Amtrak's Hiawatha and Vermonter Routes to Allow Walk-On Bike Serivce

Amtrak has announced that it will now allow for walk-on bike service on its Hiawatha and Vermonter routes.  Amtrak's Hiawatha service originates in Chicago's Union Station and terminates in Milwaukee, WI. The Vermonter route originates in Washington DC's Union Station and terminates at St. Alban's station in northern Vermont (between Burlington and the Canadian border).

I have updated a map mash up that I put together showing routes and stations that now allow for walk-on bicycles (green map markers). Click on each station marker for more information. Please check with the Amtrak website for more details and updates.

Amtrak Routes and Stations

You must reserve a spot for you bike on the Hiawatha service on the Amtrak website or the Amtrak Quick-Trak Kiosks. The cost is $5.

The service is available on Vermonter trains 54, 55, 56, 57 at all station stops from Washington, DC , to St. Albans in Northern Vermont. Advance reservations are required for walk-on bicycle service onboard the Vermonter. A bicycle fee of $20 applies if you're traveling to and from station stops between Washington, DC, and New Haven and $10 if you're traveling between New Haven and St. Albans. Bike reservations cannot be made through Amtrak mobile apps. You must go online to the Amtrak website or the Quick-Trak Kiok's located in Amtrak station.

Amtrak request that you arrive 30 minutes prior to your train's departure to allow sufficient time to maneuver your bicycle through the station and be in position to board. Train cars marked with a "Bike Friendly" sticker can accommodate bicycles. A conductor may also direct you to the appropriate train car. For more details on Vermonter route stations please refer to this link to the timetable link to the pdf file.

Loading Bicycles

The loading of your bicycle is a bit different that California passengers are used to. You will be required to remove the front wheel of your bicycle before hanging it by the back wheel and securing it using the provided strap. Loading instructions will be available in the bike rack area and Amtrak crew members will be available to assist if necessary.

Here is some photos Amtrak provided illustrating how bikes must be loaded in each coach.

Megabus returning to the west coast?

Megabus coming to the Bay Area

My good friend Richard over at Cyclelicious informs me that he spotted a Megabus in San Jose this morning. He says that he spoke with the bus driver who stated that they are doing some test runs in the area. Megabus first launched its U.S. fleet in April of 2006 and currently serves 80 cities across North America.

When the system was running through San Jose I was very impressed. On one occasion I got a $3 ticket and the ride only took around 6 hours from Los Angeles' Union Station to San Jose's Diridon Station (see map). That works out to less than 1 penny per mile at about 60 mph pace!

Megabus used to run a San Francisco to Los Angeles Union Station route about four years ago. The bus used to make a stop right at Diridon Station. So before your groan and compare Megabus to Greyhound bus lets go over some major differences.

Try the new Megabus phone app.

• Megabus is a British based company that currently has bus stops in 37 states and the province of Ontario. 
• Buses are new and immaculate, most are double decker style with on board wi-fi, at seat plug-ins
• Unlike Greyhound they own no property but rely on cities allocating convenient bus stops in high traffic areas.
• Ticketing is all done online.
• The unique feature of Megabus is that the first ticket for a run is always $1 and goes up from there, making the bus line very affordable.
• Unfortunately Megabus does not carry bicycles on board or in the luggage compartment.

 Megabus is extremely popular amoung students in the heavily traveled Washington DC to New York to Boston corridor, competing with Amtrak's Acela train.

 Megabus also has a mobile phone app which you can find using the QR code located on the right. They have an app for both the iPhone IOS systems and the Android system.

I'll try to keep you posted on any details.

Thanks for the heads up, Richard!

September's Reading List

Cadillac Desert by
Marc Reisner

Any Suggestions?


Currently Reading:
Canals for a Nation - The Canal Era in the United States 1790-1860, Ronald E. Shaw
Cadillac Desert - The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner
The Age of Heretics - Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change - Art Klein (Tribes Biography)
The Leaderless Revolution - How Ordinary People Will Take Power and Change Politics in the 21st Century, Carne Ross
Ill Fares the Land, Tony Judt  


On my reading list:

Doing More with Less, Burce Piasecki
The Icarus Syndrome - A History of American Hubris, Peter Beinhart (recommended by Chuck Marohn of Stongtowns.org)
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways : Earl Swift
Small is Profitable - The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size, Amory Lovins
Reinventing Fire - Bold Solutions for a New Energy Era - Amory Lovins
Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation, Richard Sennett
Placemaking, Charles Bohl
The Quest - Energy Security and the Remaking of the Modern World - Daniel Yergin
The High Cost of Free Parking : Donald Shoup
ReThinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking : Eran Ben-Joseph
Better Together: Restoring the American Community : Robert Putnam
The Witch of Hebron: A World Made by Hand Novel : James Howard Kunstler
Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation : James Howard Kunstler
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century : James Howard Kunstler

