Today’s Headlines

  • Roberts Says Subway Lines to Operate as Individual Railroads (NYT)
  • Cyclist in “Freak Mishap” Identified as David Smith (News, NYT, Post, Sun)
  • Unlike Neighbors, Some Businesses Welcome Parking Meters (R’dale Press)
  • Letter: Selfish, Double-Parking Parents Deserve Tickets (R’dale Press)
  • Drivers in a Fit Over Verrazano Congestion (Bklyn Eagle)
  • Few Transportation Options for Aging Americans (USA Today)
  • No Room Left on California Bike Train (Palo Alto Daily)
  • Miami Residents Surprised to Find Selves in a Walkable City (Transit Miami)
  • States Ask EPA to Regulate Airline Emissions (NYT)
  • Sunlight Project: A Ray of Hope for Albany? (NYT)
  • Angus Grieve-Smith

    With some peak-hour express trains approaching full capacity, Caltrain can’t add more bike cars without bumping fare-paying passengers. That’s a sacrifice an agency with chronic budget deficits can’t afford.

    Unfortunately, Weinberg said, it also can’t afford to run more or longer trains. Its resources are already stretched to the limit at peak hours.

    That’s the real issue. Find the funding to add a car to each train, and the problem is solved … until that car fills up, but by that time hopefully they’ll have made progress on the electrification.

  • Larry Littlefield

    (The bicycle program is a well-established hit, with about one in 15 Caltrain riders bringing their wheels on board…It’s a success story, to be sure. But there’s a hitch: Caltrains are getting so crowded at peak commute hours that not everyone’s bike can fit on board.)

    I think there is enormous potential here for the suburbs and suburban parts of the city, where transit is too far to walk and parking limits usage.

    And this is where the Velib thing could really make a difference for suburban rail. Rather than take your bike on the train, leave it at the suburban station, and borrow one from the commuter rail provider for use in town. A clearly defined group like that could limit theft.

  • Jonathan

    Verrazano congestion: Jim Ferrara, the VZ bridge manager, is a good guy and is trying his best. But that woman who spends 90 minutes in traffic getting her kid home to Dahlgren Place? She lives a mile from the school, and it’s all flat. Maybe she could walk the sprout there and back. Just a thought.

  • anon

    Doctoroff is resigning.

  • anon2

    Anon! Say more!

  • anon
  • anonymous

    The best use for bikes on caltrain, incidentally, is not for those taking their bikes to the city, but rather, for the considerable number of people commuting the other way, to Silicon Valley, where public transportation is practically nonexistent. There, the bike really is one of the most practical ways to get from the station to work, though some people also leave their cars in the station lots overnight. The Velib concept, or something similar, could work quite well here, especially with some cooperation from the local employers. Then, you don’t need to bring your bike with you on the train, and if you decide to go to dinner with your coworkers after work, you don’t have to worry about dealing with your bike, just leave the rental at work, and the Velib truck will come by at night and take it back to the station. Plus, this’ll make it that much easier to try the bike commute.