Metro and our partners at the St. Clair County Transit District are working to extend the bike trail network serving St. Clair County, Illinois, providing additional multi-modal options. Thanks to funding from St. Clair County Transit District and federal funds, a new leg of the bike trail will be constructed to extend the trail that currently goes from SWIC to the Belleville MetroLink Station. The new segment will extend to Swansea, and there is a proposed future extension that would take the bike trail all the way to Memorial Hospital Station. At the same time, the Village of Swansea is adding its own northern extension route that will connect up at the MetroLink station.
This project will not only create a grade-separated bike trail that parallels MetroLink, but will also fix some slope stability and drainage problems to protect the MetroLink alignment from creek scouring and erosion. It will also provide a safe egress for train evacuation if there were ever an emergency on MetroLink. And finally, having the trail in place will make it easier for Metro’s maintenance vehicles to reach the tracks if there is a need for maintenance.
The Notice to Proceed on this project was issued in June 2010, and it will be completed within one year.
OK, it’s summer 2010. Oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, and we still spend billions of dollars to feed our ever-increasing appetite for petroleum, all while pumping millions of pounds of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Isn’t it about time we embraced some alternatives? It’s time to get on a bike, a train, or a bus, St. Louis!
Courtney and Arch Observer's Jim Barnthouse with t-shirts and gear from Trailnet, Great Rivers Greenway, and Metro. Who needs cars with faces like these?
Thursday, June 17, is National Dump the Pump Day. Sponsored by the American Public Transit Association (APTA), Dump the Pump Day is designed to focus on conserving fuel, reducing the environmental impact of everyday commuting, and reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil by finding alternatives to the use of personal vehicles.
Walk. Bike. Take transit. It’s a great time to get out of your car and explore your neighborhood, try transit, or bike to work. Did you know bike commuters lose an average of 12 lbs during their first year of bike commuting? Or that public transit users walk an average extra 20 minutes a day over auto commuters? All over the country, transit and bike commuting is increasing as people realize the benefits of staying away from traffic.
To encourage St. Louis area commuters to Dump the Pump, Metro, together with community partners Citizens for Modern Transit, Trailnet and Great Rivers Greenway have donated some awesome gear to encourage you to walk, bike, or take transit, including:
Bike Helmets from Great Rivers Greenway
Membership to Citizens for Modern Transit
Metro 10-Ride ticket booklets
Metro messenger bag
Trailnet ride vouchers
Forest Park Shuttle tickets
Trailnet & Great Rivers Greenway T-shirts and other promotional items
Entries will be accepted through Monday, June 28. Prizes will be awarded July 6. Click here to register to win some of the awesome gear from local organizations promoting alternative transportation (as shown by myself and Arch Observer Jim Barnthouse).
I hear Jim Barnthouse is alternative energy.
People can also obtain entry forms for the Metro Dump the Pump prize giveaway at:
• Metro Headquarters – 707 N. 1st Street, St. Louis
• MetroRide Center – 7th & Washington, inside America’s Center, St. Louis
• Great Rivers Greenway – 6174 A Delmar Blvd., St. Louis
• Trailnet – 1533 Washington Avenue, St. Louis
Commuters choosing public transit on June 17 may also be greeted and thanked personally by members of Metro’s leadership team, employee volunteers, and even cheerleaders from North East Middle School in St. Louis. Because you deserve some recognition and thanks for dumping the gas pump.
Need more reasons to convince people to give up some gas? According to the APTA:
Each year, the use of public transit in the U.S. saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline by eliminating the need for 900,000 automobile fill-ups each day.
Commuters who switch to public transit can reduce the carbon emissions of their personal vehicles by 20 pounds a day, or 4,800 pounds a year.
In addition to helping save the environment, families that use public transit and live with one car can save an average of $9,000 a year.
For every $1 invested in public transportation infrastructure, $4 is generated in economic returns to communities.
June 17: National Dump the Pump Day. Step away from the car, and spend the day being the alternative.
Written byCourtneyComments Off Last Updated::June 9, 2010
St. Louis will be all about bikes this weekend with the return of St. Louis City Open Streets, the Tour de Grove cycling and neighborhood events, and ARTCRANK, a show featuring bike-inspired posters by local artists. Throw in the Central West End Taste & Art Fair, accessible by bike and transit, and you’ve got a full weekend of great St. Louis events.
Open Streets on Sunday, June 13 from 8am -1pm is a chance for you to walk, bike, run, skate, push a stroller, hula-hoop, pretty much whatever you want on a street route closed off to automobile traffic. It’s a great opportunity to explore St. Louis neighborhoods, be active, meet local business owners, and get out with friends and family.
