The Great Commuter Challenge: I’m a loser, baby
Posted on May 12th, 2008 – 5:38 PMBy Roadguy
Roadguy, R.T. Rybak, Toni Carter, and Lea Schuster of TLC are drawn toward the morning sunlight in Merriam Park. (A better photo is here.)
A BIT MORE CHALLENGING THAN IMAGINED
The broken gas pump was not a good omen.
This morning’s Great Commuter Challenge was sponsored by transit and biking advocates, and as the only contestant driving a carbon-spewing car, I didn’t expect them to make it easy for me. But sabotage a gas station?
No, no, of course they didn’t do that. But pulling up to a pump with no nozzle was just one of the reasons I lost to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who rode a bicycle, and Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter, who took a bus and light rail.
The not-exactly-scientific-but-entertaining race was organized by Transit for Livable Communities, with help from public agencies including Metro Transit and the Minneapolis bicycle program. My prescribed route from St. Paul’s Merriam Park to the Minneapolis Central Library downtown required me to put a gallon of gas in my car, buy a newspaper at the Lake Street light-rail station and pick up some tickets at the Bedlam Theatre box office in the Cedar-Riverside area.
All three contestants had more or less the same 6-mile route (a map is here). Carter was absolved of the fuel stop, but Rybak was instructed to grab a snack along the way.
We were under orders to obey all traffic laws, including speed limits. As my mother said, “Well, what kind of commute is that?” But after Rybak’s driver’s-license dust-up last week, we all wanted to be model citizens.
IN FIRST PLACE, FOR A BIT
After I found a functioning gas pump, I cruised past the mayor as he was finishing up his espresso chocolate chip scone, and I had excellent luck hitting green lights all along E. Lake Street.
Things started to go downhill at the Lake/Hiawatha intersection.
My attempt to walk across Lake Street to buy a Wall Street Journal took two tries, after the first push of the pedestrian button didn’t produce a walk signal. A few minutes later, I waited through two cycles of a stoplight when the arms came down at the freight train crossing.
An impatient SUV in front of me eventually blew through the red arrow, but I had a judge/monitor in the front seat next to me: Nick Mason, a member of the city’s bicycle advisory panel.
I started to have a sinking feeling — I’d already seen Carter hustling from the bus to the train station and watched Rybak zoom onto the bike trail that runs along the light-rail line.
I was pleased to find a parking spot about a block away from the Bedlam Theatre. Not bad — but not as good as the wide-open lot right next door. I must confess to some jaywalking — or rather jayrunning — at this point, with poor Nick jayrunning behind me.
Carter’s tickets were brought to her when her train stopped at the light-rail station next to Bedlam, saving her six to eight minutes over visiting the box office and waiting for the next train. Bedlam offers a $2-per-ticket discount to patrons who arrive by transit or self-power.
THE FINISH LINE
We’d all left Merriam Park at 7:40 a.m. Rybak arrived at the library at 8:11, Carter four minutes later, and yours truly five minutes after Carter.
Considering the somewhat stacked deck (in the real world, I could’ve bought a Wall Street Journal at the gas station and hopped on the freeway), my showing wasn’t too bad, and besides, the broader point was to call attention to the benefits and viability of alternative transportation. Carter spoke of how nice it was to be able to actually read her newspaper and chat with others on the bus and train, while Rybak, a triathlon-competing 52-year-old, is more fit and vibrant than your average teenager.
I got my heart rate up, too, but mostly while waiting for stoplights.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Roadguy couldn’t operate his video camera (or any other) while driving, but a couple dozen pix, taken by intrepid Nick, are here on Nick’s Flickr site, and the Rake has more here. Also, alert reader Matty was there shooting video, which should be available at some point soon. Oh, and here are the books I had to return to the library:
46 Responses to "The Great Commuter Challenge: I’m a loser, baby"
Nice job, John. 
Sounds like you were set up!
However, it’s a neat event and even if biking isn’t always faster (though sometimes it is), I’m glad to see it promoted.
Hmmm sounds fun!
I used to work in bloomington and live in south minneapolis.
