Discrimination by Light Rail
After a late night wrestling with AppFuse and Acegi Security, I decided to take it easy this morning and ride my bike to the Light Rail, then ride it downtown. I figured it might be a bit faster, and it'd also be nice to relax a bit more on the "commute". I arrived at the station as my train was leaving, so I quickly realized that it was probably not going to be faster, but it would probably take the same amount of time. I was still determined to be a sissy and not ride my bike to work. When the next train pulled up, the conductor got on the loud speaker and said "30th and Downing Station, No Bikes Sir." WTF?! I gave the guy a boboli1 and grumbled to myself.
So I ended up riding to work today anyway. I took the Platte River Trail2, which was a nice change of pace, but it was also closed in one spot, so I had to take a detour. Long story short: every time I try to cheat the ride to work by driving, taking the bus or light rail, it always backfires. Riding to work using the Wash Park/Cherry Creek Trail route is simply the fastest way to get here, bar none. Took me an hour to get here via Platte River. Oh well, at least it's a nice trail.
1 Throw your hand in the air like you're flipping a pizza.
2 Most of these pictures were actually on my ride, save the last one.
Posted by Lee on March 11, 2005 at 03:07 PM MST #
Posted by Matt Raible on March 11, 2005 at 03:13 PM MST #
With RTD Light Rail if you're North Bound in the morning you can't take the bike on. In the evening you can take it North Bound. Same thing in the evening with Southbound. No bikes on light rail if you're Southbound in the afternoon. It's only a rush hour thing though.
You also need a pass to bring your bike on the light rail. You can go to the BikePermit link to get a pass to bring your bike on the light rail. You can also put your bike on any RTD bus - but that probably wouldn't be faster. If you go to the RTD site and click on the Bikes on Light Rail link you can also see how you load your bike on any bus.
Posted by Greg Ostravich on March 11, 2005 at 04:31 PM MST #
Posted by David Carter on March 12, 2005 at 01:12 PM MST #
Posted by Eddy Young on March 14, 2005 at 03:07 PM MST #
Here in Scotland it's not too bad. Most of the three rail companies say that you have to book a spot on your train, and that they only allow two or four bikes per train. Weird, but there you go. On a day-to-day basis, Scot-rail is the best, and only give grief if you they spot a number of bikes getting in the way, or someone is being overly officious. One day they complained when five bikes were in the rack, although there's only supposed to be two. Thing is, that most of them on my run Aberdeen->Montrose and that most get off after twenty minutes when we get to the first stop in Stonehaven. Still, most of the three years that I've been doing the commute it's been fine.
Can't wait to get back on the bike though. Broke my elbow last August, so I've just been watching the others on the bikes. But soon...!
Anyways, why wimp out, enjoy the breeze (ok not with the windchill in CO, but still) and clear out the cobwebs. If you always have hassles when you try to wimp out, it must be a sign. Go with it ;-)
Posted by Bruce Scharlau on March 15, 2005 at 04:12 PM MST #
Posted by Matt Raible on March 16, 2005 at 01:03 AM MST #