Railroaded: The Transcontinental Railroads and the Making of Modern America : Richard White
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger : Marc Levinson
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York : Robert Caro (Open Road Biography)
Stealth of Nations - The Global Rise of the Informal Economy : Robert Newwirth
Now Your See It - How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn : Cathy N. Davidson
America The Philosophical : Carlin Romano
Small Town Rules - How Big Brands and Small Business Can Prosper in a Connected Economy : Larry J. Molitz & Becky McCray
The Nonprofit Board Answer Book - A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives
No Way to Run A Railroad - The Untold Story of the Penn Central Crisis : Stephen Salsbury
Derailed - What Went Wrong and What to Do About America's Passenger Trains : Joseph Vranich
End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains : Joseph Vranich
The Powers That Be : David Halberstam 
The Best and the Brightest : David Halberstam 
Supertrains: Solutions to America's Transportation Gridlock : Joseph Vranich
Bold Endeavors - How our Government Built America and Why it Must Rebuild Now : Felix Rhoyhatyn
Moving Millions - An Inside Look at Mass Transit : Stan Fischer
Stuck in Traffic - Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion : Anthony Downs
Breaking Gridlock- Moving Towards Transportation That Works : Jim Motavalli
Making the Car Pay Its Way: The Case of Minneaapolis Roads : John Biley, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
The Pressue Boys: The Inside Story of Lobbying in America : Kenneth Crawford
The Interstate Commerce Omission: The Public Interest and the ICC : Robert C. Fellmeth
The Pavers and the Paved - The Real Cost of America's Highway Program 1971 : Ben Kelley
The Motorization of American Cities : David J. St.Clair
Superhighways Super Hoax : Helen Leavitt
The Automobikle and American Culture 1986 : David Lewis
The Going Rate - What it Really Costs to Drive : James J. McKenzie World Resource Institute, Washington DC
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 David McCullough
The Economics of Competition in the Transportation Industries : John Robert Meyer
The Era of Thodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America : George E. Mowry
Railroads - The Free Enterprise Alternative : Daniel Overbey
No Way to Run a Railroad: The Untold Story of the Penn Central Crisis : Stephen Salsbury
Building the American Highway System: Engineers as Policy Makers : Bruce E. Seely
The Interstate Commerce Commision and the Railroad Industry: A History of Regulatory Policy 1991: Richard D. Stone
Silent Spring : Rachel Carson
Suburbia - It's People and Its Politics 1979 : Robert C. Wood
The Prize - The Quest for Oil, Money and Power : Daniel Yergin (Age of Heretics -Biography)
On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors 1979 : Patrick J. Wright (Age of Heretics -Biography)
What Are People For - Essays : Wendell Berry (Age of Heretics -Biography)
Voluntary Simplicity - Towards A Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, Duane Elgin  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
A Grunch of Giants : Buckminster Fuller  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, Robert Heilbroner  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
Let Them Call me a Rebel - Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy : Sanford Horwitt  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Glory and The Dream,William Manchester  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Seven Laws of Money, Michael Phillips (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shaped, Anthony Sampson (Age of Heretics -Biography)
Superhighways Superhoax, Helen Leavitt (Open Road Biography)
Interstate: Express Highway Politics 1941-1956, Mark Rose (Open Road Biography)
The Last Landscape, William "Holly" Whyte  (Open Road Biography)

Mark Gorton energizes the crowd at the Pro Walk Pro Bike Conference in Long Beach

Yesterday, Mark Gorton stirred up the crowd with a rousing keynote speech at the 2012 Pro Walk Pro Bike Conference wrapping up yesterday in Long Beach. In a speech titled "Rethinking the Automobile" he delivered a message on the need for change in the priorities of our elected officials and highway engineers.


The following was included as subtext to a Streetfilms.org post with an included video titled "Rethinking the Automobile".

For more than 100 years New York City government policy has prioritized the needs of the automobile over the needs of any other mode of transport. Working under the faulty assumption that more car traffic would improve business, planners and engineers have systematically made our streets more dangerous and less livable. As a result, even the idea that a street could truly be a “place” – a shared space for human interaction and play – has been almost completely destroyed.

During his decade long effort to understand and improve the streets of New York City, entrepreneur and livable streets advocate Mark Gorton has gathered together a compelling set of examples of how transportation policy impacts the quality of our daily lives. Mark is regularly invited to speak in public about these issues.

In his current presentation “Rethinking the Automobile” Mark explores the history of autocentric planning and considers how New York and other cities can change. Filled with ample video footage of dozens of Streetfilms, we’ve worked with Mark to create a version of the presentation here.

As the founder of Streetfilms, Streetsblog, OpenPlans, and the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign, Gorton has been on the front lines of the battle to transform New York’s streets. But Mark is not done fighting. He contends that the recent improvements that have been implemented in New York should only be considered as the “tip of the iceberg” and that a truly comprehensive set of changes are still necessary.