I started out taking the bus. it wasted over 45 min of my time one way!
Then I swiched to a bicycle, got it down to 25 minutes.
Then one day I crashed and broke my collar bone.
No more biking!
Bus? forget about it!
I got a car.
10 minutes!
I love cars!
As an organizer of the event, I can guarantee that roadguy was not set up. I will acknowledge, however, that he did have an extraordinary run of bad luck. Sounds like my morning commute where my colleagues routinely beat me by biking or rocking the transit, while I’m out fighting for a parking spot.a train though? Ouch!
How’d you pay for that gallon of gas?
Bank loan? Cash in a savings bond? Maybe we can all chip in a little to help offset that big expense.
stacked deck indeed. you can pick up the newspaper anywhere! and having the tickets delivered to the train? please.
Seriously, what a joke. The thing is, I’m sure TLC will talk about how this “proves” that transit is faster. (Calling Matty, calling Matty…) Please. It’s like saying that I can run through the woods faster than Michael Schumacher can drive his car on the same route, therefore, I must be faster than an F1 car. If you set up the game in a way for someone to fail, it doesn’t prove anything.
IMO - Transit advocates would do a much better job of pushing their cause if they were serious about it. I’d give them a lot more creedence if they said, “hey, the bus is a slower, but you avoid the cost of parking and can nap through your commute.” Then I can evaluate on things that I actually consider when making my choice. When they say “it’s faster,” I know they’re lying and tune them out.
Oh, Prof, it was all in fun, too. Roadguy even admitted it wasn’t perfect–that he could have just taken the freeway… (But, I have been stuck in freeway traffic so bad that it took longer for me to get to work that way than by bike.)
But there were some really valid points in the race… Reading the paper on the train… Sitting in a car, while the mayor goes zipping by on the bike road… Does make ya think…
Your speech was terrific; I could really tell you love the early AM!
Sounds rigged to me. How about we have an equally rigged sequel to duplicate my trip yesterday. Start at my work in Eagan. Drive to the Menards in Richfield. Purchase a 15 huge bags of wood chips and a roll of landscape fencing. Stop at the gasoline station and fill your tank with gasoline if you’re me. If you’re not, stop at Starbucks because you can still afford to do that all the time since you’re not buying so much gasoline. End up at my house in Bloomington and unload all the cargo. Ryback? Carter? Anyone want to challenge me on a bike, on transit, even on a Prius?.
I recall a few years ago they had “races” between a bus and cool vehicles between Minneapolis and the Burnsville transit station. The bus always won, but no one pointed out that there was no relevance unless you happened to live at the transit station, I don’t think any one does. If you count the time spent taking the bus to the station, and then driving the rest of the way home vs just driving from downtown you might have wound up with a different outcome.
Barry - I’d think it’s all in fun, if TLC wouldn’t try to point to it as showing something. The fact that people like Matty - who we all know is a complete loon about transit v. driving - is going to look at gimmicks like this to reinforce his position.
I don’t need a rigged challenge to feel like this. I just need to drive to the airport from downtown and realize that I keep seeing the same train over and over. I need to hear stories about my friends who read or sleep all the way into downtown, while I remember having to deal with traffic (I live downtown now so problem solved).
Monte- I don’t think anyone here is arguing that you should take transit or a bike to buy 15 bags of wood chips and a roll of fencing.
But a mile trip to the grocery store to pick up a loaf of bread? Why even pull the car out of the garage for that?
If I were going down to the neigbhorhood market to pick up a loaf of bread, I probably would walk if the weather were nice. But I don’t do that. There’s a market about a mile from me but I’ve never been inside. I just fill up the truck with groceries at Cub or Walmart once a week, and if I run out of something I do without. Point is that you can’t have rigged competitions to make blanket statements about what people should be doing. My “wood chips” trip was just an extreme counterexample to an extreme example.
I stayed with an extended family in northern England in the mid 1980s. Being Americans they tried to buy the biggest fridge possible, but it was not much bigger than a micro-fridge that you would put pop and chips in. All the locals went to the market every day and the milkman delivered. Some people here want to live like Europeans and some don’t and the two groups have no respect for each other.
