by Larry Lagarde

I just received a follow up note from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) thanking me for exhibiting and speaking at the Technology and Innovation Symposium they held on February 4th. LACMTA (or Metro as they're known in L.A.) is the major operator of bus and rail service in Los Angeles County, California. The symposium drew more than 300 participants.

Metro also sent the adjacent photo showing me at the symposium holding the CarryMe folding bike that I exhibited and demonstrated.

Thanks Metro for the photo and the invite. The symposium was great fun and very informative.

Labels: folding bikes on mass transit, LA-Metro, LACMTA, mass-transit

by Larry Lagarde

From time to time, folding bike users express concern whether they're allowed to take folding bikes aboard transit. With that in mind, I met with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) last month proposing that they create a policy regarding folding bikes.

With NORTA's general manager and key staff in attendence, I demonstrated how compact folding bikes can be when folded. The impression I received was that they saw no problem with allowing folding bikes aboard the transit agencies buses and historic electric streetcar trolleys, provided that bikes are folded and placed in carrybags.

This afternoon, I placed a follow up call to Rosalind Blanco Cook, NORTA's Media & Public Relations Director. Rosalind had not received any word on a folding bike policy but she suggested that I contact Derrick Breun, one of the managers with Veolia Transportation (the multi-national transit management company that just got the contract to manage NORTA). Within 2 hours, I was copied on an internal memo authorizing the authority's transit drivers to allow folding bikes. WOW!

For the record, following is NORTA's new folding bike policy:

DRIVER’S ALERT!
Number 2009-11

To: All Operating Personnel

FROM: Gerard Guter
Assistant Director of Transportation

DATE: February 16, 2009

RE: Folding Bike Policy
______________________________________________________________________________


Effective immediately, passengers will be allowed to board all RTA vehicles with folding bikes. Passengers must place the bike under their seat; the bike cannot be placed on an additional seat. Also, as a safety precaution, the bikes cannot block the aisle.

Your usual cooperation is appreciated.


GG/wmm

Cc: Mark Major
Nazires Tolliver
Station Managers
Dale Delpit
Transit Police
Communication Dispatchers
Roz Cook
Justin Augustine
Derrick Breun
Brooke Monaco
Karen Wilson-Sider
Joseph Prier, President ATU Local #1560

I'm not sure whether even most micro folding bikes will fit under the seat of a streetcar trolley. Regardless, this is a great start on the part of NORTA & Veolia that shows a progressive and open attitude towards new ideas. Many thanks to both NORTA & Veolia.

Labels: folding bikes on mass transit

by Larry Lagarde

The week before last, I flew to Los Angeles to attend and speak at a transit symposium. Organized by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), the point of the symposium was to "open the floor" to new ideas that offer commuters a realistic alternative to driving single occupancy motor vehicles. Demonstrating several folding bikes, I focused on the effectiveness of combining micro folding bikes with mass transit as a practical transportation alternative available now.

I had 2 minutes to make my point so I kept it short and sweet. Holding a folded CarryMe folding bike over my head, I said...

Here's an alternative transportation idea that's ready now. It requires no outlays of taxpayer dollars to implement or years of bureaucratic discussion to approve. It's an adult bicycle that weighs 18 lbs, unfolds in seconds, cruises at about 15 mph and costs just $495.

Transit studies show that most people will only walk half a mile or 15 minutes to get to a transit stop. With this bike, a person can cover over 2 miles in the same time span, making mass transit practical to users in an area 3 times larger. For people with difficulty balancing on a bike, there's even a 3 wheeled version that weighs just 20 lbs. Both versions are small enough to take aboard any transit vehicle and in 2 months, I'll be shipping a micro folding bike that weighs just 16 lbs and costs only $199.

No matter how light and compact they become, folding bikes are only part of the solution. Yet, a multi-modal approach combining folding bikes with mass transit can rival driving a car over even the longest of commutes.

By the way, while 55% of commuters in New York City use public transit, just 11% of Angelenos do the same in L.A. Hopefully, events such as LACMTA's transit symposium will help Angelenos discover that multi-modal commuting via mass transit and bikes that fold is a viable transportation solution now.

Labels: folding bikes on mass transit

Combining Use Of A Folding Bike With Mass Transit

by Larry Lagarde

Bicycles can be a great means of transportation; however, getting to some places by bicycle alone can be quite difficult. In such cases, a multi-modal approach using mass transit as a bridge can be an excellent solution.



Recently, I met with the general manager and key staff at the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) about bringing folding bikes aboard their buses and streetcars. Like many mass transit authorities, NORTA has bike racks on the front of their buses; however, those bike racks only accommodate a total of 2 bikes per bus. Moreover, NORTA's iconic electric trolleys (streetcars) don't even have bike racks...