For more on Mark’s continued efforts to make our world more equitable, livable, and safe visit www.rethinktheauto.org

Parking again on the San Jose City Council Agenda - This time it's a good thing.

The San Jose City Council Agenda for Tuesday, September 11, 2012 will include one transportation related item concerning the cities promotion of a downtown carsharing service by allowing for parking spaces.

The agenda item reads:

6. TRANSPORTATION & AVIATION SERVICES
6.1 Carshare Vehicle Parking Incentives.
Recommendation: Adopt a resolution to repeal Resolution No.76177 and set forth an updated Master Parking Rate Schedule to authorize the Director of Transportation to designate up to 20 on-street and off-street parking spaces for exclusive parking privilege for participants in a Carshare Pilot Parking Program in accordance with California Vehicle Code Section 22507.1 for an 18 month pilot period and set the parking permit fee of $35 per vehicle and sign/marking fee of $225 per location, and authorize the Director of Transportation or designee to negotiate and execute parking agreements and amendments with car share service providers for participation in the pilot parking program. CEQA: Not a Project, File No. PP10-066, Agreements/Contracts. Council District 3. (Transportation)

Zipcar lot just south of the '88

This agenda item will seek to approve a vote for a council resolution (pdf link) allowing for the parking spaces. Hans Larsen, Director of the Department of Transportation gives some background on the recommendation in this memo to the Mayor and City Council dated August 20, 2012. Currently ZipCar has expanded their carsharing network to San Jose, but decided to do it without any help from the city by parking their cars on visible lots downtown. I have spotted a group of about three ZipCars in the parking lot just south of the Safeway store in the 88 building.

San Jose Bikeshare announces 20 proposed stations

Last Tuesday, May 22, San Jose Bikeshare announced 20 proposed locations to place Bikeshare pods within the downtown and Japantown areas (see Google Map below). Obvious key locations such as City Hall, SJSU, Diridon Station, and the HP Pavillion were included but other key areas of downtown were included as well.

The stations extend from Japantown in the north, Gore Park in the south, Diridon Station in the west, and 9th and San Salvador on the eastern edge of downtown. For those of you who missed the news this summer the city is planning to begin work to close the eastern streetside of Gore Park, South 1st St. to through traffic creating (after Paseo de San Antonio) one of San Jose's few permanent street closures or Paseos.

What do you think of the locations? Could you do any better? Let us know what you think.

For the latest in San Jose Bikeshare news follow them on Twitter.

View San Jose Bike Share - Proposed Locations in a larger map

SV TUG and One Square Mile to Cohost San Jose's first National Train Day Celebration

Silicon Valley Train Riders and 1 Square Mile to Celebrate National Train Day

Join Silicon Valley Train User Group, One Square Mile, the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, and members of the Caltrain Bicycle Advisory Committee to celebrate our first National Trail Day Celebration.

With the extension of BART, Caltrain electrification, and California High Speed Rail, San Jose's historic Diridon Station will be the busiest station west of the Missisippi. We will host an information table in the historic station along with history displays highlighting train travel in the Silicon Valley. With the recent groundbreaking on the extension of BART into San Jose, the city is exicited about this national celebration.

Information on the City's expanded plans for Diridon Station will be on display along with a presentation and walking tours of the station. In addition we will conduct and old style welcome of the 10:07 am arrival of the Amtrak Coast Starlight on its way from Seattle to Los Angeles. Come join us.

VTA seeks public comment on proposed route changes - but it's more than route changes

In a news release this week, VTA is seeking public comment on three bus routes, two community bus routes and one, a new limited bus route that will eventually phase into a new bus rapid transit line (BRT).

However I wanted to comment on Route 11, which is a very limted route to begin with, extending from San Pedro Square to Taylor and 17th and only 20 times a day on weekdays. The plan is to extend the route to Diridon Station.

However, if I recall correctly this route used to go past San Jose Marketplace, home to another Target store, Office Depot, Panera Bread, etc., etc., etc. Now outside of a Limited Stop Bus (304) which only runs on weekdays and only four times a day (rush hour) there is no bus line that runs to the suburban style shopping center.

As Scott Herhold of the San Jose Mercury News mentions in a August 2010 column:

But it is not downtown, no matter what (Redevelopment Director Harry) Mavrogenes says. It is on Coleman Avenue south of Taylor Street, separated from the city center by at least three-quarters of a mile and a hulking overpass.

So although a connection to Diridon Station is an improvement, if you want to get more residents living downtown, and you want those residents to live a car-free or car-lite life you will have to connect the meager downtown retail offerings by transit when they are so spread out and are connected by horrible pedestrian improvements.