Lame. If you wanted to have a real race, everyone would abide by the same rules.
1) What’s so great about the newspapers at the Lake Street Station? Why couldn’t he pick one up at the gas station?
2) Why was the Light Rail person brought her tickets? The fact that she didn’t have to get off the train, walk a block, get the tickets, walk back to the station, then wait for the next train makes the contest completely unfair.
Listen, I have utilize a mixture of transit options: Bike, scooter, light rail, and my van. But let’s be honest here.
People seem a little defensive this morning. Don’t worry Prof S., this event was not a scientific study (as stated by Roadguy in his post) and nobody that I know will be claiming it proves anything.
I will say that everyone did have to play by the same rules which meant they had to stop at the same locations to pick up the same items on the way to their destination–a typical daily commute with errands along the way. I think the route was pretty close to giving each contestant a chance at winning. As Roadguy said, he had some bad luck and made some wrong choices about parking. This stuff happens when driving automobiles.
I hope people enjoy the video. It’s being uploaded to the world wide web for your viewing pleasure right now. It doubles as a documentary of the current deteriorated roadway conditions around town.
Glad to see so many get their knickers in a twist over a race that had some silly rules and nuances that the organizing parties made no attempt to hide.
It was all in good fun. Sometimes it’s alright to take a light-hearted approach to a serious situation, it gets people discussing the issue with passion and excitment, supporters and opposition alike. I love it!
Monte, as far as the definition of “living like Europeans” is concerned, it sounds eerily similar to my situation growing up in a small town in Southeastern Minnesota. The locals went to the market every day and the milkman delivered. Believe it or not, I’m talking about the late 1990’s.
Monte-
Check this one out:
http://www.surlybikes.com/2008_05_01_blog_archive.html#4686202699557685228
Let’s invent a contest that will make automobile transportation look as bad as possible.
Why buy gas in the AM on your way to work? Who buys one gallon? You can buy the newspaper at the gas station. You can buy the theatre tickets online or on the phone?
It’s a meaningless event, that some people will use for the senseless promotion of ‘transit’.
Well, if everyone wants super-scientific instead of fun, then there could be a lengthy study of ten-thousand commuters in the area, all with different modes of transport…
Collect data on… How much money they spend on transportation; how much time in commuting and parking; how much they weigh; how they feel psychologically; do they go to the gym to do cardio instead of walking/biking?; what’s their average blood pressure? Put it all into a computer, and then everyone will still do whatever they wanna do anyway!
Actually, Bedlam Theatre will deliver tickets to the light rail station for anyone who’s in too much of a hurry to stop by. It’s a pretty cool service.
As I’ve said: This is a non-event. A basis for a lie. There is nothing to be gained by this exercise.
Except to use the slanted results in a propaganda campaign.
Monte says “no one pointed out that there was no relevance unless you happened to live at the [Burnsville] transit station, I don’t think any one does.”
Actually, a number of people do. The 150-unit Dakota Station Apartments are part of the Burnsville Transit Station mixed use development.
Roadguy - I’m curious when they moved the Merriam Park Library. When I was there last Thursday, it was at Marshall & Fairview, not on I-94, between Prior & Cleveland, as the map showed.
At the risk of getting permanently banned, to add to DGB’s comments: Who actually buys a newspaper anymore? Obviously not many when you consider the state of the Strib’s finances. I haven’t bought a paper in years when I can read online for free.
Monte says: “Who actually buys a newspaper anymore?”
To add to your observation: It’s my guess people who don’t have internet access. Which means they are either indigent, or ‘out of the loop’. The Strib has not positioned itself well.
Last year I bought a Sunday newspaper (for a specific reason). What a waste. It’s 95% filler, a genuine waste of paper, ink, and time.
I still think it was all in fun, and we’re all gonna do what we wanna do, anyway.
If we’re gonna talk lies and propaganda, believe me, this ain’t it.
No one is gonna knock on your door in the middle of the night to give you a bike you don’t want.
Some well-to-do people ride transit and read an actual newspaper–and they read about real goverment propaganda.
