access to their rails to Amtrak.), so, therefore some type of better agreement needs to be reached between Amtrak and the host freight railroads.

The second layer is a robust system of corridor trains, much like today’s arrangements, but with a different set of criteria. No two state contracts are alike, and Amtrak is getting as much money as possible from each state, with no standardization of costs and contracts.

Short and regional corridor trains can be healthy feeders into a long distance system, and they can help share station, reservations, and infrastructure costs. However, the emphasis must be placed on connectivity and hubbing with long distance trains, and services must complement each other for maximum passenger flow and utilization.

The third layer is providing coordination of commuter services with various local and state operators and competitors. Today, Amtrak still operates some commuter services (such as the Virginia Railway Express) under contract, providing train and engine crews, equipment maintenance in some cases, and other services. Allegedly, these services are provided at a profit because they are purely services for sale to other entities, but one can’t help but wonder what the real return on investment is when providing these services. In other words, does capital Amtrak uses to prop up these services have as high of a rate of return as capital used elsewhere in the company?


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Parking Garages for Bicycles?

Millenium Park Bicycle Station
Originally uploaded by Wildcat Dunny

As more people are using bikes in conjunction with transit, some transit agencies are taking innovative approaches in order to provide more bicycle parking.

The CTA Tattler talks about a program by the Chicago Department of Transportation to increase bicycle parking structure at 4 major transit stations including the Midway Airport Orange Line Station.

While the picture of the blog shows a structure that is not very architecturally pleasing, it does dramatically increase the number of bicycles that can parked at the station.

The picture shows another Chicago project and that is a bicycle station that even includes showers for riders.

While some ideas may be new ideas to the states, they have been used in European countries for years. Now with gas prices going higher we are finally looking at making transit and bicycles a more important part of our commuting world.

Farmington Project about to begin...

Image by mami13 via FlickrFarmington project to break ground

One of the current downsides of UTA's Front Runner is that there is not many destinations along the route. At Central Station you need to take TRAX to get to shopping and restaurants. In Ogden you either have to take a bus or walk a few blocks to reach an area with restaurants. Beyond that there is nothing near the Front Runner stations except for the one restaurant in Layton.

However, ground is about to broken for the new Farmington Station property which will take the currently empty area near the Front Runner station and construct a transit oriented development. The list of stores is impressive however it is dominated by major chains. It would be nice to see some of the development set aside for locally owned businesses.

Well, I guess we have to take things one step at a time.

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• TOD Demonstration Project

First Impressions Part II

Image via WikipediaIn my last entry, I arrived at Central Station after my first ride on a Front Runner revenue service train. After helping one gentleman find his way to Gateway, I hopped aboard a Sandy train deciding it was time to eat (now 2:00pm).

After looking at the schedules I realized I could take TRAX down to Millcreek Station and then catch a 35M to 4800 South to eat at the Chinese Gourment restaurant and get in the MAX line. This would still allow me to get back to Salt Lake in plenty of time for a meeting at 6:00pm.

The train down to Millcreek was crowed but not overly crowed and before long I got off and headed to the MAX station. The relief driver was there along with a lady from UTA administration that I recognized and a guy going to get rider counts.

Finally the bus arrived and we loaded up. There was two wheelchairs to get on which took forever. Apparently the drivers are still getting used to these Van Hool buses as the both the original driver and the new driver had a hard time figuring out how to work the wheelchair ramp. Then the new driver could not figure out how to get the bus to release the brakes, but after another UTA official showed her, we were off right behind a regular 35.

We had to leave a 3rd wheelchair bound person at Redwood Road due to lack of capacity and then they had all kinds of trouble getting the ramp down to let one of the wheelchairs off at Valley Fair Mall. We finally arrived at 4800 West about 10 to 15 minutes late having been passed by the regular 35 at Valley Fair Mall.

After eating the first bus to arrive was a regular 35 with an Orion V so I hopped that to Valley Fair Mall. Interesting is that there was more people on the regular 35 than on the 35M I took westbound. At Valley Fair Mall I noticed that a 35M was behind us so I jumped off the 35 and took the 35M. The bus had a much smaller load than the 35 and it ended up being the same driver I had the other direction.

