Riverside gets shout-out for improved service

Riverside* got a shout-out for improved transit service from APTA.

"Expanded and improved public transit services also played a role in attracting more riders,” said Melaniphy.  “For example, the transit agencies in Albany (NY), Denver (CO), Indianapolis (IN), Riverside (CA), and Salt Lake City (UT) saw increased ridership due to greater service.”

Even though bus ridership is down nationwide, ridership is up out here in the IE-- where we're all buses all the time. Ridership is down in Los Angeles, even, but record numbers of Inlanders are taking the bus.

*Take into account the Standard MSA Disclaimer, which makes this more like an IE shout-out.

They do not like the red light cam...

Dan Bernstein of the PE channels Dr. Seuss to talk about the ever-controversial red-light camera. Read it all the way to the end.

Just a quick thought...

but am I the only transit geek that gets annoyed when people call Metrolink "the metro"? Because it happens ALL THE TIME. You get on the train and someone talking loudly on their cell phone says to their conversational partner "Yeah, I'm on the train... you know, the metro... to LA..."

Metrolink is a thing. Metro is also a thing. They are two totally different things. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and probably only mine.

Taste of Brews Riverside

Here at Riding in Riverside, we're no fans of driving generally-- but we find drunken driving particularly distasteful. Sadly, our area seems almost guaranteed to drive that result, with no late-night transit, few taxis, and parking minimums for bars. (Seriously. [PDF]) However, by happy coincidence (because it surely wasn't foresight and planning), Riverside is hosting an event that brings together two of my favorite things-- craft beer and transit!

The IE Taste of Brews, on 2 June, will be held in White Park downtown. Craft breweries from as far away as Oregon will be bringing their wares for Riversiders to sample. While the organizers obviously didn't plan for this to be a transit-centric event, the locale is happily situated a short walk away from Downtown Terminal, served by routes 1, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22, 29, 49, and Omni 215 (on weekends).

Tickets are currently being sold at early-bird prices- $30 general admission (1-4pm), $40 VIP (12-4), and you can get $5 off with promo code "TOB5." Hope to see you there!

The Onion In Transit

The Onion has compiled a series of their articles on transportation for a special Transit Issue. You might learn something. For example, did you know that anthropologists recently discovered that human feet were originally used for a process of self-propulsion called "walking," before evolving to their present functions of depressing automobile pedals?

My all-time favorite Onion headline is still "98 Percent of Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others."

Reminder- CicLAvia!

It's that time again. CicLAvia, the street-closing bike-riding skateboarding stroller-pushing livable cities extravaganza, will take place this Sunday (15 April) in downtown Los Angeles. Unlike previous CicLAvias, and advantageously for us Metrolink folk, the route will extend to El Pueblo de Los Angeles, immediately across Alameda from Union Station. So you can walk right off the train and on to over 10 miles of closed streets.

Furthermore, perhaps in an attempt to alleviate the troubles I had the last time I visited CicLAvia, Metrolink will be running some trains with two bike cars on the San Bernardino Line. OC line trains will be equipped with one bike car each. And remember- a Metrolink Weekend Pass is only $10! So grab the #351 train out of Riverside-Downtown-- which will feature two bike cars-- at 6:20 on Sunday morning, and drink in the joy of CicLAvia.

You could also ride the new Amtrak California Thruway service to LA- bikes are allowed under the bus, and on the connecting Pacific Surfliner train. (And, if that's full up with bikes, your Surfliner ticket will allow you to ride Metrolink as well.)

See you on the streets of LA!

Transit-accessible event: Riverside Air Show

Tomorrow (31 March 2012), the Riverside Municipal Airport will host its annual air show. There's nothing like a flock of high-performance aircraft to excite your inner child (or your outer children, should you have any). And, as is often happily the case with events in the area, admission is free. Parking costs $10, but you don't care about that, right?

Take RTA 13 or 15 to Arlington/Monroe. Bicyclists will find relatively easy access from Van Buren/Arlington and the Rutland exit of the SART.