Every gallon of gas the mayor saves riding his bike is money he can use to pay his traffic citation.
DI: We left from the park itself, not the library — though the starting line was at the southwest corner of the park, not the north end. The dot on the map is where the community center is.
And the dotted line for Toni Carter’s route isn’t quite right, either. I’ll see if I can get the graphics folks to fix it.
As for who reads printed newspapers: the average age is 50-something. I get a fair number of retirees who call me when they see my phone number in the print edition.
Here’s my own personal commuter challenge: Since my car was stolen last week across from my apartment on Cleveland Avenue (poetically, 1 block from the start of Monday’s challenge at Merriam Park), I’ve been busing to/from Bloomington (494 & 35W). A 25 minute drive is now a ~70 minute trip on 2 buses. The route 535 limited stop from Bloomington back to downtown in the afternoon is horrific, especially on 66th ST. from Penn to 35W, which took 10 minutes to go a half mile or so. The Crosstown construction seems to have wrought havoc to the arterial streets in this area (possible new topic for how people are coping?) I will be moving next month but have ruled out this area due to 2 more years of similar traffic “bedlam”.
In winter when I’m more likely to take the bus, I like to buy an actual physical newspaper to pass the time with. To be honest, it’s mostly for the crossword. For actual information I tend to use the internet.
It is hard to do the crossword while biking or driving a car, however. This might factor into some people’s transit decisions!
I agree with beararthur that the bus system here is mediocre.
It was built around the skeleton of the old streetcar system with random appendages tacked on as the city grew. No one has ever sat down and rethought it in terms of how we could make it more convenient for today’s Twin Cities residents. No one has ever sat and down and asked the question, “How could we use our existing resources to make it easy to live without a car in the core cities and inner suburbs?”
A good transit system first needs routes that actually go to the places that the majority of residents need and want to go to. Almost more importantly, it needs good connections, guarantees that no one will have to wait at a bus stop for more than a few minutes when transferring.
Having lived in places with really good transit systems, I have to say that the Metro Transit falls short on both counts.
I live in a neighborhood that supposedly has some of the best transit in the city, and although I try to take the bus /train as much as possible (I haven’t taken a road vehicle to the airport in about two years), I still find myself having to drive because the trip would take longer than the event I’m going to.
We’ll never persuade people to ride the bus more unless it meets their needs.
pdxtran says: “A good transit system first needs routes that actually go to the places that the majority of residents need and want to go to.”
I agree, 100%. Several years ago my daughter gave up trying to ride the bus between the U of M and Diamond Lake, because of the harrasment from young males on the bus.
If we are to have public transit, then there must be a policy, that is enforced, about how one should act on public transit.
This is actually an awful situation.
Our ‘Boy Mayor’ RT Rybak particpitated in a folly.
Everyone knows that you can get just about anywhere faster in a car, than any other mode of transportation.
Time is money. Inane contests, or treasure hunts, are not ‘fun’ - rather they are stupid. Stupid people think they are fun. But they are really stupid, pointless. The stupid people will tell you how much fun it really was.
Too bad our ‘Boy Mayor’ can’t solve real problems, such as: The Mpls school district keeps losing students. And while it’s performance keeps getting worse and worse, they ask for more and more funding - increase in taxes.
It all falls on us working people.
Sure a car is faster–until the streets are a total gridlock, that you wish you had a helicopter.
For a lotta folks, a bus means no looking around for a parking spot–and then paying ten percent of your salary for it.
And, yes, the harassment by ‘young males’ is the result of the mayor ignoring the gang infestation. (A lot of that is also a result of all the staff cuts in law enforcement.) Even if the mayor turns Giuliani and cracks down on all the gangbangers (we can dream can’t we?), I’ll still have no problem with a FUN contest. Fun is good PR.
Another “stupid” race in Philly in the same vein. The bus took forever compared to the bike/car - but the cyclist wins again!
Reading the comments on that article felt just like this blog. Just substitute DGB for morvak!
barryS says: “The bus took forever compared to the bike/car - but the cyclist wins again!”
Come’on we all know these kind of comparisons are worth nothing.
