New option for AATA trip planning

You won't find a link to it on the AATA site but Google maps has added Ann Arbor to the list of cities for which you can get transit directions as well as driving directions. It's also pretty hard to tell by looking at the page that you're there but this seems to be where you start: Google Transit Ann Arbor

Perhaps one reason AATA isn't really promoting this is that it has its own trip planning site. In not-very-extensive testing, each site seems to have its own quirks, but they definitely have advantages over using the printed route maps and timetables. Even experienced transit users can find it a little daunting to figure out a new route with them; for people who are considering taking the bus for the first time, trying to make sense of them can be a big barrier. Any new options that help potential transit users become actual transit users can't hurt efforts to increase ridership.

Hauling things by bike

I had really hoped to have a more spectacular re-launch of CFA2 in time for Curb Your Car Month 08, but it's been way busy on the non-motorized transportation front lately (which is a good thing) and it turns out it's not that easy to find bloggers who are not already blogging. So we'll do the best we can and maybe hope to have lots of new posts in time for World Carfree Day in September.

I'm (finally) prompted to post by an excellent recent Grist article on cargo bikes. Who could resist a title like Haul's Well that Ends Well?

Now, anyone know if anyone in town has an Xtracycle?

making shoes less hurty

Metafilter, the 21st century's fountain of common knowledge and folk wisdom, has a thread full of good tips on getting new shoes to be comfortable. The advice focuses on leather shoes with a lot of DIY and purchase-alternative ideas. It seems that just about any household item, from soap to vodka, will soften shoe leather. However, there isn't much info on the damage that these "softeners" might do to your nice shoes. Highly recommended for anyone who walks in shoes!

megabus to chicago

Ypsidixit got the scoop on the Megabus expansion to Ann Arbor. Megabus has been serving Detroit for a while now, and it has been a mystery to us how they could drive right past a town full of cheap-skate college students without picking up a few fares. They seem to have gotten wise to the potential jackpot and have added Ann Arbor to the 14 cities in their greater midwest service region.

But don't start packing your bags for Pittsburgh just yet. From our initial research, the Ann Arbor bus only goes to Chicago. Sure you can ride to Chicago and transfer from there (with potentially long lay-over), but there is no direct service from Ann Arbor to Toledo, Cleveland, or Columbus. In fact, even though the route map shows Ann Arbor as a stop on the way to Detroit, you can't book a seat from A2 to Detroit on the website!

Starting April 2, Megabus offers morning and afternoon service in both directions. The Ann Arbor stop is at the UofM Park and Ride lot on South State, so you can take a UofM commuter bus or AATA bus to the rendez-vous. The trips takes 4 hours and 40 minutes, and costs $15 O/W based on our queries, though the website says fares as low as $1 are possible for early bookings of low-demand seats.

Compared to Amtrak service, the Megabus fare is about $5 lower than even the weekly specials on the train, and the ride time is similar. But Megabus limits passengers to one bag and doesn't have power outlets seats. Compared to Greyhound service, the fare is about half and the trip takes two hours less on Megabus. Despite its unfortunate name, Megabus could offer carfree Ann Arborites a good Chicago-bound alternative to Amtrak, especially if you want to leave town in the morning.

DIY bottle cap helmet mirror

We've never understood the need for a rear-view mirror while cycling. The occasional glance over the shoulder has always been sufficient. But the style points earned from sporting a wearable mirror made from an attractive bottle cap and a bike spoke may just change our tune. Instructables demonstrates how to Do It Yourself.

guerrilla Link schedule

We were just lamenting the drift away from useful tips towards comments on AANews articles that now make-up the bulk of our postings. Despite our best efforts to come up with new resources and suggestions for carfree life in Ann Arbor, we're running out of ideas. But in our darkest hour, Ed Vielmetti has picked up the torch, creating a simple flickr post giving estimates for a bunch of bus stops for the Link service.

The comments in his image show his best estimate of Link arrival times by the minute, as well as nearby destinations, parking options, and wireless sources. We have been researching ways to represent this kind of info with map mash-ups or other tricks. While we were pondering and tinkering, Ed made it happen. Thanks, Ed!

laptop housekeeping on the bus

We're always on the look-out for ways to keep occupied/entertained/educated/productive/satiated during a bus ride. For those who cary a laptop, a bus commute would be a great time to check email, catch up on the latest carfree ann arbor tips, and all the other Internetty items on your to-do list. Unfortunately, AATA buses don't offer internet service yet. Some cutting-edge bus commuters may be taking advantage of GPRS connections via PDAs and smart phones, but many will have to wait for AATA wireless bus hubs or (more likely) the Wireless Washtenaw project in order to access the Internets on the bus.