To demonstrate how NORTA could accommodate more cyclists with bicycles, I brought 3 folding bike models to the meeting - a CarryMe DS, a Strida 5.0 and a Kent Compact Nexus 3. I showed that folding bikes can fold so compactly that they can take up nominal space inside any mass transit vehicle.

As with most instances when I show someone a folding bike for the first time, it was great fun watching their looks of amazement as I demonstrated folding, unfolding and rolling the bikes along when folded (CarryMe and Strida). More importantly though, 3 advantages of folding bikes appealed to them.

First, the folded bikes each fit into carrybags that shielded transit riders, other transit users, etc. from the sharp edges that an unbagged bike would present. Second, folding bikes can be carried in their transit vehicles now with no need for purchasing special equipment to do so. Lastly, folding bikes make mass transit more appealing because more riders can get to transit stops and into the transit cars faster on a bike that folds.

As a result of our meeting, NORTA appears close to issuing a written policy about riders carrying folding bikes on the transit buses and streetcars. My gut feeling is that they'll want the folding bikes to be bagged before going onboard. Though that may be a little inconvenient, at least cyclists will know in advance what's needed to take their folding bikes with them when using NORTA.

Labels: folding bikes on mass transit, mass transit

A Sensible, Integrated Transportation Solution

By Larry Lagarde

Would commuting via folding bike and mass transit be appealing? Commuter Ellen Babcock thinks so. She has no regrets about giving up commuting via her pickup for a multi-modal commute via folding bike and transit.

Reading Ellen's story, I wondered whether the same logic could be applied to even the most car centric metropolis. To get an answer, I contacted the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and learned that they're working on a plan to encourage using fold up bikes with the Metro.

According to an interview I conducted with MTA's Dave Sotero and Lynn Goldsmith, Caltrans recently awarded $85,000 to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to prepare a program to get more cyclists and motor vehicle drivers to ride L. A.'s Metro. How? By offering an incentive for using a folding bike in combination with the Metro.

MTA officials view folding bikes as a partial answer to 2 tough problems facing transit agencies worldwide: how to get more commuters to use mass transit and how to accommodate additional transit users. Like most transit agencies, Metro barely has enough funds to make ends meet. If they can convince more commuters to adopt folding bikes, transit administrators can improve infrastructure (as in buy more buses and subway coaches as well as build more Park and Ride facilities) in a sensible and affordable manner.

To fund the folding bike incentive program, Metro is studing similar projects like Santa Cruz's Folding Bikes in Buses program. The Santa Cruz program offsets the cost of acquiring a folding bike to use with the buses. A pollution mitigation grant from the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District funds the Santa Cruz program.

Although folding bike users can board MTA trains & buses at any time, restrictions exist for full size bikes and this has caused friction. In June, L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti pushed for the MTA to drop the rush hour ban on full size bikes and even suggested that seats be pulled from Metro trains to provide more space for bicycles. Naturally, this did not sit well with non-cycling Metro users.

Although folding bikes are not for everyone, their versatility makes it more practical for more people to use mass transit. Riding a bike right up to the transit stop, folding the bike and rolling it aboard often takes less time than driving and parking at a transit station. Keeping your 'last mile' transportation (folding bike) by your side also alleviates the worry of leaving your vehicle unattended at the station all day.

Although the MTA has funding to study a folding bike incentive program, funding the folding bike incentives is another matter. Nevertheless, Metro authorities hope to begin offering incentives to encourage more commuters to use folding bikes in a year or so.

By the way, Dave Sotero commutes regularly via the MTA + folding bike and has found that folding bikes easily fit in a variety of places on all of the MTA buses and trains. In fact, all credit for the photos displayed in the following slideshow (showing folding bikes traveling on the Metro) goes to Dave.

Labels: folding bikes on mass transit, LA-Metro, LA-MTA, mass transit

by Larry Lagarde

Recently, an American living in Holland sent me this photo of bike parking at a local commuter railway station in Amsterdam along with the following text:

I thought you might find this interesting. Holland is heaven for cycle lovers. The latest figures show that there's over 20,000 kilometers of bike paths in The Netherlands (that's over 12,000 miles for you non-metric people).

Here's a picture of bicycles parked in ONE of the bicycle parking locations at the Amsterdam train station. Notice that the bicycles are on both sides and also behind the escalator and go all the way to the back by the trees. Also notice how the escalator has a groove for the bicycle wheels so that you can get the bike up and down the stairs (regular stairways have this too).

A lot of train stations also have an elevator not just for handicap access but also for older individuals with bicycles that find it hard to hold the bike steady while riding the escalator. There are areas designated on trains so cyclists can sit with their bicycles or for cyclists to place their bikes while traveling so crating/boxing a bike is not required.

As an American, when I first moved here 14 years ago, it was funny to see all the cycles everywhere but I'm getting used to it. It's still fascinating how many people commute daily with their bicycles. It took some getting used before it became normal to see men in suits and briefcases bicycling or women in their good clothes bicycling.

