Tag / transit

by Adron

A Round About San Francisco

Boarded the MUNI #12 and headed back out to the Mission District. I’d just finished exploring San Francisco for the day. I’ve started writing this at 6:08pm on this the 14th of October, but the adventure started about 8 hours ago.

My night was spent in Bernal Heights, a pleasant neighborhood somewhat removed from downtown view by a large hill. As many things in San Francisco, it isn’t that this hill was anything special, just that it blocked view of anything and also required a high climb to get over it to board the BART, MUNI or to even drive into town.

It All Started

The day started by a steep climb up to Cortland Street and then boarded the #67 Bernal Heights bus to 24th and Folsom. There I had a mission, to check out the first of two coffee shops I wanted to check out; Phils Coffee and Sightglass Coffee. The two are perfectly aligned for a trip via the #67 to Phils, and then the #12 from Phils to Signtglass. Easy peasy.

I arrived at Phils after the massive climb and then drop up and over Bernal Heights on the #67. The buses they use for this route have to have some kind of serious torque for the climb, the hill being no joke. On the decline, we’re talking the same powerful brake to counter the torqued climb. Once down off the hill the route heads up Folsom with an end bound for transfer with the BART at 24th and Mission.

Upon arrival at Phils I analyzed the menu and ordered a coffee at the register. Only too late I noticed I needed to order at the pour over part of the counter. Doh! My mistake. The cashier smiled and pointed me in the right direction. I then ordered, properly this time, and then took a seat on a bench they have to wait for my dark abyss of caffeinated happiness. It arrived and I took a seat in a comfy chair akin to a recliner, without the recliner part. I unleashed my laptop and typed away at my direction and ideas for the day. After catching up with emails, easily 60+ of the things, I dove into playing around with some code and while multi-tasking, checking out the routes in the area on MUNI and figuring out what my lunch would be. I figured out that a deli sandwich would be good after I found the MUNI routes, and packed my computer and off to lunch.

I arrived at the place I wanted to eat, at 2:43pm only to realize that everyone was a little confused. This place was freaking packed with people eating whatever they might call it meal. 2nd lunch maybe, 1st dinner, maybe only the Hobbits of Lord of the Rings might know. With that realization of reality I walked a bit further and found a Thai Restaurant. Thus consuming some delicious yellow curry, I departed forthwith and decided instead of boarding the #12 I’d actually go ahead and walk to the BART at 24th and Mission to board and get into the city.

So with a late lunch, a cup of happy darkness, I entered the tunnels and boarded the BART to downtown. Within minutes a train arrived, I was whisked to downtown, and detrained at the Powell Street stop and started my walk to Folsom and 7th.

San Francisco Buildings are Hard to Get

Upon reaching 7th I turned left to walk the length of 7th toward Folsom. I kept my eyes peeled for Sightglass Coffee. The issues of course, harkens to this problem that San Francisco has. I’m not really sure it is considered a problem, but it can be until you get used to looking for extremely nondescript and downtrodden buildings that businesses are located in. Almost the entirety of SOMA is one big semi-gentrified multi-block region that has building that just look all torn up. Also, throw into the mix, that the buildings often have hidden or decayed signs, with streetscapes that are halfway destroyed, under construction or in some way appearing dilapidated  It makes it hard to actually find something, when often it doesn’t look like there is anything in the buildings anyway. But I do digress.

I finally saw it, or where it should be, across the street and walked across. Once I was about 4 feet in front of the main entrance it was obvious that this was the place. I walked in ready for round two of the black tar of caffeine goodness. The insides of Sightglass were impressive. Newly rebuilt or refinished, the inside was the complete opposite of the external street area. The counter was pretty cool too. I got my beverage and took a seat to hack out some code and finish various articles I needed to write up.

After a great hacking session (code & writing) I packed again and headed to the bus stop. There I boarded the #12 at Harrison and 4th to head off to transfer to the #67 back to my residence for the night. A short I put together…  of the Sightglass Coffee & the #12 arrival…

Once that trip was over I stopped by a small corner deli for some food and then waited for the #67. It arrived and off I rolled for the remainder of my day…

by Adron

Transit Meetup in Portland (Oregon) – Day, Time and Place!

Hello all, so after voting, here’s the winning day, time and place. Of course, since the CL Streetcar is rolling, let’s meet along that line just for fun. We’ll meet on Wednesday the 3rd at 6:45pm. Here’s the meeting place I’ve come up with.

Sizzle Pie Pizza
624 East Burnside Street
Portland, OR 97214

RSVP for this meetup here!

Ok, so it’s really on more than just merely the streetcar line. I figured that’d make things even easier. I’ll call ahead and forewarn them that a bunch of transit geeks will be arriving to fix all the world’s problems – so the appropriate fanfare should be prepared. 😉

…and remember, have a good transit ride so you can share the adventure when you arrive.

