Metra Blackout Dates

the taste of chicago is upon us, and starting tomorrow (Friday 24th), bike will not be allowed on metra through the 4th.

 

make alternate plans.

 

even though the fest is in the afternoon, and herds of people dont go outbound to the 'taste', metra has blocked all bikes on all trains, including a.m. outbound. this of course, makes no sense to me. they just created a blanket 'no' statement to avoid any questions. 

 

last year, i took daily photos of both outbound in inbound trains to show the vast vacancy at the ADA seats where bikes go.  only friday pm inbound was there any major ridership - but no more than your usual cubs or sox game ridership.  unfortunately, metra does not accept emails and i could never forward those pictures.  i wish they would reevaluate their stance on the blanket 'no' statement.

 

luckily, im outta town for next week.

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Permalink Reply by Gin on June 23, 2011 at 1:52pm
Oh wow--thanks for the head's up. I need to get to skokie for an appt tomorrow am and had planned on a metra assist, something I never do. Looks like I will be biking the 12 miles. Maybe I will get a little CTA assist on the Kimball bus to Devon. Not that 12 miles is unmanageable, but I also need to think about the return trip one hour later.
Permalink Reply by igz on June 23, 2011 at 5:35pm
My sentiments will mirror Marks. Not criticism, but a plea. Us little people just don't have the clout that ATA has. But us little people can voice our discontent for the ATA to have some substance. As mentioned, I documented the train daily on the Milwaukee west line as a reverse commuter. It wasn't till the last Friday of the taste that I noticed a potential problem for bikes.

I also find it ironic that ATA is offering bike valet but metra won't assist in getting them the ridership from satellite communities. And of course the whole bike to work week recently commencing, this does come off as a contadiction.

But again, not ATAs fault. But can ya help? Revisit and analyse the data of ridership, of bicycle toting passenger, of where the need to block really is, if any. Metra here seems a bit stubborn like a little kid just saying 'NO'.

And I do agree that a number of other blackout dates have been lifted. Thank you for that.
Permalink Reply by igz on June 24, 2011 at 2:19am

so...this morning on the Metra Milwaukee West line...

plenty of seating available...

Permalink Reply by Adam "Cezar" Jenkins on June 24, 2011 at 2:52am

I'm on Rock Island right now, there is a guy on here with his bike. Looks like enforcement isn't heavy, at least on this train.

 

He's coming into Chicago for the mass.

Permalink Reply by Elihu Blanks on June 24, 2011 at 3:31am

I've been told "no" before on this independance week of celebration. It gives me an opportunity to test my ability to declare independance from the RTA entirly (I've already dropped CTA), by doing the round trip bike thing. It can suck if you live far out and I'm sorry for you guys that do but we WILL find our way with our without the RTA! I'd like to have them (RTA) along for the ride; but again if they won't come then we will have to leave them by the side of the road.

 

VIVA LA BIKE! :)

&

AS WE WORK TOGETHER WE WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE ALWAYS FORWARD!

Permalink Reply by Eric H on June 24, 2011 at 3:35am

The governor has been helpful in the past...much more so when he was lt. gov.  

 

It's time to ask him to do more.   In the past, Metra's snotty attitude with bikes (and so much else) could be blamed on the guy at the helm.  With him gone, it's time to move Metra into the 20th century.  

Permalink Reply by Eric H on June 24, 2011 at 3:40am

Metra's next board meeting is July 15 at 9 AM.  Anybody else going?  

 

The friendly faces of the current Metra board are listed on the Metra web page at
http://metrarail.com/metra/en/home/about_metra/leadership.html .   If you know any of them, or know somebody who might know them, why not reach out and let 'em know how you feel about how Metra's been treating bikers?    

 

 

Permalink Reply by David on June 24, 2011 at 4:03am

But I don't think that's news to Metra.  I'm not really defending the blackout dates, but I think you should at least try to understand their side of the story.  Taste greatly increases traffic in the evenings in both directions (I assume, I haven't seen the numbers).  So they could allow outbound bikes in the morning while banning bikes in both directions in the evening, but that's a logistics nightmare.  They'd get a ton of very angry cyclists who left in the morning not knowing the rule and got stuck in the suburbs in the evening ("you brought me out here, you can't leave me stranded!"). 

