I didn't try any new transit during the four days that were "Try Transit Week," but I made up for it earlier this month by making a multimodal trip by light rail and bicycle from my house in Baltimore to my brother's house in Severna Park, Md. Even though the entire trip was well outside the Capital Beltway, it inspired some thoughts that I hope are worth mentioning in this blog.
One thing the trip reinforced is how important access to information is in getting more people to use public transportation. I had never been on Baltimore's light rail, much less taken a bicycle on it. I'd never seen the station where I planned to board the train, or the bike trails I planned to use at the Severna Park end. So I had to figure out where the rail lines go, what the policy is regarding bikes, how to get to the station by bike on the Baltimore end, and how to get to the bike trail on the Serverna Park end.
The whole thing worked out fine, and having done it, I really think that's a good way to make a trip down that way. (Or all the way to Annapolis if I want to go that far.) It would be pretty easy to do it the SECOND time. But that learning curve is definitely an obstacle, especially for making a one-time trip as opposed to figuring out a daily commute to work.
It wasn't difficult to find information online about the light rail system, run by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). I had some first-time jitters, picking my way along unfamiliar streets to the train station, figuring out the farecard machine, wondering if there was going to be enough room for the bike. (MTA allows bikes on the system "except on crowded trains.") I had to figure out where to put myself and my bike on the train. There's no designated place that I could see. On my trip southward, I figured out a way to do it so that people could get by and I was using two seats. On the way back, an MTA employee directed me to a different spot, but there I was taking up three seats and crowding two others. It could be there's a more clever way to do it -- I didn't see any other bicyclists I could learn from -- but I felt very much in the way. I'm glad that bikes are allowed at all, but it would be an improvement if there were a designated place to put them. Perhaps they could take some of the seats out of the last car on each train and configure it in a way that several bicycles would fit efficiently. Having a place that bikes belong would also eliminate the anxiety of wondering if a train meets MTA's definition of "crowded," or what should happen if the train gets more crowded as it goes along. WashCycle recently had a post about bikes on trains that touches on this, and also a post about bike on transit rules in the DC area.
Despite the uncertainty, the rail portion of the trip worked out fine. Likewise, once on the the bike trails south of the city, there was no problem. The biggest problem was the "multimodal" part -- connecting between the two.
As I now know, there are at least two easy ways to make that connection. I knew I eventually wanted to be on the Baltimore and Annapolis (B&A) Trail. "Baltimore and Annapolis" is a bit of an exaggeration. It may go to Annapolis on the southern end, but the northern end is in Glen Burnie, Md. There's an easy-to-follow connector to the BWI trail, a loop circling BWI airport. That will get you closer to Baltimore, but still far from downtown. I'm sure it's possible to bike to the city from there, but it would mean sharing the road with urban traffic.
That's where the light rail comes in. The southernmost light rail stop, Cromwell Station, is less than a block from the northern end of the B&A trail. If you want to spend less time on the train and more on the bike, you can connect at the Linthicum station, which is a block or so from the BWI Trail.
I tried both ways. On the way south, I got off at Linthicum. Going back, I went to Cromwell Station. Even though both stations are so close to major bike trails, you can't actually see the trails from the stations or vice versa. And if there's any signage, I didn't see it. At Linthicum, there's an asphalt trail beginning at the platform and leading in the right direction. I had hopes that it would connect with the BWI trail, but it ends at a road, with no signage. I continued in the same direction on the road, keeping my eyes open, and soon saw another asphalt trail. That turned out to be the BWI trail, but again, no signs. Luckily there were some bicyclists there getting ready for a ride, and they set me straight. It's the same situation with the connection at Cromwell Station. The station is a major transit hub, less than a block from a major bike trail, but there's no signage either at the station or on the trail to indicate the other is there. (I knew where the station was, more or less, because I had researched it.) I was surprised that there was no bike rack at the station, although there are plenty of railings to lock a bike to. I didn't see any other bikes there on the Monday morning I returned.
I wonder how many bicyclists use those trails and never realize the connection to rail is there, and how many people drive to the light rail stations without realizing they could easily bike. My brother rode out to the station with me on my way back, and he said "Hey -- Diane [his wife] and I could easily bike here and take the train to Baltimore!" He's lived there for about twenty years, I think, and rides on that trail regularly. By the way, if there were no need for the bike on the Baltimore end, he and Diane could lock up the bikes at the station and avoid the bike-on-train stress. A $1.60 train ride would take them to Camden Yards, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor, and to shopping areas downtown.
So there's a lot of room for improvement in getting the word out about how to make multimodal trips. It's certainly not as easy as getting driving directions from Google or MapQuest, or plugging a destination into the car's GPS navigation system. Hopefully, the tools for planning biking, walking and transit trips will get to that level soon. On a positive note, I was pleased to see proposed designs for Metropolitan Branch Trail signage, including very clear signage at Metrorail stops indicating where the trail is and what it is. That's the direction we need to go to get the most out of transportation infrastructure we already have.
Joe Chapline is web manager for Arlington County Commuter Services
This looks like a good candidate for Guerilla Signage (http://www.transporttrends.com/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=1501 )
Posted by: Nick | October 14, 2008 at 09:30 PM