First of all, everyone hates buses. They are slow, they impede the flow of traffic, and one is stuck in the presence with any kind of ‘trash / bums / nut jobs / gang bangers’. Nobody likes the bus.
I will grant you that bicycles are agile. They can weave in and out of automobile traffic. However bikes would not have an advantage if the traffic were all bicycles! I could go on and on about how bicycles are not a solution (wind / rain / snow / ice / elderly / etc).
Yesterday, as I drove down 7th St, about 3:00 pm, in downtown Mpls, there was a young woman riding her bike. She stayed to the right, but there was traffic, and parked cars. She had to weave back and forth, causing many people to break. Here we are, about 20 to 30 drivers, all trying to blend in with this gal. What a nusiance. I really believe cyclists are trying to prove something.
It does not make sense to mix 4,000 lb vehicles with 20 lb vehicles.
That article does make one fair note - the bike coalition is only trying to point out that for trips of less than 4 miles - bikes can and will win the race a lot of the time. Obviously for longer trips, cars, buses, or trains are more practical if time is a limiting factor for you.
DGB - All I know is that *you* think these kinds of comparisons are worth nothing. There is no “we” in your argument, just you.
Why are the elderly always brought up as a problem with cycling in this country? Is it a problem to stay in good health until old age? I suppose so since we have a problem doing it at any point in our lives now…. What is considered elderly anyway?
http://english.sina.com/p/1/2008/0306/149015.html
Interesting solution to the ‘elderly’ problem: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/273333432/in/photostream/
DGB likes to find excuses to defend his 1950’s vision of the world. That’s OK, but maybe he should check out this senior citizen bicycle program in Portland, OR:
DGB Says:
First of all, everyone hates buses. They are slow, they impede the flow of traffic, and one is stuck in the presence with any kind of ‘trash / bums / nut jobs / gang bangers’.
==================
I’m calling DGB on this one. It’s a clear example of the ignorance and bigotry that’s far too prevalent in our society. Care to hop on a bus and tell folks they’re just dirtbag gangbangers?
This is disgusting.
Plenty of ‘elderly’ cyclists are kicking butt. And kicking MY butt, too. I consider myself a decent cyclist, but there are many times I have been passed up by someone old enough to be my dad.
And as far as comparing forms of transportation, each person has his/her own experiences.
My commute is more than 4 miles. Occasionally, bike riding that much has been a pain in the rear. But driving my car to work has often been been a bigger pain in the rear.
You sit on a freeway, and then roll a few inches and stop… Roll a few inches and stop. Roll a few inches and stop… …Then the ambulance and police car squeeze by to scoop up the pieces of car and driver off the pavement, because the driver thought that text-messaging was more important than watching what he was doing. Then we roll slowly past the flatbed with the big smashed-up pop can being loaded up… and everybody gawks.
And we call this efficient? Ok…
David says: “I’m calling DGB on this one. It’s a clear example of the ignorance and bigotry that’s far too prevalent in our society. Care to hop on a bus and tell folks they’re just dirtbag gangbangers?”
I’ll tell you David, most everyone wants their own personal space, away from anyone else. Public transportation is probably the worst possible situation. I grew up in NYC and Philly. I wouldn’t ever do it again.
Count how many CEO’s bicycle to work!
My theory: Ex-hippies, slackers, people who can’t succeed, are the ones who bicycle. They can’t make a difference in the ‘real world’ so they are determined to disrupt the status quo to get attention.
I either take the bus or ride my bike to work. So according to DGB I am “trash / bums / nut jobs / gang bangers’” and an ex-hippie, slacker and person who can’t suceeed.
Thanks D! I feel so good about myself right now.
Wow.
http://svbcbikes.org/btwd/ceochallenge
Yes. So many ex-hippies, slackers, and people who can’t succeed on this list of CEOs that biked to work on Monday. Damn them all for their non-success!
DGB sed: “Ex-hippies, slackers, people who can’t succeed, are the ones who bicycle. They can’t make a difference in the ‘real world’ so they are determined to disrupt the status quo to get attention”
Comments like this make me fearful of growing old and lonely.
