So address the issue: why did Metro fail to build the dedicated cycle-pedestrian paths along the Extension as originally promised?

I happen to like a combination of bikes and transit – I ride transit in combination with riding my Schwinn World Sport around town. Regarding high polluting buses, however, the black smoke-chugging buses we associate with city transit is largely a thing of the past. Today all of our buses run on an ultra-low [sulfur] clean diesel or soy biodiesel blend. The allowable sulfur content for ULSD (15 ppm) is much lower than the previous U.S. on-highway standard for low sulfur diesel (500 ppm) which not only reduces emissions of sulfur compounds (a cause of acid rain), but also allows advanced emission control systems to be fitted that would otherwise be damaged by these compounds. These systems can greatly reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter. Also, the buses do receive very routine maintenance which helps them keep this lower rate of emissions through their vehicle life (often up to 500,000 miles).

Thanks to these new systems, we can project a 69% reduction in Nox emissions and 64% in particulate emissions for Metro’s Bus and Van fleet over the next ten years. It’s not a perfect solution, but the more people that take transit instead of taking more polluting private vehicles, the better for the air quality for the region.

While this CO2 calculator compares forms of vehicular transport, it gives a nice side-by-side comparison of the CO2 emissions of different transportation choices including small car, large car, rail and bus.

But yes, I consider my bike the cleanest form of transportation I take!