Thursday, October 2, 2008

Caltrain Bikers - Holier than Caltrain

Per Caltrain

Why doesn't Caltrain add more on-board bike capacity?

The Baby Bullet expresses have proven so successful that some trains have been running out of spaces for bikes, and at times nearing capacity for passengers.



Photo Courtesy Ben Damm

2 comments:

Yokota Fritz said...

Murph, from the South Bay the non-bike cars are packed full; probably because we actually have parking at the train stations.

murphstahoe said...

The largest parking lot in the system (to quite Joe Biden I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure) is Millbrae. Last I checked that is not in the South Bay.

There is plenty of parking at 22nd St - more than 100 people get off each bullet at 22nd St and wander Potrero Hill to their cars (Pennsylvania St was made Permit Parking only just because of the Caltrain problem, but people in other parts of PoHill can use it).

The issue is less of how you get to the station where you live - worst case you could have someone drop you off. But how do you get to *WORK*. The South to North commute is more attractive to non-cyclists because in SF you have MUNI/Jitney/BART running all day. North to South - if you are lucky and have a company shuttle that's great, but it only meets certain trains. For me, I cannot take the company shuttle if I take a bullet because the shuttle only goes to Lawrence.

North to South commuters use a small range that hits their shuttles, and PA is by far the most popular stop for non-cyclists because Margarite runs all day (and there are jobs at the train station unlike many other Peninsula stops).