That said, there are all kinds of manual maintenance and gtd (getting things done) tasks from which Net connetions tend to distract us. A 20 minute bus ride may be the perfect Web-free time to focus on a little virtual house cleaning. commutesmarter.blogspot.com posted a list of Internet-less tasks that help keep your commute productive. They include updating itunes playlists, deleting old files for disk space, and catching up on RSS feeds. We would add calendar and task list updates, prepping email and blog posts, and sorting and labeling pictures as other mundane but necessary tasks that fit nicely into a bus ride.

Of course, there are limitations to how productive bus seat typing can be. Sunlight makes the screen hard to see, bumps and sudden stops could send a laptop flying, and the twitching elbows and wandering eyes of other passengers might make you think twice before booting up on the bus. But we would, as always, be interested to hear how you take advantage of the free time on the bus, with or without technical aids.

DIY warming pads for mittens

While scouring The Internets for more useful carfree tips, we stumbled across a local hiking blog. We're are quickly learning that the most inovative carfree tricks, tips, and hacks are not labeled as such. Hiking tips are easily converted to town & city pedestrian use, so look for more links to simplehiker in the future.

Simplehiker points to a instructables post dead link on how to make microwavable rice heating pads.

However, the project seems pretty straight-forward: make a pouch, fill it with rice, put it in the microwave, then slide them into your mittens. We assume they can be reheated over and over. Without further guidence, we suggest testing the heat of the pad before sticking your hand in a hot mitten. This will work much better with a roomy pair of mittens than with gloves. Oh, and they are using dry rice, not cooked!

We stand by our theory that all you need to stay warm is a good pair of mittens and a Michigan beer. But this is a good DIY for those who haven't found the right mittens yet.

skis on the bus

We have unconfirmed reports from Ypsidixit that you can bring your x-countries skis with you on the bus*. Now that there is a little snow on the ground, this may actually come in handy. Note that they haven't added a ski rack or anything, but storing them under your seat appears to be acceptable.

"kudos to people who eschew snow-whining/excuses and instead embrace the beautiful snow and enjoy it."
Amen to that!

*your milage may vary, and is likely directly related to the friendliness of your greeting to the driver!

headphone cord wrapping tips

Whether you ride the bus, walk or ride a bike, mp3 players are a great addition to a carfree journey. Unless, that is, you are spending half the trip trying to untangle a rat's nest of headphone cord. Lifehacker posted a video from instructables on how to wind headphones so they don't get all tangled. As usual, the comments have a bunch of (possibly better) additional suggestions.

Most important is not to wind the cord too tight or bend it too much. You'll end up breaking the wire eventually.

no amount of socks can save you from a windy city winter

Everybody with a bike blog seems to be talking about this Reuter's article today. In our continuing effort to stay abreast of the carfree topic de jour, we're posting it, too. It talks about winter bike commutes in Chicago, alternating between shocking the reader with the miserable conditions and dedicated rider of the windy city and then pointing out how easy winter bike commutes are.

For the most part, there's nothing particularly interesting or new here; it's just another "wow, people ride bikes in the winter" story. We will highlight the lead paragraph, though:

Four pairs of socks, and Jackson Potter's feet were still icy blocks.
Riding his bicycle to work one Chicago winter morning, high school teacher Potter was too cold to go on. He stopped at a laundromat and asked if the owner could spare any socks.
"He gave me about 10 pairs. I put on four pairs, and my feet were still numb when I got to school," Potter said.

Layering is an effective way to stay warm (and, eventually, cool) while cycling. But packing four pair of socks into your shoes only cuts off circulation. Especially when your feet are already cold, this will bring them to a numbing freeze in no time. Fluffiness, air pockets, and space to wiggle are the the keys to warm feet. If one pair of warm socks along with a thin liner sock is not keeping your feet warm, consider switching from shoes to insulated boots.

Also, check out the Reuters Poll/Ad to the right of the text: woman's backside from butt to knee, whith two voting options- Too Thin or Never Too Thin. WTF?

bike parking mapped online

We were tipped off by the WBWC mailing list that getDowntown is working on a sort of inventory of Ann Arbor bike racks. The map they are working from is available online and they appear to be open to contributions. The map is part of an effort to identify potential improvements to downtown bike parking. If you've been bitching about the poor quantity or quality of bike parking downtown, this is your chance to take action.