We ended up behind the regular 35 all the way to 900 West. At that point the regular 35 made its jog over to UTA headquarters while we continued on our way. Just as we got off the bus the northbound TRAX train that is supposed to come 10 minutes after MAX arrives pulled into the station I head back to downtown changing over to the University train for my final destination at the library.

After my meeting I caught TRAX over to the Stadium TRAX station to catch the 220 back to Holladay.

Front Runner was everything that I expected it to be since I had ridden the same equipment in other cities. On the other hand MAX is still a work in progress. It would not be fair for me to evaluate the performance of the 35M yet until the road work on 35 South is done. Also the problems the drivers had will be fixed with familiarity with the odd ball equipment and brings up the final comments and that is on the Van Hool buses.

I have mentioned before about the problems with these buses and it was actually worse than expected.

-First of all, there is less padding on the seats than on a regular UTA bus or TRAX train. While they are padded better than the ex-VTA UTDC light rail cars that UTA bought or say a transit bus in Los Angeles, it is not saying much. I much rather ride in a regular UTA bus than one of these new Van Hool's.

-Second, because of the design of the bus and the third door seating capacity is lower. We already loose seats with low floor buses and these have even fewer seats. While the concept of MAX is that passengers will get to their destinations faster, the fact is that people may still be in the seats or standing for extended periods which makes the design inferior to other buses.

-Third, wheelchairs are more difficult to stow on these buses. Unlike all other UTA buses where the driver can easily secure the wheelchair through attached hooks, on the Van Hool buses the driver has to take the time to take them out of a locked bin, then attach them to the floor board of the bus. This bus is supposed to be faster but the design makes them slower.

-Finally, the engine is closer to the front of the bus than in a standard transit bus so engine noise is more pronounced throughout the bus.

All these combine to make the Van Hools a poor choice in a transit bus and it is no wonder why passengers fought hard in Oakland to get the order for more canceled. Hopefully UTA will look at these issues before buying more of these buses.

Once MAX is fully operational I will take another look at the operation and see how it was doing.

First Impressions...

Yesterday I had my first opportunity to ride both MAX and Front Runner (besides opening day).

Having rode the Front Runner cars in Los Angeles and Miami, I had a pretty good idea of how nice the Bombardier cars will ride and I was not disappointed. The cars are very smooth and benefit by the fact that the tracks are exclusive to Front Runner so heavy freight trains will not cause the trains to ride rough (except for the expansion north of Ogden).

My original plan was to ride the 45 to TRAX and then catch the 35M. However, I walked over to 1300 East and decided to walk over to Van Winkle instead of walking north to Murray-Holladay road because I did not feel like walking that far (totally ignoring the 213 which was closer but of no use). At this point I decided I would not ride the 35M at all and ride Front Runner up to Ogden and do photography all day.

I caught the 307 at about 6:30am and took it to State and 200 South. The bus was one of the new 2007 Gillig Advantage BRT buses but the good news it had no wrapped (in fact I only rode one bus with a wrap yesterday!!). Most new low floor buses and especially most of the newest buses UTA has bought lately seem to rattle really bad but this one was so bad. The biggest rattle came from the farebox.

Next I took the 500 over to the Central Station to catch Front Runner. I had 4 minutes from the time the 500 arrived to my train was scheduled to depart and I had to buy a ticket. I walked over to the ticket machine closet to the bus area and it was dead. So then I rapidly walked over to the far side of the platform and bought my ticket and jumped on the train.

The train left right on time at 7:25am. Being a reverse commute train, there was not a lot of passengers on board but the southbound trains looked packed. I was able to snag one of the sets of seats with a table so I sat up and did some writing as I enjoyed my ride. We stayed on time for most of the trip except when we had to meet a southbound train at the passing siding around Centerville. Despite leaving Farmington about 5 minutes late we still pulled into Ogden on time.

I then walked over to Union Station and did some photography and then walked to Washington and 25th and caught a 612 up to the Ogden Sign by the Ogden River on Washington Blvd. I then walked back to 25th and Washington taking pictures along the way before catching a 603 out to the McKay Hospital.

