e-mail to city official

Jed Howbert
Senior Policy Advisor
Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Hi Jed,

I enjoyed the discussion on the phone I had with you this afternoon.

That would be great to have a city official to sit in on the meeting that we are in the process of setting up with Bob MacLagger, Senior Director Operations Planning & Analysis, Planning, Procurement & Business Development at Metro-North Railroad. Please direct that invitation to appropriate persons.

You may forward this e-mail (or forward me contact info) to key state officials, who may be sympathetic to and may aid us in our effort to secure bicycle parking areas on commuter trains at peak hours.

Here are some of our talking points:
1) Metro-North Railroad policies should not arbitrarily and capriciously deny bicyclists the right to board bicycles on trains at peak hours and on ten holidays. That policy needs to be changed.

2) Metro-North Railroad should set aside space for safe, secure bicycle parking on the new 300 M-8 trains, the yet-to-be ordered 80 M-8 train cars and the 132 M-2 cars going through critical systems replacement.

Tie-downs that provide only for off-peak hour bicycle parking are insufficient.

a) To put this request into perspective, the planned bar cars for the M-8's are taking the seat-equivalent of a minimum of 720 spaces (10 bar cars x 72 seats per car) versus our request for 300 to 600 seat-equivalent on the M-8's.
b) On the M-8 trains the seat-equivalent area we are seeking would be a 4-seat section (2x2) adjacent to the vestibule. There we would park up to 4 bikes vertically.
c) We are seeking this space on every other cars for an aggregate seat-equivalent space of 600 seats (out of an aggregate seat total of 30,000 seats). We are willing to compromise on this with a seat equivalent space of 300 seats - bicycle parking on one out of every four cars.
d) A section of the bar car could be set aside for bicycle parking. Bicyclists drink beer, too! In fact, at the recent MNR President's Forum, one cyclist stated he would like to see higher quality micro-brew beers served.
e) To offset seat-equivalent space loss, consider flip down seats in the inner track section of the vestibules, or perpendicular to the bicycle parking.
f) On M-2 CSR cars we are seeking a bike car design similar to the Caltrain bike car configuration. Think bar car for bicycles (except that the bike cars would use a seat-equivalent space of only 40 seats per bike car as opposed to the seat-equivalent space of 92 seats that the current bar cars swallow.)

3) Metro-North policies should disband bicycle permit process. Like peak-hour and holiday restrictions, that acts as an arbitrary and capricious barrier to entry. New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, Metrolink, Tri-Rail, PATH are all agencies that discarded bicycle permits.

Thank you for your interest and support.

Richard Stowe
Rail*Trains*Ecology*Cycling
(203) 594-9097

2008 Conference of Governors on Climate Change

NEW CANAAN ADVERTISER THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008 7A
EcoMan
Spring brings green efforts

Easter Sunday, March 23rd, was the first holiday to fall at the outset of spring 2008. I celebrated that brisk, sunny day with a bicycle ride from New Canaan to an unnamed neighborhood south of Chinatown, south of the Williamsburg Bridge. Easter Sunday: the unofficial start of the cycling season.

My destination was Broadway East, where I would feast on what turned out to be an unquestionably un-Easter Sunday-like dinner.

After bicycling down Old Stamford Road I traversed a subdued U.S. 1 to New Rochelle. There I turned left on Echo Road and right on Pelham Road. That allowed me to ride through Pelham Bay Park and down Westchester Avenue. I entered Manhattan on the Third Avenue Bridge, which led me on a fast ride down Second Avenue.

Broadway East is a bright, new, upscale eatery (it opened April 7) with a palate that is decidedly low on the food chain. Our server, Annabelle, was a twenty-something who sheepishly revealed she was from Fairfield County (Greenwich, Darien and Wilton) and had boarded at Westminster School in Simsbury. Annabelle, who traveled in Africa and beyond, while pursuing pre-med at University of Edinburgh, shared with us the restaurant’s philosophy and her favorite dishes on the menu.

After dinner I bicycled back to Grand Central Terminal and with my bicycle boarded the train back to New Canaan. Fortunately, Easter Sunday isn’t one of the ten holidays each year in which Metro-North policies prohibit bicycles on trains.

The downside of those arbitrary restrictions (especially prohibiting boarding bicycles at peak hours) came to the attention of outgoing Metro-North President Peter Cannito on March 26 at the annual President’s Forum. That evening nearly a dozen cyclists expressed their outrage at Metro-North’s recent announcement to continue its current restrictive policies toward bicycles and not include bicycle parking on 300 new M-8 cars even though cyclists had been repeatedly assured that parking would be provided. A 40 percent increase in the New Haven Line fleet (380 MNR M-8 cars plus critical systems replacement rehab of 132 M-2 cars), cyclists argue, is the perfect time to integrate bikes on to trains. Add climate change and potential future fuel shortages into the mix and agency-sanctioned bikes-on-trains-at-peak-hours certainly makes sense.

Of course, other issues arise regarding climate change.