More information at RiversideAirShow.com

Metrolink's Toy Express

Metrolink's Holiday Toy Express will be stopping in Riverside on Saturday. The festively-lit train will be collecting unwrapped toys for low-income families. The train will be at the Riverside-La Sierra station at 5pm (17h00) on Saturday night, collecting unwrapped toys and providing a light show for the other side of Riverside. It won't be stopping at Downtown this season, so if you'd like to make a donation, this is your chance. For other options, see the full Holiday Toy Express schedule.

RTA #15, Metrolink 91 and IE-OC lines.

A Declaration of Independence!

As of a few minutes ago, I am car-free. Dani and I sold our aging Honda Civic to somebody who could better take care of her. We have no plans to buy another car. How were we able to accomplish this monumental feat in the middle of car-centric suburbia?

Well, to be honest, dear reader, we cheated. My wife works as a substitute teacher, and it is impossible to reach around half of her school sites on time by transit- and she won't be bicycling to Redlands any time soon. (I'm working on it!) Therefore:



We're now the owners of a 2009 Aprilia Sportcity 250 scooter. Before you laugh, it gets 3.6l/100km (65 MPG) and will haul both of us at freeway speeds. So are we motor vehicle free? Not yet at least. But I have to think that going from 816kg (1800lbs) of vehicle to 158kg (350lb), and from ~9l/100km (25MPG) to 3.6l/100km (65MPG), is a significant improvement.

Without a car, our transportation toolkit has changed quite a bit- a subject which I'd like to cover in a later post. Just now, it's a time for celebration.

Blog-cation

As you read this, my wife and I are on our way to Los Angeles Union Station for the start of what we're calling Epic Train Trip. We're touring the United States and Canada for the next month via Amtrak, with a smattering of Greyhounds and ferries in between. Accordingly, this blog will be a bit quieter. I do plan on posting interesting observations about transit in the cities we travel to, but I won't commit to a regular posting schedule.

Don't despair, however! Although I'll cut back on the blogging here, the wife and I will be chronicling our adventures on our travel blog, Backpack Amtrak. If you're interested, you can enjoy our adventures around the country on a train (and a shoestring budget) over there.

Ride free on Omni- Also, finals

Hello, loyal readers! Unfortunately, it's crunch time at UCR again. Finals week, and that means getting my undergrads' papers and attendance data to them, writing my own exams, and then grading their finals. Don't expect to hear too much from me until at least next weekend.

I would like to mention that, as is their custom, Omni is offering a free one-day pass on Thursday, June 16th. (That's next Thursday for those playing along at home.) Print it out at home and go ride the bus. Considering I've nothing to do next week, I might just see how far a free day pass can get me...

A little late- but REMINDER!

As commenter Five Before Midnight has already found out, there is no RTA, Omni or Metrolink service today.

Use the time trapped at home to honour the memory of those lost in the First, Second and now Third (Libyan) Oil Wars, and to hope for a day when our way of life doesn't depend on sludgy supply pipelines from unstable regions of the world.

BruceMcF (of "Burning the Midnight Oil") has a great piece on "Why We Fight." A hint? It's oil.

Required Reading Cheat Sheet

A while ago, I recommended David Owen's Green Metropolis. For those of you who haven't been by the library/bookstore to pick up a copy, I learned that he wrote an essay entitled Green Manhattan in the New Yorker some time ago that makes many of the same points. As is befitting, the book is a much more data-packed and well-sourced version of the argument, but if you'd just like to get the gist of things, go read Green Manhattan.

UPDATE: The New Yorker has put Green Manhattan behind a paywall, but a PDF copy is available here.

Driving for fun!

I've mentioned before that I don't have a problem with people driving for recreational purposes, if we can just make all their other day-to-day trips on better, greener transport. I can freely acknowledge the allure of the automobile- the ability for you, the driver, to have all of the abilities of a powerful machine right at your fingertips, to be used as you see fit.

Let me tell you, though, that I've never had so much fun driving anything as I did over the weekend at Corona's Pole Position Raceway. The proprietors have turned a warehouse into an indoor go-kart raceway- and these are not the go-karts that you've raced about at the local putt-putt centre. They maintain a fleet of electric 20hp karts with a top speed of 45mph. The electric motors mean they're both green AND fantastically powerful at every speed. The way the track is laid out, there's also really nothing for you to slam into- even the track barriers give way nicely, so you can drive these things as fast and as wild as you like.