It was about 11:00AM at this point and I was hoping to find someplace to eat but nothing was standing out to me. The only thing within walking distance was Taco Bell but I stopped drinking soda seven weeks ago and that is all they offer for drinks so that was no go. I decided to catch the 625 which took me over to the Ogden Regional Medical Center. I walked down took some pictures of the toll booth then walked back and took the 612 back to Washington and 25th. I did see a couple of Chinese places that look good along the way but by the time I noticed them were already were passed them and I didn't feel like walking at that point.

From 25th and Washington I walked back to Union Station, took some more pictures, purchased a water from a machine at the transit station and caught the 1:08pm train back to Central Station. This train was packed and we did have a UTA Police Officer check for tickets on this trip. We arrived on time back into Salt Lake and that ended part I of my day.

I will continue this story next time...

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VICTORY against the NIMBY's!!

Image via WikipediaI was preparing to do another Perils for Pedestrians video when I received a Google alert that the State Supreme Court ruled against the NIMBY group in Draper.

Utah Supreme Court rules for TRAX in Draper rail-siting dispute

This is great news for everyone but the NIMBY minority, and now we can have an effective TRAX line through the Draper area.
Next here is another Perils for Pedestrian Video's.

The one thing that caught my attention in this video was making a Dairy Queen in Nebraska more pedestrian friendly. As anyone who tried to get to a fast food restaurant anywhere in the country will now that they are designed for people to arriving and depart by automobile. In most cases the pedestrian be damned. Even in areas that are supposed to be pedestrian friendly fast food places are not very pedestrian friendly.

Of course it is not just fast food places. One of the most pedestrian unfriendly businesses is the post office. Until recently the post office did not have to obey local zoning ordinances so they built their buildings any way they wanted to and they were built supporting the automobile but not pedestrians. When I lived in Sandy I would always used the Midvale Post Office because it was just a couple of doors down from the TRAX station were I would catch my bus after riding TRAX from Historic Sandy. This Post Office has no pedestrian access at all, I had to use part of the main driveway to access the building and almost got hit a couple of times.

The video also has interesting information about what is happening in the Washington DC area and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Central Station

Image via WikipediaImagine getting of a train whether it be Front Runner or the California Zephyr (or any other long distance train that should service Salt Lake City), and arriving at a beautiful station mixing classic architecture with state of the art facilities. You have shopping, hotels, motels, and entertainment just a few steps away. Well, that dream died many years ago when Boyer was allowed to develop the Gateway center and those non-essential trains were moved several blocks away were no one will notice them.

Today we do have a nice intermodal depot but at the present time it is a shadow of what it could have been and can be in the future. The danger of the present station is that it will become a place that people get off Front Runner as quickly as possible, run over to TRAX and avoid the neighborhood completely. Instead to become a true Central Station, the station needs to be not only a station but a destination.

I posted a video back in December about the Berlin Hauptbahnhof station. Take a look at their website and see what is provided. Now they have substantially more trains than Salt Lake probably will ever have, but it gives you a good idea about the range of facilities to be found in great stations.

While there is at least one hotel planned across the street from Central Station, more needs to be done to truly make it a world class station. Here are some suggestions to take it to the next level:
-Make 100 South and 600 West a predestrian and transit corridor from the Gateway area to Central Station. While there is currently one building under redevelopment in the corridor, the rest of the area is pretty vacant and could easily be redeveloped. Then UTA can route a majority of the buses via 300 West/100 South/600 West to access the station. There is already a plan to turn 300 South into a pedestrian corridor but this will only link the station to the back side of the former Rio Grande Station and do little to connect the station with the main downtown core. A side benefit of creating this corridor along 100 South is that it is farther away from the homeless shelter that leaves a stigma (right or wrong) on 200 South at 400 West.

-Finish the second phase of Central Station that includes the parking garage along 200 South, and the building extending toward the current Amshack at the south end of the property.

-Insure that a lower priced motel is located near the station, possibly near the proposed higher end hotel to ensure that all travelers have a choice of accommodations.