New Canaan resident and longtime Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp posits solutions in "Earth: The Sequel – the Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming," which he co-authored with Miriam Horn. Consider it to be a 21st Century update to "Energy Future: Report of the Energy Project at the Harvard Business School Project," the 1979 energy strategy primer edited by Robert Stobaugh and Daniel Yergin (Mr. Yergin’s 1991 tome "The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power" is a great read.) "Earth: The Sequel" opens with an easy-to-bite read into the research, resource and production challenges facing Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transitioning a solar future into the solar decade.

The 2008 Conference of Governors on Climate Change (http://research.yale.edu/envirocenter/) will take place at Yale University. On Friday April 18th, Governors M. Jodi Rell. Jon Corzine, Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas), Eduardo Bours (Sonora, Mexico), Martin Bursick (Czech Republic) and Premier Jean Charest (Quebec) will convene in a 10:30 a.m. plenary session open to the public at Woolsey Hall, 500 College Street. At 1:30 p.m. a signing will take place and at 2:00 p.m. Nobel Laureate Dr. R.K. Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will give a public address.

The 2008 conferences serves as a centennial anniversary of President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1908 Conference of Governors, which is credited as launching the modern conservation movement.

Theodore Roosevelt, IV will pay tribute to his great-great grandfather’s legacy in a private ceremony on Thursday evening.

Gifford Pinchot, who in 1900 founded the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (the centennial event host) and later himself served as Governor of Pennsylvania, organized the 1908 conference.

Thirty years have passed since Fred Krupp founded New Haven-based Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE.) On Sunday April 20th one of his protégés, Don Strait, CFE’s current Executive Director will address a Earth Ministries gathering at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. The talk (a primer on past, present and future Connecticut Fund for the Environment initiatives) will take place in the church’s Library Room at 11:30 a.m. That will be preceded by an organic coffee, organic cookies hour in Morrill Hall at 11:00 a.m. Everyone, regardless of religious affiliation is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Keep it green.

Richard Stowe is president of the New Canaan Environmental Group, an environmental education organization and founder and director of Rail * Trains* Ecology * Cycling, a nonprofit advocacy group promoting sustainable modes of transportation

special report on Presidents Forum to 5BBC board by Steve Faust

photo by Steven Faust


Date: Mon, Mar 31, 2008 3:36 PM
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:38
From: "Steve Faust"
To: Roger Herz , Noah Budnick , Paul Steely White , Josh Gosciak , James Zisfein , mike piedell

Richard
This is my quick writeup to the 5BBC board that was sent via the board
president Jesse Brown.

The general outside contact for the 5BBC is the club secretary - James
Zisfin - jzisfein@yahoo.com

I may have made errors in peoples names and titles - busy taking notes
and listening at the same time. Any corrections appreciated.

We need to assemble a full interstate/interclub task force to deal with
MNR.

Steve Faust

Jesse:
Here is a brief report on the Metro North meeting.
I'm in Boston for the weekend and can't post directly to the ExecBoard
email.
Steve Faust.

most of the bike speakers are here in these 5 pictures:
some of the names may not match the description - some of the spelling is wrong - taking notes and trying to listen to the meeting at the same time.

Guy standing in yellow jacket is a 5BBC leader - the name is Neile Weissman.

photo by Steven Faust


Josh Gosciak is sitting under EXIT sign in gray polypropylene is with 5BBC.

photo by Steven Faust


The yellow shirt and skinny guys are from Conn.
Yellow shirt is Richard Stowe - Rail Trains Ecology -
email at - bikes.rail.politics@gmail
Richard appears to be the key coordinator for Conn cyclists

Skinny guy is Jason Stockman, a Yale Grad student in medical research
and asked for peak hour access.
Heavy guy is not cyclist

Two women are from Conn,
Melinda Tuhus, the one without helmet, is a reporter from
NewHavenIndependent.org

Missing from photo may be "Ken Koglin" from Conn.
- editor's note: Kenneth Coughlin is Transportation Alternatives Board Secretary
Missing from photo is Paul Hammer - Conn Bicycle Coalition - the former head of that group.
Mike Pidel is out of the picture.
Mr. Ed Defreitas was not able to attend the meeting.

NOTES:
Very good meeting. I was first bike oriented speaker - focused on the
M-8 car problem, but opened up with a history of leading bike groups on NH RR starting in the
mid 1960s, and how the 5BBC are still running day and weekend trips on MNR 40
years later. Asked that better space and bike tie downs be provided.
Mentioned Denmark as a model for bikes on trains. In 3+2 minutes, did
not get into Permits, or station parking, but did briefly ask for
reverse peak bike access.

Other speakers followed up after me asking for more bike space in the
cars, for bike storage, possibly hanging by a wheel that could fit
several bikes in the limited space now allocated to wheelchairs. They
asked for peak hour access and particularly reverse peak direction.
Also for better station side bike parking.

2/3 of the speakers were for bike issues. We had a good geographic mix,
me and Josh from the city, Pidel from Westchester and others from all
over Conn. Range of types and backgrounds too.

