General Carlessness

We are already under attack

2009-07-14T13:37:00.003-05:00

My grandmother is scared paranoid that any minute now I will perish in some elaborate terrorist attack on Chicago, because Obama is president or something.

I'm vastly more worried that I'll be taken out by some dumbfuck gang underling with bad aim, because that is what is actually happening day after day after day.

But that's not terrorism, it's just business as usual on the streets in the city, so no one is terribly concerned about that sort of thing.

Bike to the train museum

2009-07-14T00:30:00.004-05:00

I got tired of waiting for Some Guy to take me to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union. Well, isn't that why I have a bike? So last Saturday I finally went there myself.

It's about 10 miles from the Woodstock Metra station (Union Pacific Northwest line, out of Ogilvie Transportation Center). I might have saved a few miles if I'd gone to Crystal Lake instead, but Crystal Lake has sprawled the size of a small republic with correspondingly nutty traffic. I didn't want to deal with that, and it was high time I took on some bona fide country roads this season anyway. That turned out to be a good plan---it was a pleasant ride, and the drivers were (*gasp!*) courteous and safe, although I'd still try to avoid Dean Street in the future. Hills plus headwind plus heavy traffic is more than I'd prefer to handle at the same time, at least when I'm riding through a rural area. Or what's supposed to be a rural area. Or at least for now.

The museum wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I still had a geeked-out great time. If only I hadn't had to leave in such a hurry later that afternoon in order to catch my train back to Chicago. The subtle irony of this did not escape me, given that most of the other visitors riding the two demo trains running that day probably hadn't ridden any sort of normal train recently. Whereas I ride both diesel and electric trains all the time, some of which probably even qualify as "vintage," unfortunately. (Dear Amtrak: The fact that the passenger cars currently in use were built in 1979 really isn't something that should be bragged about.) It's just like riding a real train, I thought, complete with the repeating chorus of "are we there yet?" in shrill, youthful voices almost as soon as we'd pulled out of the depot.

This coming weekend is Diesel Days, so I'll probably be heading back to partake in the awesomeness. With better planning I would have put off my trip for another week anyway, since by midnight I was so tired that I ended up skipping the L.A.T.E. Ride. Again. As I had figured that I probably would. (And I'd finally snagged a rider number in the first wave, too.) Well, most of my adventures are pretty spontaneous. I needed to get out, and the Illinois Railway Museum was the first crazy idea that popped into my head at 6am. (Long story.) You do one L.A.T.E. Ride by yourself, and you've done 'em all.

Save American jobs without driving off a cliff

2009-07-13T13:50:00.003-05:00

Is there any good reason the Big 3 couldn't get into train car manufacturing? The federal government orders trains from Japan even as it flings money around attempting to lure citizens into purchasing American cars. It makes no frackin' sense!

Support the Calumet-Sag Trail and win a sexy, sexy bike

2009-07-13T12:27:00.003-05:00

The Friends of the Calumet Sag Trail is having a raffle: For just $5 per ticket or $10 per three tickets, you could win a 2009 Trek Soho, an 8-speed belt-drive bike in Trek's Urban Series.* Even better, for every $5 you spend on raffle tickets, you compel the federal government to give us $25 to build the Calumet-Sag Trail.

Super special thanks to RBikes in Palos Heights, Trek, and Senator Durbin.

*Of course, this is not to say that any other kind of bike is not urban, or that "urban bikes" can't be ridden outside major cities. Don't let marketing gimmicks tell you what you can and can't do!

Gender confusion

2009-07-11T06:11:00.002-05:00

I don't understand how on the same day (in the same outfit and on the same bike) I can be both borderline sexual harassed and then actually harassed by some homophobe who mistook me for a guy.

Two cyclists struck, one killed, in Yorkville

2009-07-07T14:07:00.001-05:00

Darlene McCue, 46

Multicorporate train

2009-07-04T13:16:00.001-05:00

CN, CSX, BC Rail, and Illinois Central locomotives all pulling the same train. It was kind of cool.