 Scott later goes on to ask Harry Mavrogenes how he got to the grand opening of a new business in the San Jose Marketplace:

Then I asked how he'd gotten to the grand opening. He said he had driven from his City Hall office. So we have a downtown location that you have to drive to from your downtown office. Sorry, Harry. Something doesn't compute.

So if were going to build these suburban strips malls in a downtown setting the least we can do is connect them to downtown businesses and residences. Please.


View Larger Map

Comments on VTA Chair Yeagers remarks - January 5, 2012

Silicon Valley's push to lead the Bay Area

On January 5, 2012 incoming Chair to the VTA Board of Directors Ken Yeager spoke about his goals for the new year (complete text of his remarks). His three main themes of his speech was:

1. The ambitious transportation goals the county has over the next decade.
2. The innovative response by VTA towards those goals (efficiencies, cost containment, etc),and
3. The lack of political effectiveness that the county has given its population and employment size.

Ambitious transportation goals over the next decade

The county of Santa Clara has an impressive list of transportation projects over the next ten years, involving rail, transit, freeways, roads, and expressways. As Mr. Yeager mentioned the 880-280-Stevens Creek Interchange, which is one of the most congested in the Bay Area, is due for a makeover beginning in September of this year. Work is currently in progress on the Tully Road 101 interchange. At last month's VTA Board meeting the new BART extension to the Silicon Valley was formally announced.

VTA is currently in the implementation stages on a Bus Rapid Transit system through the valley as well as a new upgraded Express Bus System beginning Monday, January 9, 2012.

VTA innovations, structural efficiencies, and cost containment strategies

As Chair Yeager mentioned in his opening remarks, VTA's political and administrative efficiencies are due to its consolidated structure. Transit operations and management, which includes VTA bus and light rail service, congestion management, as well as sales tax authority are all under one roof.

VTA is not only the "bus operator" but also the name given to the umbrella organization of these three components. The transit portion is an operational entity and actually does very little construction projects. (For more detail see VTA's own description of its structure)

The congestion management (CMA, or Congestion Management Agency) portion of VTA is the bulk of the VTA umbrella organization. It acts as the local funding arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), while also coordinating road, expressway, freeway, bicycle, and rail projects in the area. It also works with cities in local monitoring regional guidelines such as Greenhouse Gas Emissions goals, VMT reduction goals (Vehicle Miles Traveled), and Complete Streets Guidelines. Complete Streets guidelines help to ensure that new roadway improvements also take into account pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, the disabled, and the elderly.

Congestion management agencies were formed by California State legislation. These agencies are organized to receive, administer, and fund projects that are from funds outside the area such as Federal and State funds.

Local sales, fuel, and property taxes to fund transportation projects are generally referred to "Self Help" funds in that they are voted on by local residents with the intent to tax themselves. In California sales tax measures are administered by the state's Franchise Tax Board which collects the taxes and apportions these taxes back to the city, county, CMA, or transit authority. As part of the sales tax initiative "self help" taxes usually include a watchdog group or committee associated with the funds. In this instance the CAC, or Citizens Advisory Committee serves that function.

Santa Clara County's VTA is administered by the same board for all three functions under the VTA umbrella. The board whose makeup is determined by a formula to ensure adequate representation from the big city (San Jose), smaller cities, and county representation as well. As Yeager states "this is not necessarily true for all counties".

To contrast with Santa Clara County San Mateo County has different organizations with different leadership, meeting in different locations. The Transit Operator, SamTrans (9 members) meets once a month with its own board. The sales tax authority also known as the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (7 members) meets each month with a different board, and the Congestion Management Agency (City/County Association of Governments) meets in a different city with a completely different board. (23 members) representing all San Mateo cities as well as county government.

With a CMA of over 20 members from a geographically disperse (bayside and Pacific Oceanside cities) county such as San Mateo it becomes increasing difficult to manage from a political and administrative point of view. Added to this fact that Caltrain (Caltrain JPB or Joint Powers Board) also shares staff and office space with these county agencies and you can see how unwieldy it can be. Only one individual within all of San Mateo County sits on all three agency boards.

Cyclists Frustrations - Case in Point

One of the many frustrations shared by cyclists in San Mateo County is this fractured structure and its effect on getting adequate bicycle infrastructure built within the county. Funds coming from outside sources (from the MTC) are administered out of the county's CMA, or Cities and County Association of Governments(C/CAG), however the self-help or funds originated by local sales taxes are administered out of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority. Neither organization has a bicycle coordinator that would help administer these bifurcated funds. The two agencies are even housed in different San Mateo County cities.

VTA has created a extemely useful resource called Bicycle Technical Guidline (BTG). The BTG manual is a set of optimum standards and best practices for roadway and bikeway design. VTA was able to write, adopt, and revise this excellent resource due to adequate staffing at the countywide level. It is highly unlikely that this would happen in San Mateo County given its current transportation management structure.