-UTA should develop plans to either move their central garage or possible place it underground with development such as offices and restaurants above it. As developments moves toward the station, the present location of the garage will become a hindrance.

-Since there is little chance of attracting major retailers to the area with both the City Creek Center and Gateway trying to attract them, there is a great opportunity to build a center dedicated to locally owned stores and restaurants. There was talk of turning the old warehouse into a farmers market. This is an excellent idea to focus on the local culture. The Central Station could become Salt Lake version of the Pike Street Market giving new opportunities to locally owned retailers that get shut out by other places either by tax incentives, subsidies to big box retailers, and the false stigma of locally owned retailers.

We do have an opportunity to create a grand Central Station, but it will take a lot of effort, some create thinking, and a group of planners and city councilman that don't give into to special interest.

Schedule Changes on Sunday

Image via WikipediaThe UTA will be changing schedules this Sunday which is not the normal time they would do it but is being done right now for the introduction of MAX service along 3500 South.

For people that ride buses from the Central Station there is going to be some changes for you as several routes will no longer service the station such as the 200 and 205 while others will start serving the station.

As noted before, the 35 will continue to operate, however it will only run every hour while the new 35M will run every 15 minutes. Riders will benefit in a small way with the new service since the last bus will leave the Millcreek TRAX station at 1:28AM instead of 11:28PM. It will be interesting to see if these later buses last beyond a year since no other service is running at that point.

Now that the UTA has purchased them, I hope that the new Van Hool buses perform better than they have in Oakland and other cities. There has been a large number of complaints about them causing A/C Transit to cancel their most recent purchase.

I also still believe we would be much further ahead by upgrading existing bus service instead of wasting the money on MAX. Follow the Portland system of speeding up bus service with special curbs to give direct access to the low floor buses, getting rid of bus stops that are way too close together (although local stops are needed, you don't want them too close together), and then add the light preference system to the buses. This would do more for the bus system making it more efficient and less costly at a lower cost than MAX.

We shall see...

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Tolls and Taxes

Image via WikipediaOnce again we have the west side cities trying to stop an attempt to toll the Mountain View Corridor.

West-side cities re-emphasizing opposition to toll for new road

However, the question needs to be asked, if the road is not tolled, how will the state pay for it? This brings up another problem that will start facing highway funding and that is decreases in gas tax revenue. However, if people switch to more economical cars and start taking transit more, then gas tax revenues will go down further straining the revenue.

Since the gas tax is assessed by the gallon and not by a percentage of sale like a regular sales tax, revenue goes down if drivers don't drive as much or get more efficient vehicles.

In fact highways actually face the same problem as transit. In Utah much like the rest of the country, transit systems are dependent on sales tax revenue which of course goes down during back economic times. Like the gas tax, it is an unstable form of taxation because you cannot depend on the revenues remaining constant.

Of course tolling is not a 100% solution to the gas tax since it is also dependent on people driving but if someone buys a more efficient vehicle, but drives the same amount on the toll road you do not loose that revenue.

In the long run a more stable form of taxation is going to be needed. Plus, new developments are going to have to a bigger portion of their true cost.

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Salt Lake City to Park City...

Image via WikipediaIn the past I talked about the need to link Park City and Salt Lake City by transit. According to today's Deseret News, there is a study currently being undertaking to decide how this service should be operated.

One option would be to contract this service out to a company such as Lewis Brothers or Le Bus to operate. While I would not have a problem with that per say, connections and fares would need to be seemless between UTA service and the new Park City bus. The ideal solution would be to have timed transfers from the Park City bus to and from Front Runner north and south at the Central Station allowing travel across the Wasatch Front until connections are justified from the Provo and Ogden areas to Park City.

Groups to study Salt Lake-Park City bus route

Articles of Note...

Image via WikipediaOne problem that many small businesses face is government regulations that are skewed against them and to big businesses and the automobile. One of these is parking regulations that keep small businesses from doing business and also are a deterrent to creating pedestrian friendly areas.

