Summer Goals

One of my goals this summer was to get to know Southern California's light rail system which consists of two subway lines (Red and Purple) and four light rail lines (Blue, Green, Gold and Expo).  At first, I thought it was confusing with all those colors going in all directions, but now that I have a better handle on the commuter rail system (Metrolink) consisting of seven lines (91, AV, IE-OC, OC, R'side, SB, and VC) I think I can handle branching out (pun intended).

The difference between Metro and Metrolink is confusing when you first hear about it.  Remember that Metro is the bus and light rail system while Metrolink is the commuter rail.  Amtrak is the interstate rail system.  If you have a Metrolink monthly pass, you can ride Metro (light) rail and buses for free any time.  You can also ride some Amtrak trains.  This is how we roll.

Our first ride on Metro rail was the subway between Union Station and Wilshire/Western on the Purple line.  We were going to the Grove, a big mall in Los Angeles, and we didn't want to be stuck in weeknight traffic.  It was awesome because we just tapped our monthly pass and rolled our bikes through the handicapped turnstile.  There were escalators and stairs, but we could have taken an elevator if we didn't want to lift our bikes.

The Metro was fast and trains appear often.  It was good we had our own bungee to tie the bikes to a hand-rail once we were on the train.  The abrupt starting and stopping made the bikes roll a bit so we stood there and held them.  We reached our destination so quickly that it was no big deal to stand for the trip.

I get motion-sickness and the underground rail was not so fun in that regard, but it was over fast.  I'm looking forward to taking some of the other above-ground lines.  When I first started taking Metrolink, I thought I might get sick every day, but as long as I keep my eyes on a window, I feel fine.  In fact, I feel so much better than being stuck in a car.

The next CicLAvia (Sunday, August 9, 2015) would be a great time to take the Metro Expo line, but I'll be out of town.  I hope lots of people take the opportunity to experience our light rail system.  There's also a suite of free concerts in Pasadena, which might be a great way to take the Metro Gold line (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) to Memorial Park.  Last but not least, I'd like to take the Blue line down to the Long Beach Aquarium.  We got some $5 off passes in our goodie bags from the LA River Ride and I think they expire August 31st.

I'm kind of inspired right now by an event going on this Friday, July 24th at LA Union Station called PUBLISH! Your Journey.  It's part of the #MetroRail25 event series.  The event is an interactive writing activity where people's journeys will be pinned on a map and later posted online to visualize a composite portrait of commuters’ personal narratives.  Maybe we'll see you there!

Freedom Ride ~ Report

This ride was designed to liberate participants from their cars, instead riding bicycles through Los Angeles and Orange Counties, returning via Metrolink train.  We accomplished this goal with a small group of riders, which was good since it was our first time planning and leading such a ride.

We prepared for the ride by, of course, riding.  We rode ~40 mile rides many weekends in May, and ~50-70 mile rides in June, to be ready for this ride.  We started discussing it in March and set the date about a month ahead of time with a few of the riders who were really dedicated to riding it.



We planned a good amount of water/bathroom stops and regroup points, even adding one at 301 East Coast Hwy, Newport Beach, CA 92660 (Chevron/Subway) which had a very clean restroom and a great soda fountain with water/ice.

We cut the trip short of the routeslip by catching the train at Tustin instead of Irvine, but it worked out perfectly.  We learned that there's a Jack-In-The-Box and Subway/CircleK/76 to get snacks for the train.  We were only about 10 minutes early, but the train was a little late.

We met some new "bike people," other folks who enjoy freedom on two wheels as we do.  Altogether, the trip was inexpensive ($10 day pass for the train) especially since many of us brought our own snacks.  We got someone riding Metrolink that had never done it before.

LA River Ride ~ Report

The LA River Ride this year was hot, literally.  Of everything I could say about the day, the heat is the most noteworthy.  According to the Weather Underground, the temperature was 97 degrees.  Although at some points on the roads, a cycling computer read well into the triple digits.

The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) did a fantastic job of providing water stops.  Hollenbeck Park had restrooms and large water reservoirs (and music!).  Maywood and Dills Parks were also great!  There were small Clif bars, peanut-butter pretzels, water, electrolytes, and trail mix with nuts and rice crackers.

Hollenbeck Park

Maywood Park

Dills Park

Aquarium of the Pacific

I am extremely grateful to all the volunteers who made these rest stops possible.  I am also grateful to Wayne "Ridetime" Howard for taking us on the Metrolink Metric Century the weekend before the LA River Ride.  Riding in the heat for the majority of the day helped us prepare to successfully complete this ride without incident.

We completed 70 miles in about 7 hours, for some segments we were going 16-18 mph.  I will caution riders that the segment of the river trail around Firestone has some really nasty underpasses.  The trail zig-zags around some large curbs after going over a kind of bump and there is no visibility for riders coming under the roadway.  I'm not complaining, it's always great to have an underpass, but these ones are gnarly and we had a rider from our group collide with another rider in a head-on collision.  It's unclear who (if either of them) violated the centerline rule, and I'm not saying the trail should be removed or redesigned, but I am urging all cyclists to ride safely in this part of the course.  Riders that passed us, walking their bikes, mentioned that someone always "goes down" in this part of the ride, every year.