The good news, alt-transport peoples, is that this is one of the many things that you can do in Riverside without a car! The raceway is a mere block from Magnolia/6th St. and Promenade in Corona, making it a short walk from RTA 1 and Corona Cruiser Blue. From Riverside or Corona, take either of these routes to Magnolia/6th and walk north one block. From elsewhere, take Metrolink to North Main-Corona and catch Corona Cruiser Blue to Magnolia/6th. Also, text "EK20" to 368266 to get a buy-one get-one coupon, giving you 2 races for $20. Satisfy your need for speed without involving a freeway.

Disclaimer: I have not received any compensation from Pole Position, but I did have a really good time there Sunday.

Cyclists- Time to Re-Lace Your Shoes

Most people simply leave their shoes laced they way they are at the store, or at best re-lace them in a simple criss-cross pattern. This is a wasted opportunity. There are literally billions of possible shoe-lacing combinations, of which hundreds have interesting functional or aesthetic properties.

Of course, this is an alternative transportation blog, so what am I doing talking about shoelaces? Well, it turns out that there is a way to lace your shoes so that you never get your laces caught in your bicycle chain again. My latest pair of sneakers has ridiculously long laces, which were frequently getting caught. Re-lacing them did the trick! Just remember to put the bow on the outside of your shoe, not the inside.

Memories

2010-12-23 12.23.35, originally uploaded by plattypus1.

While stopping by my parents' bank on the way to San Francisco, I noticed (and snapped a photo of) this little cutaway, VVTA #2007. This bus is serving a route that was very important in my life, the #21 Tri-Community. It's this bus that would call on my hometown, with 24-hour advance reservation, and allow my young self to get to places I otherwise couldn't- cross-country practice in 6th grade, an after-school job in sophomore year, hanging out with friends at the local pathetic-excuse-for-a-mall, even a date or two. Over the summer of 2004, this was the bus that brought my then-girlfriend (six years of marriage this month!) and I together. Growing up, I had no car in an area where one was a practical requirement. That said, I'm an impractical sort- so it was often that I turned to VVTA.

Thanks, public transit, for keeping me from going stir crazy so many times.

Bloggy Absence

Sorry folks, but it's the last week of the quarter here at UCR, and that means papers, grading student work, and more papers. I'll pick up with the blogging sometime soon. In the meantime, I've found something to keep all us transit-lovers busy for a while.

See, we just got a new printer at the homestead here, and it came with a link to Canon's Creative Park web site, a treasure trove of print materials and templates. This includes papercrafts. Some notable transit-related diversions:

Commuter EMU (looks suspiciously like a JR E231): Power & non-power cars

High-speed train (TGV Sud-Est-ish?): Power and non-power cars.

Bus and Bus Stop

And, for the very patient, there is an exquisitely detailed model of a Penn Central GG-1, the same sort that smashed through the floor of DC Union Station back in 1953.

See you all on the other end of Finals Week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello, all of you out there in reader-land. Enjoy your poultry-related merriment. Please be reminded that there is no Omnitrans or RTA service today, and limited Metrolink service on the San Bernardino line ONLY.

Stuff the Bus!

I'm a little late with this, but there's still time! Operation Safehouse, a local charity that provides services for at-risk youth in our community, is holding a migrating Stuff the Bus event around the city today. RTA loans them a bus, and you folks stuff it full of the stuff they need to help out their clients.

Operation Safehouse are the folks that are responsible for all of those little yellow Safe Place stickers on the buses you see around. They provide a shelter and resources for teens in crisis in the Greater Riverside area, and have just opened up a new facility out in the Palm Desert area as well. They're a fantastic organization, and you should drop by any of the following locations that they'll be at today and donate some supplies so they can keep doing what they're doing:

3 pm Riverside City Hall, 3900 Main St.
4 pm Kaiser Permanente, 10800 Magnolia Ave.
5 pm Riverside City Plaza, at 3535 Riverside Plaza Dr., at Regal Theaters

Belated Anniversary!

So, I forgot my anniversary. No, not that one, if I'd forgotten that anniversary I wouldn't be around to blog.

On Monday the 8th, Riding in Riverside marked two years of fighting the auto empire in the Inland Empire.