Take the Good with the Bolt

I have been searching for an inexpensive way to visit my family in New York, and the express buses seem to be the best option. I haven’t taken Megabus yet, just Bolt (primarily for the use of wifi and outlets). So I have now taken three trips between NY and DC on the Bolt bus and while that is not a huge sample set, I have to say i have a 33% satisfaction rate. The first trip (from NY to DC) was great, it went fine and it wasn’t completely full (this is in my best interest, but not Bolt’s). The second trip (DC to NY) was packed and the air wasn’t working, but at least the bus stopped at a rest area for us to get food. Yesterday I took the bus (back from NY to DC) and it was again a mixed trip. I ended up alone in my row, but we didn’t make any rest area stop and the bus took almost 5 hours to make the trip. I have to say that as far as performance its been fine. I’ve gotten to my destination on time, I just haven’t been comfortable. There is just a huge difference in comfort between taking the train, plane, and taking the bus.

As far as waiting for the bus is concerned, the DC side has the NYC side beat. The Grand Hyatt at Metrocenter provides a convenient Starbucks and bathroom while you wait, and the parking lot with the sun-shaded “green walk” removes you from the general traffic. In NYC, there is a Sbarro, but the bathrooms are tiny and dirty, and they have a 30 minute eating/waiting policy. There’s always the Penn Station, but the bathrooms there are even shadier, and while there are lots of food options its really removed from the bus stop. Once you are outside you have to wait on the sidewalk in front of either the Sbarro or an adult bookstore; not the most comfortable options.

Financially, this is a vast improvement over the train. If I get a $25 bolt ticket plus $4 metro fare and $9 LIRR fate, it takes me less than $40 each way to visit my family. If I took Amtrak I would have the same metro/LIRR expenses but the ticket would be at least $90. On the other hand, if I can find air fare under $50 to NY from IAD the bus might not be such a good deal. The bus takes me about 8 hours of travel time, while an airplane would be around 3 (including my waiting in the airport). Of course it beats driving, which would cost me at least $30 in tolls not to mention gas.

Article: A bicycle built for exclusion?

The SmartBikeDC System

[Image via SmartBike DC]

This past Sunday, The New York Times ran an article about bike sharing coming to DC (as did The Washington Post and The Associated Press.) I find it interesting that I had, not 4 days sooner, blogged about the Parisian and Viennese bicycle sharing programs.

The program, named SmartBike DC, is only currently going to be implemented in the North West of the District; the article mentions that there will only be 120 bikes and 10 stations in the system, but that it is hoped that it will grow to over a 1000. I applaud this move by the district and its partnering with clear channel which has made this a possibility. More government services should look to this as a test of private sponsorship as an alternative to privatization. In addition, I hope more bikes and racks are swiftly forthcoming, the more capacity this system has the greater the ridership and impact it will have.

Unfortunately, I worry that the system is not in place for those who could use it the most, the residents of NE and SE, many of whom are WAMTA bound and to whom $40 a year unlimited use rental fee will be much more reasonable than the $40 weekly Metro passes or the $11 weekly ($44 monthly) unlimited bus passes. In addition, besides the Shaw neighborhood and the Reeves Center (which is close but not in the heart of the columbia heights gentrification), none of the other 8 bike locations are in non-gentrified non-majority white neighborhoods. Furthermore, of the few images of people that are present on the website, none seem to represent people of color. To me this seems to reek of a further separation of transportation methods amongst the district residents. White middle and upper class people in NW will now take cabs, the metro, and bikes, while the working poor in NE and SE will be forced to rely on the same failing bus system that they have in the past. This makes me wonder if this whole endeavor is in some way an attempt to kowtow to environmental pressure from the middle and upper classes and not a means of democratizing transportation.

Article: Un velo a day keeps the traffic away.

A Bike Station in Paris

[image via anArchitecture via AP]

Horns honking, cabbies swearing, streets filled with a slow moving mass of metal particles, pedestrians choking on exhaust fumes: Traffic.   Nothing says Urban center like a heaping helping of fossil fuel consumption, or does it?   Paris and Vienna have both rolled out free short term bicycle rentals (albeit at different scales) as a social experiment and attempt to reduce reliance on automobiles and ease traffic within the urban centers of these two European Cities (read about it here).

This is something that could work in the Old Growth Cities along the eastern seaboard of the US, as long as it is kept free for short term rides and deployed in massive numbers (like Paris). If you coupled this with a good commuter rail system this could make up for a non-extensive subway system: it would be a method of getting people from the rail terminus to their destinations. I can see this working like the zip car phenomenon, but in reverse. Instead of renting one on those rare occasions where you need to drive out of town, people could rent bikes daily (if there was enough of a supply) to go to and from work and the store. Of course this would not help commuters from the suburbs, but since it could alleviate casual car use amongst residents it would reduce some of the daily traffic. I could imagine NY, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC all benefitting greatly from this kind of program.