Alameda County Tries a Different Approach

In an effort to streamline their agencies and make them more effective, just last year Alameda county combined their sales tax authority and congestion management agency into one organization. What used to be the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency (ACCMA) and the Alamaeda County Transportation Improvement Authority (ACTIA) is now the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC).

Santa Clara County's push for greater regional representation

The Silicon Valley, which in the past was referred to as the Valley of Heart's Delight has found it hard to shake its rural and agricultural routes vis a vis its more urbane neighbors to the north (namely San Francisco). Commerce, banking, shipping, rail, and trade along with all of the other political, administrative, and organization functions traditional found a home in either San Francisco or Oakland.

Organizations such as the regents of the University of California, ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments), BAAQMD (Bay Area Air Quality Management District), BART, MTC, are all located in either San Francisco or Oakland. Civic and urban policy groups such as the Commonwealth Club, and SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) are also located in San Francisco along with major media outlets in print, radio & television (see map below).

Similar to the passionate scene in the first Godfather movie where the older brother "Fredo" tells his younger brother Michael Corleone that he should have been chosen to be the family Don, sometimes San Jose and the Silicon Valle feel the same way. With 25% of the Bay Area's population they feel that like Fredo Corleone in the "I'm Smart" scene from the movie Godfather II, they "were passed over" and its not what they "wanted".

Now as Chair Yeager states in his remark with over one-quarter of the regions population and jobs its time San Jose got the respect it deserves; not just sent out to take care of some Mickey Mouse nightclub somewhere.


Chair Yeager is maybe the first locally elected official to publicly state that we're "smart and want some respect". If you notice the map below I have placed markers showing the offices of regional transportation and planning agencies, media offices, and leading civic organizations. With a city of over 1 million residents downtown San Jose is not home to one of these organizations. Not even the local transportation planning and transit operator is located downtown (its actually 5.5 miles to the north). Same for any media organizations. This does a city of its size a disservice. With only one major corporate headquarters based downtown the area lacks the vitality that a downtown Oakland or San Francisco has to offer.

Conclusion

So although I applaud Supervisor Yeager's plea for more political representation, somehow I get the feeling that it will only mean more more of the same auto oriented and prioritized expansion. What this area does not need is more expressway expansion (along with an increase in speed and volume), more freeway interchange expansions, which severely impact struggling neighborhoods, and more auto oriented benefits to residents who choose to live at the south end of the valley and work in the north and on the peninsula. Let's hope that this year does bring greater representation but also great wisdom at how we look at our transportation options. Happy New Year.

San Francisco Bay Area Agencies, Organization, and Media Resources

View San Francisco Bay Area Agencies and Organizations in a larger map

San Jose's coming of age?

As San Jose passes the million resident mark several key indicators reveal that this bedroom community in the valley may actually be growing into a real city. The last few years have witnessed the proposal, planning, and design of several large projects, including a sports venue and transportation projects including high speed rail, a new ballpark, a BART extension, a major freeway interchange makeover, and Bus Rapid Transit.

With a world renowned high tech industry, a growing population, and those key infrastructure projects just mentioned, San Jose has recently sought the need to flex its political muscle. Assembly member Jim Beall has introduced AB 57 which seeks to increase Santa Clara County (as well as Alameda County) representation on the Board of Commissioners at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). As Assembly member Beall states, "about 40 years ago, the [state] legislature created the MTC and its voting membership based on a 1970 snapshot of a San Francisco dominated Bay Area. Today, the Bay Area population and employment clusters have shifted. Santa Clara County has become the technological center of the world."

This same reasoning is VTA's argument in requesting Caltrans to open an office in San Jose. Caltran's 12 state-wide districts and district office map was drawn in 1961 when San Jose was one-fifth the size that it is today. VTA, the area's Congestion Management Agency (CMA) has cited the growing importance of the region as well as previous delays in getting approvals on key projects for the request. Except for the Bay Area district (No. 4), all Caltrans district offices are located in the district's largest cities. In the Bay Area San Francisco is only six miles away but San Jose, the largest city in the nine-county district is over 40 miles away.

The map below show another disadvantage in getting late to the political party. Whether it be transportation agencies, planning agencies, non-profit, or even key civic groups, not one is headquartered in Santa Clara County. Except for Caltrain's offices in the city of San Carlos, Bay Area agencies and non-profits are all located in either San Francisco or Oakland.

Until MTC representation gets resolved or a new office is opened, at least one positive change in the works is the 2012 opening of a SPUR office. SPUR is a San Francisco based urban planning and research organization that has been at the forefront of many of the city's key issues such as the central subway, park funding, a new Transbay Transit Center, the transformation of mid-Market St., as well as many others. Although a small step this will be a great first step in seeing the "power" center of gravity move further south along the bay.

To find out about future SPUR - San Jose events, join their mailing list.

