Biking may be part of the transit solution if there's space and a plan

The Daily Journal (San Mateo County), Letter to the Editor, 12/15/14.  "Don't alienate the solution" by Armando Fox (San Francisco)

Cut across here...

Up against infrastructure never
previously considered for bikers

Nice day for biking...

"Editor:  Bike riders are part of the solution to Bay Area traffic, not part of the problem of transit. The number one
reason cited in transit surveys by people choosing not to take public transit is that it’s incompatible with their schedule. Yet Caltrain’s response to bike riders’ requests to add more bike cars is “Cyclists may want to adjust their schedules to ride trains with adequate bike capacity,” which is equivalent to saying “Cyclists may also want to drive their cars solo instead of choosing bike + Caltrain.”

I’ve been bike-bumped enough times to now drive from San Francisco to the Peninsula even when Caltrain’s schedule works for my commute, because my last mile relies on a bike connection. If the Peninsula was blanketed by efficient and frequent bus service or other transit, this would be different, but the last-mile options from most Peninsula stations ranges from inefficient to abysmal. Cyclists should be applauded for rising to that challenge, not treated as second-class citizens who should be expected to rearrange their schedule even as they are staring at half-empty passenger-only cars on the very trains that are denying them boarding."

Note photographs:  upper left cutting across traffic from Total Women's Cycling, Bristol, UK.  Upper right: solo bicyclist from internet face to Eleanore's Stylish Bicycle blog; bike lane bicyclists from a Huffington Post article, by Carly Schwartz, 10/16/14.

Posted by Kathy Meeh