The Salt Lake City Council is now looking toward lower the standards that businesses have to meet when it comes to parking. However, there is homeowners who don't want people parking in front of their homes so they are opposed to the new regulations. While I can understand the people who have had moron's block their driveways, this is a policing issue and should be taken care that way.

Proposed parking revisions a hot topic

Next is a proposal in Sandy to eliminate high restrictions in order to allow a new development north of the South Towne Mall. This new development includes the Broadway Theater that the city leaders think will make them even more special.

What is laughable about the whole thing is that Sandy is calling the area around their city hall "downtown". Clearly the folks running Sandy are having delusions of Grandeur as that area is in not shape or form a downtown.

Maybe they think that calling it downtown will magically create an atmosphere? Clearly it is not a downtown area, but a suburban sprawl autocentric commercial office and retail area, nothing more.

Sandy Council delays height-limit vote

Finally we have an article about UTA buying used coaches from New Jersey Transit to add additional capacity for Front Runner.

While the cars are not ideal, they will provide needed capacity to the commuter rail system. It will cost substantially less to remodel these cars as apposed to buying new ones although they do not seat as many passengers compared to the cars from Bombardier.

The only downside is, they are not stainless steel cars that can last upwards of 50+ years, but if UTA can get 5 or even 10 years worth of use out of them they will pay for themselves and hopefully can get more Bombardier cars at that time.

Perils for Pedestrian Video...

Here is another video from the series Perils for Pedestrians.

This video focuses on what is happening in Seattle. While Seattle is known for some of its nice walkable neighborhoods, there is other parts of Seattle that are not very pedestrian friendly and there is discussion on how to change that.

There is some good information on how things developed and what we can do to change them. Once again we are at a disadvantage along the Wasatch Front when you have to deal with so many different planning organizations to get anything done.

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More on the Cottonwood Mall Area Development...

Image via WikipediaWhen the announcement came that the Cottonwood Mall would be torn down and replaced by a new development, I was skeptical of how the development would be developed. It look as though General Growth properties basically let the mall die so they could turn around and redevelop and get tax dollars for the development (along with the tax savings they get by building a new development over a remodel).

Well I have kept an open mind that they would do something different, to set it apart from Gateway and blend the development into the rest of the community. We have seen way too many developments like Gateway that are designed to keep people within the complex and do not blend into the rest of the neighborhoods.

Today, I was asked to fill out a survey about what features I would look for if I were to purchase a home in the complex. First of all, in this age of high priced gas, there was no question in the survey about how important transit connections were so I included comments about that in the survey.

While it is too early to see how the development will blend into the community, it looks as though it will be another Gateway were it is easy to move around the development but you will be discouraged from leaving the area. The creek looks like it is designed to be a barrier to people heading to Highland drive. The sidewalks to cross the the creek are very narrow as to discourage people to walk across them.

While General Growth also said that it would like to invite locally owned stores to locate in the center, they made it clear that it would have to be an additional location for a successful high end location.

I do not expect the city of Holladay to do much to insure that the complex is blended into the community since they have show little in the way of good planning sense so far. Clearly this complex is designed for the Lexus and Mercedes crowd and not the UTA riding crowd even if those riders have given up their Lexus to take the bus.

New developments such as the one at the Cottonwood Mall need to be encouraged to blend better into the neighborhood, encourage transit access, and also consider some affordable units to give a better mix of housing options. While some developers see making the complex blend into the community as a bad thing because that encourages people to leave and go to other neighborhood stores, in the long run it will bring more people to the area because it will actually encourage more shoppers to the area because there is a wider range of shopping options.

Some Articles to take note of...

Image via WikipediaThere has been a few articles the past couple of days I want to briefly mention today. First is this article coming out of Oakland:

AC Transit does 180 on buses

AC Transit is canceling its latest order for Van Hool transit buses after rider complaints about safety and other issues. These are the same type of buses that UTA has ordered for the MAX service along 3500 South.

The problem with having a separate fleet of buses is that you have to have a special parts inventory especially for non-standardized buses like the Van Hool's. Plus they have been a maintenance nightmare for other transit systems. UTA would have been farther ahead to order more Gillig's despite their issues and just paint them a special color and order the wider back doors.