View San Francisco Bay Area Agencies and Organizations in a larger map

Clipper Card Tutorial

Most San Francisco Bay Area residents have heard of "Fas Trak" but a smaller group has heard of the "Clipper" card.

FasTrak is an electronic toll collection (ETC) system that allows you to prepay your bridge tolls, eliminating the need to stop at the toll plaza. The system has three components: a toll tag, which is placed inside your vehicle; an overhead antenna, which reads the toll tag and collects the toll; and video cameras to identify toll evaders.

Clipper is a similar prepaid card that is non-contact, meaning you don't have to swipe it like your debit card at the grocery store. Think of the Clipper card as your Fas Trak card for car-free or car light families.

The MTC (Metropolitan Transportation Commission) goes on to describe the clipper card in more detail:

Clipper is an all-in-one transit card that keeps track of passes, discount tickets, ride books and cash value that you load onto it, while recognizing and applying all applicable fares, discounts and transfer rules. It is now accepted on Muni, BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit and Ferry, and SamTrans.

Named for the clipper ships whose speed revolutionized travel from the East Coast to Gold Rush-era California, the Clipper card gives you quick access to all major forms of Bay Area transit with one easy-to-use card.

The card allows you carry only one card for most Bay Area transit services such as Caltrain, BART, SamTrans, VTA, AC Transit, SFMTA, and most ferries. You can either carry cash balances and apply the balance to all of the transit systems (similar to paying cash), or you can load on passes. So if you currently carry a VTA Adult Flash Pass this can be converted to the Clipper form.

The true value of a Clipper card will be in extending the universality of the card. Not only would it be convenient for any payments within Bay Area Transit systems, but the other outlying systems as well. Why not the ability to use it on the San Jose to Santa Cruz route 17 bus, the San Jose to Monterrey MST route 55, or the MST route 79 bus to the Monterrey Presidio. Other excellent uses would be:

• the proposed Bay Area bikeshare system
• bike lockers at Bay Area BART and Caltrain stations or even
• car share systems (City Car Share or GetAround)

Detroit needs a new app - hooking our youth back on cars



By dmjarvey

 Monday, Streetsblog writer Anne Lutz Fernandez published a post titled "Getting Young People Back Into Cars is Auto Industry Job #1". During these tough economic times when California college students are protesting large tuition increases, its easy to see why owning a car is far from financially realistic. But Lutz also highlights one other factor. The utility of the automobile is being challenged by the smartphone.

Every morning, rain or shine, outside of my local coffee shop sits a group of aging car buffs, most of whom are retired who swoon when any classic car rolls by. Classic in this case refers to any car that was completely made of chrome and steel and built before smog control devices were dreamed up by some Sacramento legislator. Overhearing their conversations, I listen as they tell stories of their first cars; how they fixed them up, modified them and raced them. These cars provided them with identity, access to jobs, to fun with their friends, and to dates. The cars connected them to their world.

But as the author mentions young people now connect through the Internet, and the Internet is no longer a modem, a dial-up, sit down and wait affair. The Internet; their Internet is seamless, instantaneous, and ubiquitous. It is the Internet that gives young Americans their connectivity, not cars. Young people (and baby boomers) also prefer to live in urban areas forgoing the feeling of isolation found in the suburbs ("The Death of the Fringe Suburb" New York Times 11-25-2011). This change of status from car to phone has contributed to the decline in teen driving rates.

So Detroit, and in speaking of Detroit I mean the auto industry in general, has figured out that it is not high gas prices, not environmentalists, not transit and high speed rail that has dented sales of cars to young Americans, but the smartphone. Yes, it is the smartphone, or the iPhone that is changing the way this demographic sees freedom and connectivity, and Detroit is waking up and taking notice.

Yesterday morning the headline in my San Jose Mercury News business and technology section (yes I still read a newspaper, mainly for ceremonial reasons) was all the evidence I needed. The headline read "Toyota looks ahead to a 'smartphone on four wheels'". In the article Toyota President Akio Toyoda, speaking at the Tokyo Motor Show introduced a concept car called the Fun-vii that "works like a personal computer and allows drivers to connect with others with a tap of a touch-panel door." Now I not really sure what he meant by the personal computer comment, I mean no one under 25 years of age even will admit to using a "personal computer", but I get the idea. If you can't sell your car as a car, well sell it has a smart phone.

The auto industry has, somewhat late, begun to realize the need to lure these young shoppers back to the showrooms. And this is where they have an advantage. Although somewhat slow to respond to the trend,  industry will always respond to change faster than government and governmental agencies. Even with the renaissance of the central city, young residents will require better transportation options; better bus systems, bike networks without gaps, bus rapid transit, connectivity to the airport, and cities that recognize pedestrians on par with automobiles. Without real attention given to alternative transportation modes we may see young people abandoning their car-free and car-lite lifestyles in favor car-centric neighborhoods.

