Improved hours for bikes on METRO Rail
Bikes are great. They don’t pollute. They’re great exercise. They can travel short-medium distances relatively quickly, sometimes more quickly than driving and parking. But bikes aren’t always wonderful for long-distance trips (although I hope I’ve proven by example that long-distance bike commuting is neither impossible nor always undesirable!). That’s why pairing them with transit makes such great sense. Transit can do long distance very well, especially when it’s given its own right of way like METRO’s light rail and park-and-ride buses are. Bike racks are relatively easy to attach to buses, and since METRO started providing racks on most local bus routes, those racks have been packed. Putting bikes on the light rail isn’t too hard either:
What you see in this picture is a bunch of extremely handsome gentlemen, their trusty steeds, and a bunch of extra room on a METRO light rail vehicle at approximately 6:00 AM this past Monday. (Behind the camera: a bunch more gentleman AND ladies with THEIR trusty steeds). Granted, this picture is exceptional for several reasons. Very frequently, there are a lot more people riding these trains, and they would be filling in all those empty spots. Also, several of the people in the picture probably wouldn’t normally be on a light rail train – or awake, for that matter – at 6:00 AM. Most importantly, until very recently you wouldn’t have seen bikes on the trains at that hour at all because they were prohibited for everything but a narrow midday window.
Those days of darkness for transportation alternatives are no more! Those courageous individuals above sacrificed their precious, beloved sleep to celebrate METRO’s new, improved bike-on-train hours: early morning (4:30 – 6:30, for the morning commute), midday (9 AM – 3 PM), and evening (after 6 PM). That’s a substantial improvement, and a lot of people who previously pined for a combined bike/train commute can now experience the metaphysical thrill of being ON a bike ON a train ON a track. The only thing that would be even better (or at least make for a better-selling movie) would be if that track was IN a dream WITHIN a dream. But, my friends, taking your bike onto trains in Houston is definitely no longer a dream.
For more bike-on-transit thrills, check out METRO’s information page: http://www.ridemetro.org/Services/Rail/BikeGuide.aspx
