Biking seems to be a growing way of life for many people. I have read a lot about several different organizations promoting bikes as a great form of transportation. And yes, I began reading about some of these places well before we hit $4 per gallon. A while back, my friend Sam wrote about the guys at "Zero Per Gallon" and I thought the site was pretty interesting. Sam has a great project in the works for Phoenix called Phoenix Copper Bikes. Be sure to check it out, I promise to do some follow up as more info becomes available. Who knows, maybe we can get Sam to write about it here one day. (hint hint)
During the planning stages, a lot of thought and discussion went in to making the light rail stops easily accessible to pedestrians. New trails, paths, easy access to some areas etc. were added or at least proposed. In the future, I am sure we will hear much more on that topic.
In today's AZ Republic, there is an article titled "Bike map for region unveils access to light-rail service" which has some pretty good info for people that will be biking to light rail. Of course, the on-line version won't provide you with a link to the regional bike map, Heaven forbid someone clicks off of their precious site. However you decide to get to the light rail stops, come December, we are sure you are in for one heck of a ride..
04/07/2017. Light rail is a viable way of doing long distance travel with a bike. Counts for bike loadings in 2013 if I remember correctly were around 1.5 million. I haven’t yet seen any figures for the 2016 loadings. Metro will be in the process of how to make bike storage on the cars easier – at present, one has to lift the entire bike to get the front/back wheel on the hook, which is more easily said than done, and most people just stand with their bike by the doors or in the bike area. Unfortunately, Metro has taken the stance of only using existing bike lanes and not incorporating new ones along their routes to make access for bikes easier. Frustrating!! Bike maps for the entire metropolitan region are published on a 2 or 3 year cycle and updated as the facilities grow. We can thank the Maricopa Association of Governments for publishing these maps that are distributed free of charge.