Time will tell.

Amtrak California announces new on-board wi-fi service

Amtrak California which operates three train lines within the state announced today that they will be offering a free wi-fi service to all riders. The train lines include the Capital Corridor, the San Jaoquin, and the Pacific Surfiner. Just in time for Cyber Monday, the online retail version of Black Friday, todays wi-fi introduction has been one of the most requested services.

Amtrak is scheduled to announce the Wi-Fi service at events this morning. The national passenger railroad already has the service on its popular Acela trains and some other East Coast routes as well as on the Cascades line in Washington and Oregon. It's also available to sleeping-car passengers on the Coast Starlight.

During the first week of the service, ambassadors will ride the Capitol Corridor trains to help passengers navigate the new Wi-Fi network, which will have a landing page, or portal, and will require users to agree to terms of service.

Coast Starlight pulls into
Sacramento Station in the
early morning hours.

The Capitol Corridor is paying for the system with $3.75 million left over from a signal project in Emeryville that came in under budget. The rail service has been working, on and off, for about nine years to offer Wi-Fi, and has tested different technologies and approaches, trying to find one that worked consistently and did not interfere with Union Pacific Railroad communications.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/28/BAHQ1M3FMA.DTL#ixzz1f1NysvIk

Some information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/

SPUR Lunchtime forum - Fort Mason Streetcar

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 19, 12:30 PM

The proposed project to extend the historic F-Line streetcar all the way to Fort Mason is making progress. Join Rick Laubscher, president of the Market Street Railway, and Doug Wright, project consultant to Fort Mason Center for details on the project, including its benefits, costs and plans for implementation. 12:30 pm.

This event is hosted by SPUR.
SPUR is located at:
654 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

This event is free to members. $10 for non-members. OK to bring lunch.



- Posted from my iPhone

Location:S Mathilda Ave,Sunnyvale,United States

San Bruno Caltrain Station Moves to Temporary Location Oct. 18

Beginning Oct. 18, Caltrain will begin serving a new temporary station in San Bruno. The move is necessary to construct the grade separation that will elevate the Caltrain tracks over San Bruno, San Mateo and Angus avenues. The temporary station is located just south of and adjacent to the current station.

Train service will not be affected by the move. Tickets may be purchased at ticket vending machines at the temporary station. For safety reasons, Caltrain asks that all passengers follow the directions given on posted signs, as well as those given by ambassadors at the station and conductors on board trains.

Construction on the future permanent station and the elevated structure will begin at the end of the year and is expected to be completed by fall 2012.

The $147 million San Bruno Grade Separation Project will improve safety for both motorists and pedestrians and reduce traffic congestion to and from Highway 101 in the City of San Bruno.

In addition to the new station, there will be a parking lot with 201 spaces and a “kiss and ride” lot. The project includes three pedestrian underpasses - one in the vicinity of Sylvan Avenue, one at the new station and another between Euclid Avenue and Walnut Street. Additionally, elevators will provide easy access for Caltrain customers. Streets and sidewalks, including those at Posy Park, also will be improved.




- Posted from my iPhone

Bike share in San Jose?

On a trip last year to Portland to attend a conference I was so impressed with the many and varied ways that you can rent, borrow, or share a bike in the city. Our conference supplied a fleet of bikes for a tour of the city. A local vendor set up shop in the hotel garage so that twenty of us could take off on a tour of the city.

Many Portland hotels offer free loaner bikes (complete with helmet and lock). Just sign the waiver and off you go. While staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, near  the Rose Garden Arena I did just that and found a wonderful new restaurant on the North Williams bike corridor. Called Tasty and Sons, this restaurant is just one of many new business that are buoyed by the increase in bicycle traffic along the corridor. The popularity of the Williams Street bike lanes even warranted an article in the January, 2009 issue of Sunset Magazine. Many hotels in the downtown area also have their own fleet of loaner bicycles or are within a couple of minute walk to a vendor that rents bicycles.

While searching on the hotel's website I found this "tip". The actually are encouraging you to ride their free rail system or pedal yourself and ride one of their free bikes to get out and enjoy their city. Very nice indeed.

Park your car, save money and help the environment. Utilize MAX-Portland's Light Rail system when exploring Portland. Access the light Rail just 3 short blocks from our front door. Max Light Rail offers, Fareless Square allowing you ride into downtown Portland for FREE OR USE ONE OUR COOL COURTESY BICYCLES TO PEDAL YOURSELF.

On my return to San Jose I thought I would do a quick survey to see what hotels offered the same loaner system in downtown San Jose. 