Next is the announcement about the master plan for downtown transportation:

Master plan awaits green light

Most of the plan looks pretty good. I do question allowing bicycles back on the sidewalks except for a limited distance simple because it will endanger pedestrians and we need to make Salt Lake more pedestrian friendly besides more bicycle friendly.

Also if they are going to do the circular buses incorporate the 500 Capital as part of the system and then eliminate the fare free zone. Let the buses (and eventually streetcars) handle the short distance riders freeing TRAX for the longer distance rides.

Next there is some minor articles such as UTA appointing a new board of trustees, a plan to mitigate wetlands damage during TRAX construction, and the story of two sisters protesting gas prices.

UTA votes to appoint Ellertson president of board of trustees

TRAX entities to fix wetlands damage

Sisters protest high gas prices

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Long Distance Travel

Image via WikipediaFor the second time in less than 7 years we are caught with our pants down. First it was September 11th when our airline system came to a halt and now with high fuel prices hurting the airline industry and driving. Today we have little alternative to those two modes since our rail passenger system is a joke.

You would have thought we might have learned something after Sept. 11th but it looks like we have not. Just like then our rail passenger system is a joke. It is made worse by many issues within our national rail passenger carrier Amtrak.

While rail passenger service will never replace automobile travel or airlines, what is important is to have an effective rail passenger service as an alternative to the two. I am not talking high speed trains here as they are impractical but an effective network of long distance and short distance trains that would allow more convenient travel across the country.

In the past year I have ridden several passengers trains run by Amtrak including the California Zephyr from Salt Lake City to both Reno and Denver, the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Portland, the Cascades Talgo service from Portland to Seattle and finally the Empire Builder from Seattle to Spokane.

While the crews have been hit and miss, overall the experience has been wonderful. While on the train I can do some computer, enjoy the scenery since I am not driving, and relax in a way I cannot do any other time.

The biggest blockade to better rail passenger service sadly seems to be Amtrak itself. The only real progress in rail service has been in such states as California and Washington not because of
Amtrak but in spite of it in most cases. Amtrak on the other hand seems to only care about taking money from the states. Despite record ridership Amtrak is not pursing expanding routes or buying much need new equipment except in the northeast corridor.

Utah's only work on rail passenger service has been a proposed high speed train from Logan down to Cedar City which seems like a wasted effort at the present time. It would seem that a better strategy would be to work on rail passenger projects with neighboring states that will improve both rail and freight passenger service.

Here are more sources of information about our rail passenger service:

United Rail Passenger Alliance
Intermountain Rail
RailPAC
National Association of Railroad Passengers
Amtrak

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More Urban Development...

Image via WikipediaThere is a posting in the Overhead Wire, another transit related blog talking about urban housing:

Employment, Residential Booming Near Transit

It features an article out of the Tribune:

Gas prices, economic worries spur growth in urban residential permits

We are slowly seeing the development happen that has accompanied many light rail lines including such cities as Los Angeles and Portland. We are also seeing new Transit Oriented Developments being built in Sandy and Murray with more to come.

Clearly we cannot sustain the auto centric developments of the last 70 years. We need to focus more on making our cities more livable. It is clear from the success of Daybreak that people will go to neighborhoods that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly and although it only has limited transit service now, will have TRAX service very shortly along with community shuttles.

There will be even more opportunities for sustainable development once our new TRAX and Front Runner stations come online. I have already pointed out other opportunities to design new developments that is affordable to the lower end of the economic scale. .

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BRT Scheme in Provo/Orem moves forward...

Image via WikipediaHere is the latest article on the BRT project in Orem/Provo area.

Parkway may get rapid bus line

According to the article the current 830 line attracts 3000 riders per day but the BRT is supposed to carry 13,000 to 15,000 riders. I just don't see that happening.

Anyone who rides the 830 route will know that most of the riders are heading to local stops along the way especially 700 East and 1230 North, and 550 West. There is also a large amount of travel from BYU to the Mt. Timp Transit Center.