NOTE: This is an all ages place, so feel free one and all to join us. There is beer available, so you can toast to transit if you’d like. Cheers!

RSVP for this meetup here!

by Adron

A Salem Commute, TriMet Almost Messes it Up and a Video of the Trip

Arriving in Tualatin.

Arriving in Tualatin.

Today started at 4:30am for me. I had some business meetings to attend in Salem, Oregon. This seemed like a good opportunity to take a trip to Salem with my girl Kristen. This commute would have us following this trip:

  1. Walk 6 blocks to the MAX Galleria transit stop (check out TriMet’s Map).
  2. Depart on 5:16am MAX to Beaverton Transit Center.
  3. Arrive and depart on the WES to Wilsonville, Oregon.
  4. Then take the Cherriots 1x to Salem, Oregon.

A relatively simple trip really, except for the 3 transfers and a theoretical 21 minute transfer wait to the WES. That’s kind of a bummer. However, what really caused stress is we ended up with zero transfer time. Cuz ya see, the frikkin’ 5:16am west bound MAX NEVER ARRIVED! That meant standing there on pins and needles hoping to catch the next MAX, which at that hour doesn’t come for…  drum roll please… 21 minutes!  Yeah, exactly 21 minutes, which would mean if everything departs on time then the transfer to the WES couldn’t occur, which meant the Cherriots transfer wouldn’t occur, which would mean I’d either be 30-60 minutes late.

WES Train o' The Day

WES Train o’ The Day

But as the trip started, amazingly, we caught that next MAX which was precisely on time 21 minutes later. Amazingly, the WES had not departed when we arrived in Beaverton TC. I guess, TriMet had managed to delay the train? Maybe the conductor or engineer on the train had held knowing familiar faces weren’t aboard. It is totally possibly since the WES crew generally tends to roll that way – they’re good with the passengers.

Either way, I’ve arrived, Kristen is off to work, and I made this silly video with happy goofy travel music (cuz it is canned, and it is a pain to find music that isn’t copyrighted on the Internet).  Next time I might add some of my own custom music, a little shredding for the soul always kicks a trip into overdrive.

Cheers!

by Adron

Surly Cross Check

As one may know that reads my blog. I bike, a lot. Even by Portland standards I ride regularly. By the regular lazy American’s standards I probably seem obsessed. Well today I just stepped up the ante again. I purchased a Surly Cross Check from Clever Cycles on Hawthorne here in Portland. Great shop, great service. My Giant will become my “secondary” and “loaner” bike when riding with people in from out of town.

Surly Cross Check in Black

Surly Cross Check in Black

So the Surly Cross Check has some awesome Portland features. What do I mean by Portland Features? Read on and I’ll explain.

1. First off, the bike is a great road bike. With 100% Surly proprietary 4130 CroMoly tubing. TIG welded. Double butted main triangle it’s a brutally strong bike. It’s got more in common with my Redline freestyle bike than my other bikes. But that’s a good thing, ya see, I’m not a soft rider. I ride hard, brutally hard sometimes, and sometimes have a tendency to break really strong bikes. That’s one of the first things I’m stoked about, strength is important.

2. The bike fits (and this is one of those Portland Features) on the bike racks on Trimet Buses really well, and easily comes on and off with a single hand. I don’t have to balance it or hold the bike with both hands, making the movement to hook the front wheel much easier.

3. The bike is much lighter than my current main bike. Making it even easier to mount on a rack on the MAX or mount on the WES racks. Another Portland Feature! This of course also makes it easy to mount up on the racks on the LINK in Seattle and other cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc.

4. The bike rides with much less resistance than my current ride. It also has a multi-positional handelbar setup. The setup includes the Cane Creek 40, Salsa Bell Lap, Tektro Cantilever Brakes connected to Tektro Brak Levers. Topping all this off with Shimano SL-BS77s. This makes riding for hours or days possible, without me ending up a bent mess of a human being!

So I’m setup, ready for a long ride. I think I might pull off one of those tonight. Anybody in Portland up for a few dozen miles?  🙂

Cheers!

by Adron

Calling Transit & Bike Portlanders

Hello all, I’m putting together a project that will kick off a set of blog entries across various Portlander’s (or anybody’s blogs for that matter) blogs. I’d like to do the following:

#1
Setup a transit ride on any of the lines that points out some of the best new amenities in the city’s system.

#2
Setup a bike ride on any major route that shows great street improvements, bicycle safety changes or features, and other characteristics.

Combine the results of either of the above into a set of blog entries from each person’s perspective of the trip.

So who is in?