Everything here seems to revolve around cycling. Although I'd driven an automatic transmission for almost 20 years in the States, I was required to take lessons here in order to get my Dutch drivers license. One of the most difficult things to adapt to is the constant looking over your shoulder and out the side window to see if there are any cyclists. Drivers Education here stresses looking at all angles of the car, front, sides and back, checking the rear view mirror every 3 seconds to see what's behind you and the side mirrors every 5 seconds. You can hear another car but not a lone bicyclist; thus, given the number of people who bicycle in The Netherlands, driving lessons and the exam revolve around paying attention to your surroundings.

Cecelia

Will the popularity of cycling ever reach the point in the USA when there are multi-story cycling garages in most major American cities? Probably but not just yet. More than likely, most people will continue to hold out hope that the current crisis will pass and gas prices will go down; however, lower prices are not probable. Instead, due to economic growth in emerging nations like China & India, world demand for oil will continue to rise regardless of falling demand in industrial nations. Meanwhile, world oil production will slowly fall, causing oil prices to continue their upward creep. Instability anywhere in the oil supply chain will only add to the price increases...

America is at a crossroads. The sooner we face facts, the faster we can adjust and profit from the realities of the new economy. Americans are about to re-discover local scale economics and inner urban living. What will be hot in this economy? Living within walking, biking & mass transit distance of the essentials: work, shopping, schools & church. Vacationing closer to home. Living more efficiently. Shopping online. What will be out? Suburbia. Demand for housing in town will rise while demand falls in outlying areas.

My advice is that we the people demand action now. We must tell our elected representatives to invest in alternative energy and transportation solutions NOW. Due to decades of chronic under funding, "mass transit" is so inefficient in so many places that only the most marginalized tend to use it. Naturally, there are exceptions but most people don't live in places with great mass transit.

Folding bikes will help some commuters adopt to transit but huge investments in transit infrastructure are needed and transit agencies do not have the budgets to do this. Only when the federal government opens the tap will transit authorities be able to rebuild and that's years away from happening.

Labels: folding bikes on mass transit, mass transit, peak-oil

by Larry Lagarde

Thinking about cycling in the San Francisco area? Here's some good news for you. Bay Area Rapid Transit is actually encouraging mass transit users to take folding bikes aboard their BART light rail network.

BART recently released a video profiling a woman cyclist that uses her folding bike in combination with rides on BART to commute and get around. The video is part of BARTtv News, an effort to communicate with more potential transit users via the Internet. (Watch the BARTtv News folding bike video)

In the event the video will not play, below is a transcript of the text because it touches on many of the reasons why folding bikes are becoming so popular.

Charlise rides a bike to the Pleasant Hill BART Station on her way to work in the city. But not just any bike. She rides a folding bike.

With just a few steps, Charlise transforms her ride into a portable carry-on. Unlike a traditional bike rider, Charlise is able to take her folding bike up the escalator. And, most important, Charlise can bring her bike on any train at any time because the folders don't take up as much space as traditional bikes.

"For me, working in the city with a normal nine to five job the blackout times don't work so the folidng bike is a great option."

If Charlise makes it all look so easy, well, maybe that's because she actually takes pleasure in getting to work. "Number one, I get to do the thing I enjoy most in the morning. Number two, there's no better way to get to work than by bike. I don't have to sit in traffic."

Once Charlise gets to Embarcadero, she's on the street and unfolding her bike in no time. A click of the helmet, ring of the bell, and she's on her way. The folding bike phenomenon is attracting more and more people like Charlise despite the bike's non-traditional appearance.

By using BART in combination with your folding bike, Amtrak's Capitol Corridor train, the ferries that cross the Bay and other local mass transit, it's entirely possible that all your local Bay Area transportation needs could be accommodated without ever driving a motor vehicle. Few other cities in the USA could make the same claim.

Although San Francisco does have some steep streets, the city offers rides for cyclists of all abilities including an incredible bikeway across the Golden Gate Bridge as well as bike trails along the bay shore and into the coastal mountain range.

Labels: BART, folding bikes on mass transit

Why Folding Bikes Are So Popular In The UK

Last week, a story titled "Why get stuck when you can fold" appeared in Life and Health section of The Guardian (a London newspaper). Essentially, the story explained that more commuters and travelers in the UK are looking at alternatives to traveling by car. Since folding bikes are more portable and are allowed in many situations where full size bikes are denied, their popularity is exploding.

If you're thinking about traveling to the UK with a bike that folds, you'll probably want to read the story as it details the bicycle policies of transit operators serving the London region (such as railways like Eurostar, bus lines like National Express, the Underground, ferries such as P&O and even airlines like British Airways).

The Guardian Folding Bike Story

Labels: England, folding bikes on mass transit, London, UK, United Kingdom