MNR Pres Peter Cannito's responses were generally good, but he is
missing a few facts and we surprised him with a few things. He has a
severe shortage of seats on rail cars and pays $2.2 million for 100 seat
New Haven M-8 cars. He is in real pain when we talk about loosing one
or two seats, 1 to 2 percent, of a 300 car order is like loosing 3 to 6
cars! Ouch! So cutting rush hour seats does not go over well.
He was very responsive to the request for better ways to tie the bikes
in place - he did not realize the trains are missing anything above the
floor - the wheel chair tie downs.

Response on the Permit - MNR likes it because cyclists have to sign
that they read the rules and this gives the railroad some legal support
in the event of a law suit. But there have not been any suits that we
know of. And most US transit systems have given up on the Permits,
including NJT and PATH. It's probably not worth the cost of collecting
it. The M-8 train designs are pretty fixed but not frozen yet. We have
a damned good shot at getting tie downs, and a passable chance at
hanging racks or something to better keep bikes neatly in place. If
they work here, we may be able to press for retrofits on older cars.

KEY RESULT: FORM A COMMITTEE!!
Really - Cannito asked the various cycling groups to get together a
working group to advise MNR on the rail car design, on the Permit, on
reverse peak access needs, on station parking.
Basically he opened a big window of opportunity here.
Cannito wants the combined group to mail him a letter requesting a meeting.
I suggest that a copy be sent to MTA head Lee Sander as well.

Richard Stowe appears to be the key coordinator for Conn cyclists
- Rail Trains Ecology - bikes.rail.politics@gmail
We need to bring in Transportation Alternatives, NYCC and who else into this...

Cannito suggested Bob McClagger (spelling?) as the bike contact, but I
don't have his email address. Editor's Note: Bob MacLagger
I did get the following name that can be used to link up:
Thomas Tendy,
Senior Director, Customer Service
MNR
420 Lexington Ave, 9th Floor
NY, NY 10017
212 672-1251
tendy@mnr.org

It was worth the time.

Steve.

bikes-on-trains-at-peak-hours

New Haven Advocate Thursday, April 10, 2008 page 6
Transportation
Training Wheels

Metro-North's new train cars will be a dream ride for commuters - unless you have a bike.
By Betsy Yagla

The cars on Caltrain (pictured), California's mass transit system, have plenty of space for bikes. New Metro-North cars won't.
Jason Stockmann Photo

The bike rack at New Haven's Union Station is always full. There might be fewer bikes there if Metro-North trains allowed them onboard during peak hours.

But Metro North and Connecticut's Commuter Rail Council say space should be reserved for passengers, not bikes, on crowded rush hour trains. That spells trouble for inter-modal commuters who wish to travel by rail and bike to work.

The new Metro-North train cars on order, 300 M8 models, are being designed to accommodate two bikes per car, but only during off-peak train hours. When cyclists were promised a spot for their bikes on the trains, they assumed that it meant any time of day. That misunderstanding has cycling advocates peeved.

Last fall, Connecticut's rail administrator, Gene Colonese, e-mailed New Haven cyclist Hunter Smith, saying "the new M8 rail cars that will begin to appear on the New Haven Line in 2009 are being designed to accommodate bicycles." He didn't mention the no-bikes-during-peak-hours limitation.

Metro-North charges $5 for a lifetime bike permit, but allows them on trains on weekdays only from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and after 8 p.m. There's no bike access on holidays and restricted access on the days before and after. None of this will change with the new rail cars.

"As you know, peak hours are crowded and a bike takes up a significant amount of space that can be occupied by a human being," says Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders. "Until such time when our trains are not crowded, bikes will not be allowed."

"People are spending $350, $400 a month and they're standing," says Commuter Rail Council president Jim Cameron, who commutes daily from Darien to New York. "If there's no more room for passengers, how could there be room for bikes?" Cameron suggests revisting the issue in 2012, when all the M8s are scheduled to come online.

But cyclists want change now. New Haven cyclist Jason Stockmann says, "It would be very shortsighted for Metro-North not to take the next step and reduce our dependency on automobiles now."

Cyclists want to ride the train with their bikes instead of driving to the station, or looking for scant bike parking at the station. Some commuters work in offices too far to walk to from stations, but close enough to cycle to, says Stockman. Others want to ride to save on gas or lessen their carbon footprint.

In March cyclists attended a public hearing in Metro-North's Grand Central headquarters to ask for bike access on peak trains, but were refused. ECC's concerns did, however, alert state Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, who's looking to force the issue by adding a bikes-on-trains amendment to a transportation bill in the state legislature.

"People would make that decision if they knew they could take their bike at each end of the trip," says Mushinsky. "It would allow them to leave their car at home and ease up congestion on our roads."

Mushinsky suggests bikes be allowed only on a few morning and evening trains. Others suggest storing bikes, like luggage or strollers, in the overhead compartments, or adding fold-up seats that double as bike parking, like those on trains in Germany. Another idea would require cyclists to reserve a spot on the train, which would also give Metro-North statistics on how many cyclists commute via rail.

Several other states' train systems, including California and Oregon, embrace bikes. "We're just a little behind some of these other cities, but we will get there," Mushinsky says.

byagla@newhavenadvocate.com