Unfortunately current policy at the Federal Transit Administration supports high ridership numbers for BRT and low ridership numbers for light rail which always makes BRT look better.

My worry is that the BRT will not meet ridership potential and that will give cause for all the anti-transit types in the Orem/Provo are to say "see, you got BRT and it failed so you don't need no light rail". If you look at the Busways in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh you will find that they are carrying below to substantially below what they were projected. The Harbor Freeway Bus way in Los Angeles is lucky to get 5,000 riders while a few miles away sits the Blue Line that carries 78,000 passengers per day.

Another problem I see with the proposal is the idea of running buses every 5 minutes. Once you get buses running that frequently you start getting problems with buses bunching together and schedule problems.

Further you have long term capacity restrictions with BRT. The much touted Orange Line in Los Angeles has hit capacity at 20,000. Metro cannot add more buses and unlike rail you cannot simply add another car to the consist.

What will help this line is Front Runner South allowing people to transfer to and from Front Runner to head for such destinations as UVSU and BYU.

Of course little progress can be expected out of the Utah Valley area so long as their planning is through MAG which is a rural based organization. The needs of Utah County are very different from the needs of the rest of the MAG area but so long as those rural interest have the say, good planning will be stymied.

West Valley TRAX Ground Breaking

TRAX train in Murray at the IHC Hospital
Originally uploaded by jmdspk

Ceremony launches construction of West Valley TRAX line

Well, I missed another ground breaking ceremony. First I missed the ground breaking ceremony for the West Jordan TRAX line because of my anniversary trip which was much more important, then yesterday I missed the ground breaking ceremony because I had business obligations. Oh well I made the important Front Runner Grand Opening and there is still 3 more ground breaking's to go including the Airport line, the Draper line and Front Runner to Utah County.

It will be interesting to see what develops at the 2100 South, 1300 South, 900 South, and 500 South stations over the next few years. When all the TRAX lines are up in running those stations are going to have extensive service. While Envision Utah showed some grand plans for the 2100 South area a few years ago little has happened toward that direction except for the mixed used development at 2100 South and Main.

With all the new auto centric developments to the west of TRAX, the best hope for good pedestrian friendly development is the east side. With the addition of the Sugarhouse Trolley you could have a nice pedestrian friendly neighborhood that could connect the TRAX line with Sugarhoure. In fact TRAX could become a border from a nice pedestrian friendly area to the east and a sea of concrete to the west.

Making Salt Lake Bicycle Friendly

Image via WikipediaHow are we going to make our area more bicycle friendly?

The City of Salt Lake is turning 200 South into a more bicycle friendly street but what else is being done to encourage the use of bicycles? After all, much of the valley is pretty flat which makes it perfect bicycling territory, but we still have few facilities for bicycles.

I have to admit I have not rode a bicycle since I was in Jr. High School because it just became to dangerous to ride. I was living in Southern California at the time and there was no bike lanes so the bicycle ended up being parked.

Recently I did purchase a new bike for recreational riding along the Jordan River Trail. There is few bicycle lanes or other facilities near me so my riding will be limited to the trails.

So what are the answers?

In some European cities bicycles have their own separate area. You will have car lanes to one side, then dedicated bicycle lanes and finally the actual sidewalks. This gives bicycles their own right of way so they are not interfering with automobiles or pedestrians and their right of way is not invaded.

The city of Portland is making bike lanes much more noticeable by painting them and then also have large areas at intersections for bicycles to wait.

Another area where Salt Lake City could catch up is Bicycle shares. While I was on vacation back in May there was an article about this in one of the local papers. We need to adapt a system such cites of Paris have with bike sharing. There you put in a credit card deposit and then you can rent a bike relatively cheaply for a certain amount of time. There is talk of putting such a facility in at the Central Station but there will need to be more facilities to make the project workable.

The wonderful blog Transit Miami often has several previous entries about trying to make their area more bicycle friendly and yesterday had a link to the city of Cambridge that is one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the country.

Bicyclist can also help the cause by not doing things like running red lights that only hurt the cause of making the area more bicycle friendly.

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