 

I think there are ways around this.  Metra could, for example, always allow bikes on the last inbound train.  But as the rules get more complicated, they get much harder to communicate, and Metra doesn't have a good system of communicating information (I never know which side a train is going to arrive at a new station, Metra really sucks at communicating). And I'm not sure how much such a rule would cut down on the number of arguments, anyway.

 

I take Metra on the weekends fairly often and watching how few cyclists bother to bring a bungee cord has made me a bit more sympathetic to them.  I hope that the remaining blackout dates get removed at some point, but I think it's unfair to say that Metra is just being stubborn.  They have real concerns.


iggi said:

so...this morning on the Metra Milwaukee West line...

plenty of seating available...

Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on June 24, 2011 at 4:20am

We think it's great that the community (y'all) is excited about creating change with Metra.

 

We're close to launching a new transit campaign focusing on riders (all of us) to come together about improving local transit.

 

And of course, we'll continue working to get these ideas to the Metra leadership. We hope that we'll be able to talk to them later this summer.

 

Thanks,

Ethan Spotts, Active Trans

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 24, 2011 at 7:57am

It tends to be hit or miss on the Rock Island, including the bungee cord requirement.  Lack of education and enforcement on the bungee cord requirement (or at least having the bike well secured) has caused problems on some recent trips when there were 3 or more bikes on a car, but at least one was poorly secured, or not secured at all. 

It's really special to try to add your bike to a pile of bikes, only to find that one in the middle is not attached.  :(

Adam "Cezar" Jenkins said:

I'm on Rock Island right now, there is a guy on here with his bike. Looks like enforcement isn't heavy, at least on this train.

 

He's coming into Chicago for the mass.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 24, 2011 at 8:01am

David raises some good points. During the Taste, ridership on the Rock Island tends to be very heavy on many off-peak trips, much heavier than usual. Sometimes there would be enough room for bikes, but many trains don't have room, especially now that more White Sox fans are using the line since the opening of the new 35th St. station.

With or without Bike Valet, you couldn't pay me to wade into the madness of the Taste. If I take a bike on the Rock Island between now and 7/4, it will be my Dahon folder - in a bag.

David said:

But I don't think that's news to Metra.  I'm not really defending the blackout dates, but I think you should at least try to understand their side of the story.  Taste greatly increases traffic in the evenings in both directions (I assume, I haven't seen the numbers).  So they could allow outbound bikes in the morning while banning bikes in both directions in the evening, but that's a logistics nightmare.  They'd get a ton of very angry cyclists who left in the morning not knowing the rule and got stuck in the suburbs in the evening ("you brought me out here, you can't leave me stranded!"). 

 

I think there are ways around this.  Metra could, for example, always allow bikes on the last inbound train.  But as the rules get more complicated, they get much harder to communicate, and Metra doesn't have a good system of communicating information (I never know which side a train is going to arrive at a new station, Metra really sucks at communicating). And I'm not sure how much such a rule would cut down on the number of arguments, anyway.

 

I take Metra on the weekends fairly often and watching how few cyclists bother to bring a bungee cord has made me a bit more sympathetic to them.  I hope that the remaining blackout dates get removed at some point, but I think it's unfair to say that Metra is just being stubborn.  They have real concerns.

Permalink Reply by kayaktjb on June 24, 2011 at 2:17pm
What would be response of the biking community if in exchange for no bike blackouts Metra had a rule that when a train car reaches capacity bikers would be asked to vacate their seats and stand? Would bikers think it unfair that in exchange for taking up roughly the equivalent of one seat with their bike (assuming multiple bikes on the train) bikers would give up their seats in the event of overcrowding? Again, this rule would be in exchange for no restrictions on bringing bikes on trains.

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