Open Street Route Map for June 13, 2010
At the last Open Streets event in June, I saw badminton games, picnics and lemonade stands, as well as food and beverages available along the route. In addition, hubs located along the length of the route host a variety of activities – strength training, hula-hooping, yoga, kids contests, mini massages, stretching instructions, cooking demonstations and more.
The route will link the Old Post Office Plaza in Downtown St. Louis with the Central West End Taste and Art Fair on Euclid Avenue. The CWE Taste and Art Fair is Friday through Sunday featuring over 60 regional artists, 19 local eateries and live music on Friday and Saturday. The Fair location is only a few blocks from the Central West End MetroLink and Bus Transfer Center.
Trailnet in partnership with Great Rivers Greenway and the City of St. Louis will also host a Bike St. Louis tour for experienced cyclists starting at Anheuser-Busch and complete with a stop at the Velodrome in Penrose Park.
Also this weekend, the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood will host the 2010 Tour de Grove events Saturday and Sunday, with multiple cycling races and a 5K race, live music and VIP spectating parties. ARTCRANK, featuring bike-inspired posters by 35 local artists – all just $30 each - at Atomic Cowboy in the Grove on Saturday, June 12 (7:00 – Midnight) and Sunday, June 13 (Noon – 4:00).
To get to all of these amazing active events this weekend, you can take bicycles on MetroLink trains in the rear of the first car, and both front and rear of the second car. Also, all MetroBuses also have racks for two bikes on the front of the bus. Plan your trip on Google Transit.
Few excuses and plenty of reasons to get out and support our local biking and pedestrian, art, dining and music scene in St. Louis this weekend. And every weekend for that matter!
This is the first of a series of posts on bikes and transit. Biking is an important mode of transportation for millions of Americans, whether it is for health, transportation, leisure or sport. Using bicycles with transit can help increase the health and convenience of using public transit and vice versa. We here at Nextstop are big proponents of biking and bike infrastructure for St. Louis. Please let us know if there is more information that we can provide or distribute to promote biking in the region.
Note: In this video I demonstrate how to use the bike racks on MetroBus without a bike with me! (it was in the shop! Ha!) You can see how it works though. Thanks to Jim Barnthouse at Arch Observer for the great video.
Oh, man, IT’S HERE. Spring. It’s warm air, blue skies, cool pavement. For me, that means getting back on my bike – the poor neglected machine that’s been parked patiently in my basement over the winter (I don’t typically bike during colder months, but plenty of St. Louisans do!). Many days in warmer weather I like to take my bike on the bus or train to allow some added flexibility and enjoyment. To me, nothing makes me appreciate the sense of “place” in an area than exploring it from the seat and speed of a traveling bike.
But I realize one must not leap on that bike without looking. Springtime is a great time to look at the overall health and safety of your bike before embarking on that first major ride.
I talked with Nick Valdes of Big Shark Bike Company and Seth Teel of HOK to discuss what riders can do to get their bikes ride-ready:
“A.B.C.” – Air, Brakes, Cables
Seth recommends the “A.B.C.” method. First, check your tires for air. Tires that are not holding air well may have a leak or other problems. Nick says to be on the look out for dry-rot on the tire wall, tread wear, or feeling of hardness to the tire rubber. All could be signs that it’s time to replace your tires.
Bike use wears down brake pads. Make sure the bike can brake safely, and replace pads if needed. You may need to also replace the cables or chain, especially if your bike has been outside for part of the winter.
Nick recommends taking your bike to your local bike shop for a tuneup before you start the season to make sure your bike is working safely and efficiently.
Tire Repair Kit
If you plan on biking for longer than a few minutes away from your home, it’s a good idea to keep some basic bike repair gear with you, including a set of tire levers, one spare tube with the correct tire size and valve as your bike specifies, and an air pump.
Here’s a video I found useful on how to change a flat tire on a road bike. Don’t mind the jazzy background music:
Lights
As someone who often bikes near or after dark, I cannot stress how important are rear and front lights. And quite honestly, they are pretty cool. You can get energy efficient LED lights that can be permanently mounted to your bike, or removed whenever you park it.
Safety Gear
This is pretty obvious, but if you are going to the trouble of having your bike work properly, you should make sure you are safe as well. Wear a helmet, please. If you will be riding near dusk or dark, consider reflective strips or clothing to help cars and pedestrians spot you.
Get Ready to Ride!
St. Louis is blooming with great biking resources, from local urban trails to long training runs on the weekend. Here is a list of our favorite resources:
Trailnet – Loads of great rides for all ages, as well as other programs to help keep communities healthy and active.