[And that is quite possibly the most interesting thing that will happen to me today.]

Michigan about to axe Amtrak

2009-07-04T12:41:00.003-05:00

From AP via Detroit Free Press:
Michigan may cut subsidies that keep Amtrak running
...
"The Pere Marquette and Blue Water trains wouldn’t run without a state contract, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. He indicated it’s unclear how service would be affected, however, as legislators aren’t finished drawing up the budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

"Mass transit advocates are worried enough, though, that they staged bake sales in four cities Wednesday to bring attention to the proposed cuts to Amtrak and local bus operations." [emphasis added]

"'We need to have state and federal support,' said Todd Tennis of the Let’s Get Moving Coalition, a group of public transportation supporters. 'We can’t support public transportation funding with bake sales.'"
...
In other news, this.

More Metra trivia in On the Bi-Level

2009-06-29T14:26:00.005-05:00

The June 2009 issue is available in the Metra Press Center under "Passenger Newsletter." I'm too lazy to find out whether past issues are archived anywhere.

Did you know?

The people who designed our timetables way back when picked colors for the timetables based on each line's history. They even made up names for each color. (The North Central Service wasn't around back then.)

Union Pacific North Line: The old C&NW (now owned by UP) used green and yellow. So those colors were natural for its timetables. "Flambeau Green" is named for the Flambeau 400 train to Wisconsin.

Union Pacific Northwest Line: "Viking Yellow" is named for the Viking train to Minnesota.

Union Pacific West: With green and yellow already used, they opted for "Kate Shelley Rose," named for a teenage girl from Iowa who saved a train from disaster in 1881.

Milwaukee District North: "Hiawatha Orange" is named for the Milwaukee Road's famed Hiawatha trains.

Milwaukee District West: "Arrow Yellow" is named for the Arrow train to Nebraska.

BNSF Railway: "Kelly Green" or "Cascade Green" is named for the color used by the BN.

Heritage Corridor: "Alton Maroon" is named for the color used by the Alton Railroad.

SouthWest Service: "Banner Blue" is named for the Wabash Railroad's Banner Blue train.

Rock Island District: "Rocket Red" is named for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad's Rocket trains.

Metra Electric: "Panama Orange" is named for the Illinois Central Railroad's Panama Limited passenger train.

In other news, this:

Inexplicable old Metra cars in Ottawa.

Somebody should tell us it's okay

2009-06-28T22:33:00.002-05:00

It's okay to ride our bikes in whatever outfit feels comfortable or whatever is most suitable given the weather and not worry about our makeup or our hair, even if we are just going to the store or meeting friends for coffee.

It's okay to go for a ride and work up a sweat and get grease and mud and road grime on ourselves even when we're not in a tour or a race or specifically training for a tour or a race.

It's okay to use any old bike and carry stuff in any old bag and wear any old helmet and go fast or slow or any old speed in between.

We are women, we are cyclists, and it's all okay.

Battle of the bike tours

2009-06-28T17:01:00.002-05:00

The following all take place on Sunday, September 13:

Boulevard Lakefront Tour
Active Transportation Alliance, Chicago

North Shore Century
Evanstone Bicycle Club, Evanston

Capital City Century
Springfield Bicycle Club, Springfield

Yet another reason the Bicycle Movement would be better off without me

2009-06-28T13:06:00.006-05:00

My dear bicycles,

Why, why, why must you get grease all over absolutely everything? There's grease on my futon. There's grease on my desk chair. There's grease on my towels. There's grease on my bed. I don't think I own a single piece of clothing that doesn't have a stain on it somewhere.

Nobody else has this problem, so what am I doing wrong with you guys?

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge

2009-06-26T14:01:00.007-05:00

This lovely old bridge was built in 1929 as a private toll bridge with a 20-25 deg. bend in the middle (seems nobody can agree on the magnitude of the angle), either to facilitate safe navigation through the treacherous Chain of Rocks or because the land was purchased for a bridge crossing the Mississippi River at a diagonal but the US Army Corps of Engineers insisted that it be perpendicular to the navigation channel. (The USACE probably objected to a diagonal bridge precisely because navigation was already so dangerous along this stretch, I'm guessing.) The bridge went bankrupt a few years later, and in 1939 its ownership was transferred to the City of Madison, IL.

It was designated as part of US Route 66 in 1936, but its narrow width and sharp bend made it functionally obsolete as both vehicle traffic and vehicle size increased. US-66 was therefore rerouted in 1955, and the bridge was essentially replaced in 1967 by the New Chain of Rocks Bridge, which carries Interstate 270 across the main channel of the Mississippi River just upriver from this bridge. In 1968 the old Chain of Rocks Bridge was finally closed.

(Meanwhile, the Chain of Rocks had become the last obstacle in the USACE's 9 ft. navigation channel project; the Chain of Rocks Canal was built to bypass it altogether.)

For three decades the bridge sat abandoned above a stretch of the river no longer in use for navigation, vandalized, dumped on, and infested with crime, a preferred spot for "drinking parties and worse" (Johnsen) by ~~Rt. 66 fanatics and~~ locals up to no good. [Rt. 66 fans are well behaved and hold their parties elsewhere.] In 1981 it was used as a movie location, and in 1991 it was the site of a double homicide.The bridge itself fell into ruin as the authorities waffled on the high cost of demolition.

But others saw potential in this narrow, abandoned, historically fascinating bridge for a safe bike/ped route across the Mississippi River, as well as for a Rt. 66-themed tourist destination. In 1998 the bridge was leased to Trailnet, a St. Louis-based nonprofit organization that promotes active living.* Repairs and improvements were made, and the bridge was reopened to nonmotorized traffic the following year. Today it's one of the longest exclusive bike/ped bridges in the world, serving as a connection between the Madison County Transit Confluence Trail in Illinois and the St. Louis Riverfront Trail in Missouri.

Sources: Wikipedia, Trailnet, John Weeks, St. Louis Post Dispatch via American Trails, Madison County Transit, The Confluence, Biking Illinois by David Johnsen, and Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge (vol. 1) by Mary Charlotte Aubry Costello.

*And without resorting to a silly name, even!

Allegory

2009-06-24T15:07:00.010-05:00

The brown water churned and swirled below the Chain of Rocks Bridge, and I gazed longingly at the slim silhouette of the Gateway Arch downriver in the hazy distance. It was about 11 miles away via the St. Louis Riverfront Trail. I could go another 11 miles, I thought; I've only come less than 20, and I don't have that much extra stuff with me this time.

But it was 4pm and still hot as balls, and I'd just thirstily consumed a liter of water in one sitting. I was down to my last liter, and I knew there was no water available anywhere along those 11 miles that I was considering. I couldn't go 11 miles on one liter of water, not in this heat, especially with no way to keep the water cool. At the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site I had dumped out all three bottles, even the one inside my pannier, and refilled them with fresh cold water, but within five minutes the water in the clear bottle in the cage on the bike had become undrinkable.

Yes, it was that hot.

I wasn't wimping out, I reminded myself, it was just a simple fact: I couldn't do it. I would overheat and become dehydrated. If I didn't start puking and hallucinating, I'd develop a headache so terrible that I would be tempted to take my tire levers and gouge out my eyeballs. I was alone with no one to call for help except an ambulance, but being uninsured and stubborn I'd probably pass out and die before I was wiling to do that. I just can't afford the luxury of a medical emergency.

So I headed back. Fewer than 20 miles to go, but I began to feel so faint that I couldn't even ride in a straight line. The return trip took me about three hours. I even braved a limited-access highway just to save a mile and avoid a short climb. I was nearly run over on the on-ramp but didn't care, since it seemed like such a small price to pay for a shortcut.

I'm such a fraking wimp, I thought anyway, in spite of myself. I've seen chain smokers in street clothes ride centuries in this kind of weather, with nothing to drink but a case of beer, and I can't go a Bike the Drive length without stopping at a gas station and buying water---I HATE buying water!---just to drink something cold and then nearly falling off my bike from exhaustion.

For years all I've wanted is to be a long-distance cyclotourist, and I still can't go 40 miles (not at all a long distance as far as bike touring is concerned) with just one overnight's worth of stuff (and not even any camping equipment). No wonder I can't get a job---I fail at everything in general. I've successfully convinced myself that there are too many things that I simply cannot do.

There are refracting telescopes and reflecting telescopes

2009-06-22T03:33:00.003-05:00

So could we make cameras with mirrors instead of lenses, or would that be impractical?

(I don't remember enough Phys 133 to figure that out for myself.)

Another episode of Hybrid and Folder: Promiscuity

2009-06-21T07:31:00.003-05:00

Folder: Ow.
Hybrid: What now?
Folder: I need a new saddle.
Hybrid: Why?
Folder: Because that's what everyone told me yesterday when I went shopping for a squishy saddle cover.
Hybrid: I was wondering what that thing was.
Folder: Everyone was like "Well, you should try adjusting the seat first, because if you're experiencing discomfort that's the most likely reason," and I was like "Duh, I've tried that already," and then they were like "Well, then you should get a saddle designed specifically for women," and I'm like, no...
Hybrid: Why not?
Folder: Because I'm supposed to be unisex! I'm the one who gets borrowed all the time.
Hybrid: *snicker*
Folder: Now don't you start!
Hybrid: Hey, you know me.
Folder: You know, if we're that broke, then why don't we just swap saddles when needed?
Hybrid: Because, in light of my current train of thought, that would be gross?
Folder: Well, it can't be any harder than fixing a flat, right?
Hybrid: Which you've never done.
Folder: Hey, don't jinx it for me!
Hybrid: But wouldn't that whole business of taking the saddles off and putting them back on and then taking them off again and then putting then back on again compromise your whole borrowing appeal?
Folder: Well, I guess you're right. Unless it were just me, of course.
Hybrid: If it were just you and you were being borrowed, then would it really be worth all the trouble? You're trouble enough already, and your saddle's just fine for shorter rides, right?
Folder: Yeah, I probably wouldn't go that far with a stranger.
Hybrid: *snicker* *all-out laughter*
Folder: Stop it! I mean distance! I was being literal!
Hybrid: But you rode right into that one; I couldn't help myself. But seriously, since when do you... travel that far?
Folder: Since tomorrow. I'm going to Alton, apparently.
Hybrid: Huh? You?
Folder: Yep.
Hybrid: Why not me?
Folder: Because you're expensive and you scare people.
Hybrid: I don't scare people!
Folder: Well, okay, but you do make them kinda nervous. I mean, weren't you just complaining the other day that nobody on Amtrak ever seems to know what to do with you? The conductors all panic when they see you coming, and the passengers freak out like they're afraid you'll run into them.
Hybrid: Eh, those things are superficial.
Folder: Worse things than you getting your feelings hurt have happened in the world for similarly superficial reasons, you know.
Hybrid: But... the extra fee if I went instead of you is actually less than that new squishy saddle cover of yours.
Folder: *pause*
Hybrid: I guess you'll be returning it, then?
Folder: I guess. Darn. Enjoy Alton again, you scary full-size bike.
Hybrid: And you have fun being---
Folder: Just stop right there, okay?

[In other news, someday I will upgrade to business class and bring the hybrid, and see how they treat me then.]

Holy crazzap

2009-06-19T03:50:00.000-05:00

It will probably just miss me, as usual.

Update: I was wrong.

Found it

2009-06-18T18:22:00.003-05:00

Bike St. Louis maps!

Fun with maps

2009-06-17T16:21:00.004-05:00

[I am not a railfan; I just play one on the Internet.]

You learn something new every day. Today I learned that the Joliet Junction Trail, one of the regional trails of the Forest Preserve District of Will County, follows the ROW of an abandoned line of the former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.

I was trying to puzzle out the lines that Canadian National plans to abandon once the EJ&E has the capacity to replace them. Supposedly those include the one right next to my apartment, supposedly from McCormick Place down to Chicago State University. (If you know me, you know I navigate by landmarks. Never ask me for directions, even in my own neighborhood.) That doesn't seem entirely correct, but it's what I read here on Hyde Park Progress. I still haven't puzzled it out, but I did find some very informative maps that I shall save for future reference.

EJ&E Archive Map (PDF; EJ&E Archive)
CN and Class 1 Railroads (flash; CN)
CN's acquisition of the EJ&E Railway (CN)
CN proposed acquisition of EJ&E rail lines (PDF; CN)
Regional railroad map (PDF; CN)
Location Map (TRAC, but precisely where they got it isn't clear, and my efforts to track down a copy at the full resolution haven't been successful)
Metra's Proposed STAR Line (PDF; Metra)

And my own:

Well, not quite my own, but a photo of a section of the Chicagoland Bicycle Map* on my bedroom door. One night, having nothing better to do, I marked the EJ&E with a yellow highlighter for quick reference the next time I read a new batch of complaints about CN's acquisition or another screed about the STAR Line. (This helped me to determine, for example, that the proposed "Northwest Naperville" stop isn't located anywhere terribly useful, and that Barrington is indeed mightily screwed.)

The three fresh yellow lines mark spurs off the main line, one of which (apparently) is now the Joliet Junction Trail. The one south of Plainfield continues down across the Illinois River to the Dresden area. (Note that "the Dresden area" is not an official designation but my own, since everything along and near that stretch of the river is labeled as Dresden This and Dresden That. I think "Dresden" used to be a town nearby, back in the I&M Canal days.)

And now that my toilet has been fixed (again, so they say), I suppose I should get back to figuring out what it is that I actually do and somehow make a resume out of it.

*Are they going to change the name of that, too? Perhaps "Geographically Non-Specific Two-Dimensional Personal Active Transport Planning Assistant" would help reduce the rampant confusion about what it is that representational system formerly known as the "Chicagoland Bicycle Map" really shows and where, exactly, it applies. [/snark]

Escape!

2009-06-16T21:36:00.001-05:00

What could I do in St. Louis for five hours?

Fun with Garmin

2009-06-15T02:04:00.000-05:00

In other news, you know what's weird? Reading The God Delusion and God Emperor of Dune in the same period of time, that's what's weird.

Can't we just declare Lake Shore Drive a "complete street" and build an entirely separate path for bikes and only bikes?

2009-06-14T13:08:00.002-05:00

Via Chicagoist via Chainlink, a piece in Chicago magazine on the perils of the Lakefront Trail:
Lake Advisory

And people wonder why I wear a helmet.

In other news, anyone who claims that the path is free and clear south of the Museum Campus is a douchebag from Lake View who's never been on the path south of the Museum Campus. Down here we get people barbecuing right in the middle of the damn thing.

Oh darn

2009-06-14T00:17:00.001-05:00

I appear to have missed the World Naked Bike Ride.

[Lucky you.]

eyeroll

2009-06-13T17:52:00.000-05:00

Drivers.

Oh right, Bike to Work Week!

2009-06-07T13:42:00.004-05:00

Bike to Work Week is coming up soon, June 13-19, so gear up and get ready to bike commute if you already don't. The companies signed up for the Bike Commuter Challenge are listed here. Sign your company up here if no one else has yet.

(Sorry, I wasn't paying attention this year...)