While a complete inventory is not the goal of the project, this map can also be used to locate bike parking. On our initial browsing, there are still a lot of racks, hoops, and lockers missing from the map, especially non-DDA locations (across Main from the DTE Building, In front of Casey's, and all UofM locations for example). Maybe they are only counting public racks in the DDA boundaries? All the same, even if gDt doesn't intend to include all locations in their study, we hope they will eventually turn over this map (or make a duplicate) so that cyclists can continue to fill it out.

From the email:

Each marker has comments, and you can go far enough to
add photos, links, and so on to each marker. The markers are color coded, where red indicates damaged racks, green indicates potential locations for new racks, and yellow indicates specific racks/areas that need more capacity. One problem with the map is that it is difficult to convey information about a general area as opposed to a specific point (i.e. South University or Main Street).

The obvious missing item is locations that currently provide sufficient, useful bike parking. It would seem that such information would be helpful for both gDt's project and the cycling community. Maybe that is where you can chip in.

Whether or not you'd actually use this map to find bike parking, it's good to have a full inventory of facilities. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt at building one, so thanks to gDt for taking the initiative. We can't actually imagine pulling up to our downtown destination on a bike and then checking a map to find parking. If a bike rack isn't immediately obvious, we're looking for some other fixed object to lock up on. Of course this is exactly what gDt is trying to prevent with the inventory. We sure hope it improves the options as we know we probably shouldn't be locking up to stop signs and building fixtures.

the path less traveled: the bus

In previous reports, HD described his journey by foot and by bike. In his final installment, Homeless Dave catches the bus and relates his experience to us.


Installment Three: the bus (AATA)

Route 12B--which makes a loop west on Liberty, north along Maple, then
east into downtown again along Miller--offers a stop less than a
minute from my house There's a bus scheduled to service that stop at
5:22pm, which gets me where I'm going by 5:35pm, which is a bit early
to arrive for my 6:00pm appointment. But the next bus doesn't get me
there until a scheduled time of a few minutes after 6:00. My strategy
was to take the earlier bus, hope it was running late (nope, arrived
exactly on time by my watch) and disembark a couple of stops early to
kill off the extra time.

When I climbed aboard, I joined 12 other riders. The early-twenties guy seated across from me had a vinyl record album in a plastic bag sitting on his lap. Through the plastic I could make out the words 'Blue Frog' in the title. A young mother boarded at the stop after mine. She had a little red-haired girl in tow whose job it was to carry the bus pass. On entering the bus, the girl shrieked, "I have it, I have it, I have it" and tried to escape down the aisle before it could be swiped. I was prepared to block the unruly red-head's path if necessary, but the young mom managed to catch up to her and wrestle the pass away. After swiping, the red-head was hoisted by the back of her jacket into her seat. By the time we reached Maple Village, everyone originally on the bus at my stop had gotten off.

I made the return trip was via 12B as well. Routewise, 12A would have been a better choice because I would have been delivered to within a minute of my house. Schedule-wise, I would have had to wait around 50 minutes versus the 20 minutes for the 12B. This meant that I had to disembark at Miller and 7th and walk from Miller down to Liberty on 7th.

On the bus, there was a woman holding a box with a new 13-inch combo TV-VCR unit. I suspect she might have been coming from Big George's.

Along the walking segment of the trip home, at the intersection of
7th and Huron, the street was littered with a strange collection of
stuff. Motorists were just driving around the debris. After snapping
the picture I cleared the street and arranged the items neatly on the
corner.

UM student shuttle to basketball games

"Parking down there is such a pain," Liner said. "This time I parked my car outside of East Quad and then waited at the closest bus stop. It seems like a good system."

It's a little surprising to find that students actually drive to Chrysler Arena, but it is nice to see another example of UM promoting carfree alternatives for short driving trips. LSA Student Government will be providing bus transport from select dorm locations for at least a couple more games. Hopefully they will continue the program throughout the season. It's unclear whether non-UM folks are allowed on the bus, but we doubt anyone is checking.

AATA's RideTrak goes mobile

A while back we got the tip on AATA's new RideTrak internet service. Choose a route at the AATA website, and it gives you the current location and status (early, on-time or late by X minutes) of the bus. While we were excited about finally getting access to the info, we mostly grumbled about how the service could be better. We, and many others, contacted AATA through their comment form to throw a bunch of well-intended, if demanding and uninformed, suggestions at them. High on that list was mobile access to the updates.

Well, ask and ye shall receive. The front page of theride.org now announces that riders can direct browsers on their PDAs and mobile phones to mobile.theride.org for mobile access to bus updates. We haven't tried out the mobile edition yet, but are impressed with what seems like a pretty fast response to rider requests by AATA. If you have tried the mobile version of RideTrak, let us know how it worked in the comments.

We're curious whether enough people use web-enabled phones and are willing to pay connection fees to make this a usefull for a significant portion of current and potential riders. If the AATA is still looking for ways to expand their reach, maybe offering a call-in automated service would be better for some.

In any case, we're impressed with the initiative that our transit service is showing in expanding access to route information. Thanks, AATA!

on ice storms and sidewalks: a Californian's perspective

Living Small posted her reflections on being introduced to the misery and wonder of Michigan winters on her walk to work. We always enjoy reading personal accounts of carfree life. This one gets extra points for the winter walking tip.

Tuck my pants into my boots? The indignity! But I was glad for this instruction when I stepped on what looked like solid ice and landed ankle-deep in dirty slush. David was puzzled about why I had stepped there -- to him, it was obviously not solid. "Give me a break," I replied, "I was raised in captivity!"

note: tucking pants into boots wil keep them dry until snow, ice, slush, or rain gets in the boot. This may work to protect nice pants on an easy walk, but keeping the pat leg out of the boot prevents the outdoor yuck from becoming in-boot sop.

the path less traveled: walking

In response to our plea for accounts of local carfree life, Homeless Dave generously provides a description of his varying carfree experience with a fork in the road. This is part one of what looks to be developing into a three part series.

I'm starting 2007 with a regular evening appointment three times a week that was previously not on the calendar. The route I need to cover includes an east-west leg along Huron, which splits at a Y in the road, becoming Jackson Rd. to the south and Dexter-Ann-Arbor Rd. to the north. Left to my own devices, I'll be using the Dexter-Ann-Arbor Rd. fork and will then turn right onto Maple. Given the darkness, I figured I'd give a few different car-free options a try.

Installment One: Walking

Approaching Huron from the south on 7th Street, my first decision was to weigh (1) taking the south side of Huron to the Y-in-the-road, then crossing there to the south side of Dexter-Ann-Arbor Road eventually crossing to the north side of Dexter-Ann-Arbor Rd. at Maple against (2) taking the south side of Huron to the Y-in-the-road, then crossing all the way to the north side of Dexter-Ann-Arbor against (3) crossing Huron right at 7th Street, requiring no crossing at the Y-in-the-Road and no crossing of Dexter-Ann-Arbor Rd.at Maple.

I opted for (3). But here's what I encountered on the north side of Dexter-Ann-Arbor Rd. about 400 meters from the Maple intersection: No more sidewalk. It was raining, so slogging cross-country style across the front yards, planted with various bushes and whatnot, seemed like a pretty wet and nasty proposition. Not to mention a little dangerous: the first branch I took to my face caused me stumble nearly into the road with traffic approaching from behind. Crossing the street right at that point was pretty much the only reasonable choice, but required a sort of mad dash, as there was a fairly steady stream of cars in at least one of the directions.

Conclusion: use the sidewalk on the south side of Dexter-Ann-Arbor Road [i.e., use option (1)]

Total distance of a one-way trip is around two miles, probably somewhere close to the limits of my own tolerance for a regular commuting walk.

biking in a skirt

We were planning to save this for Spring, but we noticed a couple searches on the topic were sending people to cfa2. Since we are having a balmy January anyway, here are a few tips on riding like a girl.

If you're riding in a skirt, consider:
- wearing heavier, limp material that is less likely to lift in the wind
- wearing shorts or tights under your skirt
- fixing your skirt to your leg (garter, pant leg strap or tape)
- busting out your legwarmers from 1984 on cold days
- sporting those cute panties that you are dying to show off


how to dress like a girl and still ride a bike
(definitely read the comments)

how to ride in a skirt and heels


A skirtguard keeps your skirt from getting caught in the rear wheel spokes and brakes.
DIY HOWTO

carfree bartering in a car-centric gift economy

One of our first few posts mentions bumming rides as a simple and often over-looked carfree transportation solution. Alan Durning's article, Perils of Carless Parenting, adds a little depth to that concept. He explains that a whole lot of transactions in our lives aren't monetarily based but depend on favors, gifts and reciprocation. In his year living carless, Alan found that this gift economy, like so much of American life, is pretty auto-centric, especially when you have kids to deliver to their many scheduled events. While Alan focuses on families, the basic premise is true for any carfree person living in a carfull community; your friends and neighbors are driving everywhere and not being able to trade rides puts you in an awkward social position.

Alan suggests being creative in finding other ways to pay back neighbors, not so much in a picture-frame-made-of-popcicle-sticks-and-gumdrops way as in a matching-carfree-benefits-to-carbound-neighbors'-needs way. We thought we would take that a step further and throw out a few potential favors that you can trade for rides.

shovel snow
We said this before, but if you're already bundled up with shovel in hand, it doesn't take much extra effort to clear your neighbor's walk once you finished yours. And the effort is usually greatly appreciated. Of course the prerequisite snow must fall first...

pay for gas
For long and regularly scheduled rides, you can offer to cover fuel costs. Yes, you probably gave up your car so that you wouldn't have to be victim to rising petrol prices, but it is an appropriate trade and at least you're not paying for insurance, maintenance and car payments.

child care
If you are a parent looking for rides to little league practice, child care is a great bartering tool because it is worth more than it costs. Having a neighbor willing to watch your kids for a couple hours when emergency errands come up means you don't have to call up a sitter and work out a schedule. Also, don't rule out supervising kid delivery by transit. You might be a big hit with your neighbor kids for taking them to choir rehearsal on the bus.

downtown pick-ups
They only live a mile from downtown, but your neighbor rarely enjoys their favorite snack, chocolate cherry bread, because they can't find parking at Zingerman's. But since they offer free and convenient bike parking, it is no problem for you to grab an extra loaf on your way home. This is a very low cost/high value favor. 1 loaf chocolate cherry bread should be worth 20-30 free rides at least!

Let us know of other ways you trade for rides in the comments.

tracking the Ride with AATA

Homeless Dave tipped us off to the new goings on over at AATA. They have released a way to track the buses from the AATA website. You choose a route and AATA tells you the most recent timepoint, the status (behind or ahead of schedule), and the next timpoint, for both ingoing and outgoing buses.

After trying it out, our immediate reaction was, "Awesome! We're half way to a useful tool for bu riders." We saw two improvements that would make this great tool a whole lot greater: RSS feeds and mobile phone interface, and displaying the time the bus will arrive at my stop instead of the arcane timepoint-status-timepoint format. So we wrote to AATA and told them so via the comments/suggestion link.

Bobbie MacDonald, IT Manager at AATA, offered a speedy and helpful response to both queries. As for the RSS and mobile interface, she says, "we do have plans for PDA and cell phone interface, but all this takes money and right now it's tight."

The second issue requires a little journey into the guts of transit scheduling. First of all, it is really difficult to accurately predict future arrival times based on the current location of a bus. And the further out you try to predict, the worse it gets. It is much easier to mark a few spots along the route with expected arrival times and report whether the bus was ahead or behind schedule at that point. AATA calls these timepoints and uses them to measure schedule adherence on a route. A timepoint isn't the same as a bus stop. Timepoints may be bus stops, but not all bus stops are timepoints. As McDonald explains,

"We do not guarantee that we will be at all stops at a certain time, just timepoints as listed in the ride guide. Therefore, what we are displaying is the last timpoint the bus passed, what the schedule adherence is to that timepoint, the next timpoint on the route and the SCHEDULED departure time from that timepoint."

This timepoint system has been in place at AATA for quite a while. It's used in the paper guides and pdf versions of the schedule as well. The GPS system the implemented a while back incorporated to same concept and now it has been similarly passed on to the web tracker. So it's a little like the rocket based on a horse's ass.

We now understand the reason behind the format. And based on the "status" reports we've seen, you can pretty much expect the bus to be within a couple minutes of schedule anyway. However, all that doesn't keep us from wanting to know when the bus will pick us up at our stop.

We'd love to hear other's thoughts on the new feature, and so would AATA. Be sure to give some feedback when you try it out. We should also remind folks that UM buses offer a similar feature in a different format as we mentioned before.

For those reading this hot of the press, Bobbie warns that they are moving servers in response to high volume and this may affect service for a brief period. So don't give up if it fails on your first try.