St. Louis Bicycle Federation – Rides, swap meets, bike parking, advocacy and a lot of other benefits of membership.
Bike St. Louis – A system of on-street bike routes throughout St. Louis City and County. Great for learning how to get around town.
Madison County Transit Trails (part of Madison County Transit!!) in Illinois. 85 miles of scenic bikeways…great for exploring and long rides!
Instead of “Bike-share Vending Machines”, how ’bout just some simple bike lockers at suburban metrolink stations, available for daily or monthly rentals?
I thought that was a good question, so I spent some time thinking about it, and here’s my answer: Why not both? (more…)
Written byJenniferComments Off Last Updated::September 8, 2009
I think sometimes we forget that the Arch isn’t just a great big tall monument/building, but is actually a national park. This weekend is a great time to experience the “park” part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial with two days of outdoor fun, celebrating our national parks.
ParkPalooza features 10 interactive “stations” for visitors, including archeology, mapping, water safety, nature encounters, and more. The event also features two seven-mile guided bike tours on Sunday, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. (Seven miles maybe sounds like a lot, but this tour is about one and a half hours of biking over nice level ground. Casual riders in reasonable shape should have no problem. Map .pdf here.) You can even stop by an view the “Baseball’s Gateway to the West” exhibit, complete with a scavenger hunt game (.pdf).
What’s the best part? Not only is this event totally accessible via Metro (Lacledes Landing MetroLink station, of course!) but it is 100% free. Get more info by visiting the national parks page, and check out the photos from last year while you’re there.
Written byJenniferComments Off Last Updated::July 22, 2009
I’ve just returned* from a trip to Europe to visit my dad and one of the things I enjoyed the most was how easy it was to get around the cities I was visiting without having a car at my disposal. I hope to publish a few posts pondering the differences of European transit vs. American transit, but for now, an overview.
My dad lives near Waterloo, Belgium (yep, that one), and very affordable commuter trains run every five minutes or so, day & night, into nearby Brussels. There are also express buses into the city and a network of buses around the little villages and to the train station. Within Brussels, there’s street-running light rail, buses, and bikes; and the city itself is very walkable, with wide, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and good crossings. (more…)
Written byJenniferComments Off Last Updated::July 16, 2009
Every now and then, I see articles of interest to our readers but to which I have little or nothing to add. I will, from time to time, post such links in a roundup post so you don’t miss them.
There’s bike-friendly, and then there’s bike-lovin.’ Copenhagen falls into the “lovin’” category.
Digital bike-counter display? Totally. Doubles as air pump? Awesome. But check this out:
The city will give a Biomega bike to cyclist number 500,000, and since there are about 12,000 cyclists that pass by on a week day (about 25k both ways), it shouldn’t take too long for that number to be reached. (emphasis mine)
12,000 cyclists per day, going in one direction on one city street? Totally awesome!
There’s a lot of anger out there against cyclists. In my years of bike commuting, I’ve been swerved at, “bumped” off the road, screamed at by people trying to startle me, had a fast-food soda cup (half-full) thrown at me out the window of a minivan, and honked at for no reason (other than to scare me). There’s no question that motorist harassment makes it scary to bike commute and seriously diminishes from the joy that comes from getting out on a bike.
Columbia, Missouri’s City Council has reacted by passing an ordinance that officially makes biker harassment a crime. (Via TH.) According to The Missourian,
The ordinance, which is modeled after similar ordinances in South Carolina and Colorado, makes it a misdemeanor to do the following: throw an object at or in the direction of a cyclist, threatening a cyclist to frighten or disturb the cyclist, sounding a horn with the intention to frighten or disturb a cyclist, knowingly placing a cyclist in the path of physical injury, or knowingly engaging in conduct that creates a risk of death or serious physical injury for a cyclist.
Residents who spoke at the meeting said they have experienced all of the above, and those who remained after the deliberation stood and cheered when the ordinance was passed.
“If you’ve ever been in a subcompact car and had a semi get on your back bumper and blow the horn, that’s what it was like,” ordinance supporter Steve Epstein said of being tailed by frustrated motorists.
(emphasis mine). I think we can all agree that the items detailed by the ordinance are all bad things that drivers should not do to cyclists. That’s pretty uncontroversial. My question is, Does this ordinance help, by providing recourse to the bikers? Does it cover something the law already addresses? Does it fan the flames in Columbia’s dispute between bikers and drivers?
Feel free to weigh in on these questions or share your bike vs. car stories in the comments (whether your perspective is from behind the wheel, or from behind the handlebars).