• Hotel DeAnza - No
• Crowne Plaza Hotel - No
• Fairmont Hotel - Yes (if you are a member of their presidents club program, but there is no evidence that they actually have bicycles on the premise.)
• San Jose Hilton Hotel - No
• Four Points Sheraton Hotel - No
• San Jose Marriott Hotel -Yes $10 for 1 hour $25 for 3 hours
• St. Claire Hotel - No
• Ramada Inn - No

Its interesting to note that out of the eight hotels surveyed only one makes loaner bikes available and they are not free. That hotel is the San Jose Marriott Hotel at $10 per hour. It is interesting to note that the local Crowne Plaza hotel doesn't offer bicycles to loan.

From the Marriott's web page:

The San Jose Marriott provides our Guests with the ability to easily balance priorities in a stylish, inviting atmosphere. We enable your success through our friendly service culture.

Guests of The San Jose Marriott Hotel enjoy First-Class Guest Services and Hotel Amenities including; Fitness Center, Outdoor Pool, Jacuzzi, Top Shelf Dining and much more.

What is interesting to note is that the Marriott offers a free fitness center (treadmills, stationary bicycles, etc), but you must pay for the bicycles. With only four bicycles, Marriott's "fleet" couldn't have cost them more than $2,000 up front whereas a fitness center ends up costing them more for the space and equipment.

Imagine the boost to downtown San Jose as well as outlying neighborhoods if downtown hotels offered bicycles available to loan to guests. With the city's commitment to expand on street bicycle routes, bicycle trails, and bike parking this makes perfect sense to bring hotel guests to local restaurants, coffee houses, and stores. More on this topic later.

Tivo this! From KQED Friday 9:00 PM "Blueprint America: Road to the Future"

Blueprint America: Road to the Future

Friday evening at 9:00 PM on KQED and tonight at 8:00 on PBS stations across the country, a new one-hour documentary film will highlight the state of affairs for Americas highway system.

Blueprint America:
"PBS reports on the infrastructure crisis"

Road to the Future:
Film Documentary

With examples drawn from Denver, New York, and Portland, veteran CNN correspondent and anchor Miles O'Brien will visit places where local officials and residents face agonizing choices between the easy status quo and the path less taken.

Good to see Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland and Janette Sadik-Khan

30 second video preview

British Columbia to benifit from $14 Billion Transit Plan

On the heels of recent cutbacks in transit service in the Silicon Valley I came upon this news item that was published January 14, 2008 in the Times Colonist. In what was billed as the largest provincial infrastructure spending plan in history; the plan would double the number of buses in the area by 2020 and create two new rapid transit lines.

Some of the money will go to:

• $1.2 billion for high capacity rapid bus service along nine routes in Kelowna, Victoria, and Vancouver.
• $1.4 billion to be earmarked for four new rapid transit lines in Vancouver.
• $1.6 billion will be spent on 1,500 clean energy buses provide improved bus service around the province.

According to the article, "Greater Victoria's transit system is already in its biggest expansion in a decade with the purchase of 16 new double-decker buses. A record 22.2 million passengers used transit in the region in 2006-07, an increase of four per cent over the previous year."

In comparing this with the VTA; Vitoria BC had ridership last year of 22.2 million passengers in a city of 79,000 in 2006 verses VTA's passenger count of 31.0 million passengers in the valley. San Jose alone has a population 930 million. Santa Clara County's population topped 1.6 million residents in 2006. A ridership rate of 282 trips per person verses Santa Clara County's 19 trips per person! Let me repeat that 282 vs. 19.

see also Miss 604's transit blog.

Photo by Dennis Sylvester Hurd at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennissylvesterhurd/

New VTA!

Well, my first experience with the new VTA was great. After leaving the San Francisco Caltrain Station at 7:44AM, I arrived at DeAnza College at 9:09AM a total of 1 hour, 25 minutes. After fetting off Caltrain 30 seconds later and I was on the new route 54 bus to Deanza at 8:53AM. Not bad. Total Cost $5.75 for the Caltrain Ticket.

Major Services changes at VTA scheduled for 1/14/2008

As noted in the San Jose Mercury News column "Roadshow" this morning there will be major changes to Santa Clara County's VTA system starting Monday. The good news is there will be no fare increases. The bad news is some bus lines will be cut. Some lines will have more scheduled buses which mean greater frequency, but some lines will be cut altogether or their routes changed.

Although Gary Richards in writing for "Roadshow"; an extremely car centric column, made an attempt to write about alternative transportation; the attempt was fairly weak. He made no attempt to describe about the VTA's monthly passes or eco-passes or that many Silicon Valley companies help pay the cost of employees passes. The column only refferred readers to the VTA website which is a no brainer at VTA.org. Although the columnist is extremely fascinated with the current selection of hybrid cars they still do not make major changes to the way we use oil and gas, have to deal with gridlock, or improve ones health like walking or riding a bike.

An easy way to find out new schedules (if you know the route number) on Monday is to call VTA at (408) 321-2300 and use your keypad to get time information.

photo:www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden