Sometimes Depending on Transit Means Riding My Bike

Jessica Keller, MTA Service Development

People ask me, “why don’t you drive?” and I give a different answer each time. It’s a financial decision for the most part. I like nice clothes and shoes so I don’t buy cars, insurance or gas…..I am after all, a government employee.

ANYWAY, this month is Bike Month in Baltimore. I’m not sure it is Bike Month anywhere else but it is Bike Month HERE. I signed up for the Baltimore Bike Month Challenge where I log my bike miles and take bike photos to gain points to win stuff. I don’t care what stuff I win (or in my case, have no chance of winning), I just like being part of something and this something is pretty cool.

A few weeks ago, I rode my bike from my front door to my work door for the first time – all because of this challenge. It was over 6 miles on my 7-speed…..over 6 miles using my post-baby-no workout-in 2-yrs-body. IT WAS AWESOME! I rode my bike past waterfalls I didn’t know existed.

Quiet Hidden location on the Jones Falls Trail

I squeezed in some work-work that I can’t typically take care of on my way to the office. I also stopped at a McD’s for coffee then pedaled on to the office. My commute took 45 minutes, including my stops – about the same time it takes me on my transit commute. I’m not complaining though, I’m saving the transit commute for bad weather……..the other 364 days/yr in Baltimore……..ok, I am kidding… 300.

How the voices of MTA help our customers reach the two most important points on earth.

By Guy Henderson

Whether it’s that big test at school that you can’t afford to miss, the appointment for the coolest job you ever interviewed for, the doctor’s visit that’s going to keep you healthy, or just a ride to the job that frowns on latecomers, the MTA recognizes that, to our customers, there are really only two important points on earth. At least as far as their commute is concerned.

Here and there.

To the MTA Transit Team, “here” is where you are. “There” is where you want to be. And they’re proud to be the part of a great transportation service that lets customers (like you) know whether your mode of travel is going to get you there on time.

Every morning and afternoon, MTA Transit Team Network Manager Marc Jones, as well as his traffic information broadcast team Vonnetta Brooks and Kurt Kroncke, swing into action. They broadcast to radio, television and cable stations the latest updates on issues that affect our customers and the on-time performance of MTA Local Bus, Light Rail, Metro Subway and MARC Train Service. Because their updates are – at least for the time being – audio only, they’re used to being anonymous. But no matter the form of communication, they know they’re having an impact on thousands of listeners who “just want to get where they’re going.”

In the years they’ve been broadcasting MTA updates, the Transit Team has been confronted with every manner of special event that can cause a delay in service, including movie sets, grand openings, road repairs and regular old traffic congestion. By helping to equip our customers with the information they need to work around potential delays, The Team likes to think of themselves as the folks who help thousands of kids get to school on time, parents arrive at their jobs safely, job applicants start off on a good foot and thousands more get to that “most important place on earth.”

There.

Meet the team

       Marc Jones

          Kurt Kroncke

Vonnetta Brooks

          The Transit Team

Does your Personal Transportation Portfolio pass the test?

Michael J. Walk,
Performance Management, MTA

Any investment person will tell you that diversity is fundamental to a successful investment portfolio. That’s true for your personal transportation “portfolio” as well. When you diversify your ways of getting around to include walking, biking, car-sharing, taxi, and, of course, public transit, you’re likely to find more money in your pocket, a healthier, more energetic body, and even new friends.

I’m living proof that this approach works. So if you’re open to considering the rich variety of transportation options available to you, consider some alternatives that are both good for you and good for the planet too.

Walking
Each day (unless I'm biking, Zipping, or taxiing), I walk about a total of 30-40 minutes between my house and the bus stop. Not only is it great exercise, but it gives me some time to just enjoy the scenery. That 30-40 minutes may seem like a lot, but if drive now, you probably already walk at least half that time just to get to and from your car, depending on where you park. If you live within 15-20 minutes of a transit point, consider making walking part of your transportation portfolio.

Biking
Adding a bike to your transportation portfolio and integrating it with other modes of transport greatly extends the distance you can travel in a single trip and multiplies your transportation options. Bikes can be used on almost all forms of MTA’s transit services, and they can be the perfect solution to the "last mile problem."

Zipcar
Zipcar is an excellent transportation option for those trips where you really need a car, for rural destinations, major grocery store shopping sprees and the like. It's basically car rental without the need to go to the rental store every time you need a car. You don't have to pay for gas or insurance, either, and you can rent by the hour or the day. There are cars located in key locations throughout Baltimore City. I use Zipcar when I've got really late nights and/or early mornings or I just need to take a trip right now. Zipcar users in Baltimore will even find they’re eligible for discounts on coffee at select establishment or two around town.

Guaranteed Ride Home
The Guaranteed Ride Home program is another excellent addition to your transportation portfolio. You can get free (yes, free) taxi rides when you have emergencies or unscheduled mandated overtime. This program helps to answer the “what if there's an emergency and I have to get home right away?” question. I've used it once so far, and it was really convenient.

Taxi
Although transit users may not always think of taxis as an alternative, it really is a great way to get around when you have to go far, are in a rush, or when you really just want to get home right now. I use a cool little app called Taxi Magic, which lets me book and pay for taxi trips right from my Blackberry. The app also provides an estimated fare so you won't be caught off-guard when you get to your destination.

RideSharing
Sometimes all it takes to get to where you want to go is to go along with someone else. Programs like Zimride let you tag along with others! If that doesn't work, try shooting emails off to your friends or colleagues. Bet you’ll get more than a few responses, fast.

Public Transit
I've ridden all forms of MTA transit service except for Mobility (which I can't ride anyway). Google’s trip planner has all of MTA's service in it and it can help you find the best way to get around on transit. If you download the Google maps app to your phone, you have an instant on-the-fly transit navigator. In fact, if you have a web-enabled smart phone, you’ll also have much more flexibility when making day-to-day decisions on how to get around.


The real test of a successful Personal Transportation Portfolio
Like a snowflake, your own Personal Transportation Portfolio is probably unique to you, depending on your location, physical abilities, access to a web-enabled mobile phone and lots of other factors. I created my own transportation portfolio to help me keep track of my trip mode history. I figure I’m successful if I consider car-alternatives for every trip I take, and if I manage to actually use those alternatives more than half the time. As you’ll see if you visit my portfolio,
I manage to use alternatives to my own car almost 59 percent of the time. (The purple portion of the graph is how often I used my car.) Whether that test of success works for you depends entirely on your own transportation situation.

In any case, if you’d like help exploring your options, just contact the MTA to get up to speed on how to “live the Transit Life” and start to develop your own Personal Transportation Portfolio. And if you’d like to share your experiences or have a few suggestions, we'd love to hear them! Maybe as one of our upcoming blog posts….?

Putting the “WOW” in Public Transportation

The “Words on Wheels” program reached its 12-year milestone of featuring the poetry of Baltimore city school students on our Local Bus and Light Rail lines, complemented by the artwork of students at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Aside from helping over 350,000 passengers reach their destinations safely and conveniently every day, this is a program that makes us beam with pride. Not for our own sake, you understand. Mostly because of the pride and joy we see reflected in the faces of the students who worked so hard.

This year, Words on Wheels features some of its strongest entries ever – the poems of fifteen students selected from 175 compositions submitted by scholars at elementary, middle and high schools in Baltimore City. And the work created by the MICA students to accompany the poems rocks too.

We like to think of MTA’s commitment to Words on Wheels as a signpost of our commitment to students and literacy in general, as well as a highly visible way for our best and brightest young people to express themselves. We think it’s a great way to connect with our customers too. The winning poems are always thought-provoking, and we believe they make for a richer transportation experience.

We invite you to take a look at some of the winning work, featured on MICA’s website, and enjoy a brief video of the winners.

In Memory of Eric Wolf, One of our Family

Dave Johnson
Chief Customer Communications Officer
MARC Train Service

Eric (on the right) and his long-time
co-conductor Ronnie Queen.   

The MARC Train Service is different from other MTA services in that the employees that operate the trains do not work for the MTA.  Amtrak (Penn Line) and CSX Transportation (Camden and Brunswick Lines) provide the conductors and engineers to operate the trains.  While these crews are not MTA employees, we think of them as part of the MTA family.  Yesterday, we lost one of our extended family members.

CSX Transportation Conductor Eric Wolf passed away Tuesday morning.  He suffered a massive heart attack shortly after Camden Line train #849 arrived in Washington. Eric worked for CSX Transportation and its predecessor companies for 38 years; he started working on the railroad when he was 19.

Eric was a consummate professional in his duties: transporting MARC Camden Line passengers to and from work safely ever day. But, Eric was more than a conductor--he was a jovial, humorous guy who made it a priority to make his passengers smile every day. I have known Eric for nearly 10 years, first as a passenger, then working for MARC, and I can honestly say that I never left a train that Eric worked without a smile on my face and another funny “Eric story”.

MARC has received several emails from our passengers expressing their sadness at Eric's passing.  One of them, Elaine Bentley, sent me a message this morning:

"The train (Camden Line #849) going in this morning seemed especially empty without him.  For the almost 10 years that I have been riding the train, Eric was always the conductor at the back of the train and was always nice to the passengers with his goofy humor, his wind-up toys, and morning greetings--especially to those of us who got on at Camden Yards.  It seemed that the train was his "playground" and he never showed any resentment about working or about his passengers, which made rides with him a true pleasure...It was hard for a number of us passengers to ride the train today without his announcements and morning greeting."

Before Eric came to passenger service, he worked on freight trains, often at the automobile transfer facility in Jessup.  Danny Wagner, a former CSX conductor and now a Passenger Operations Specialist in the CSX dispatching office sent me a humorous story about Eric:

“I can tell you as a new hire conductor working in the yard at Jessup in the mid 1990’s Eric was as funny as you described, in his own unique way.  He called all us new guys “Will,” no matter what your name was, when Eric walked by he would say, “hey Will”. It was weird at first but once you knew it was coming, it always made you laugh. Watching the look on other new guys faces when he called them “Will” was priceless.”

Indeed, Eric had a unique sense of humor.  If you’d ask him what he was going to do on the weekend, the response was often, “I’m gonna go to Super Fresh…they have triple coupons this week!”   But in addition to being funny, he had a heart of gold.  In talking to a retired CSX Conductor yesterday, I found out that Eric and his wife are passionate animal advocates and participated in a greyhound rescue program.  They have fostered many greyhounds that were retired from racing and prepped them to become house pets.

Arrangements are pending at this time; we will let our passengers know when this information is released.  In the words of one of our commuters, the Camden Line will never be the same again.