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Bike valet at the Ritz
Four star service adds to the appeal of low-carbon commuting.As I biked towards the front driveway of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco last week, I saw a line of fancy cars (BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc.) waiting for valet parking. I zipped past the queue and handed my bicycle to one of the valets. He gave me a claim check. Assured that my bike would be safe in a locked room, I walked to my business meeting at the hotel. And when I returned an hour later, it took only a minute to get my bike ready to roll. My experience at the Ritz gave a new boost to my passion for bike commuting. Small but important bike-friendly services can make a huge difference in one’s quest to cut down on driving a car. In the Bay Area, our public transit systems are well-equipped with features that support cyclists. BART, Muni, and Caltrain all have programs to accommodate bikes. In fact, 7% of Caltrain riders bring bikes on board — the highest percentage of any U.S. public transit system. Caltrain has entire train cars designated for bikes (capacity: 32) and a pedal-power camaraderie among the riders. Passengers on these special cars love to chat about the route they take to and from the train, and what prompted them to become bike commuters. One guy told me recently that he hated driving his car in rush-hour traffic. Another fellow said his car required too many repairs, so he decided to leave it at home in favor of the bike. Another cyclist — notably middle-aged and dressed for the office — said the best thing about biking to work is that “I feel like I’m 12 years old!” I know that feeling. Along with the environmental benefits and the regular exercise, it’s what has kept me biking to TerraPass (Berkeley to San Francisco and return) every workday for almost an entire year now. Rain or shine. I don’t expect to visit the Ritz very often, but I’m glad to know that the hotel has a place to store my bike. Tags: Bicycle commuting, Public transportation
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Comments2.
Comment by Jay
@ Apr 30, 2008 12 AM
 Love this— I hope to see bike valets at more and more places. I used to live a block from the SF Ritz and I give props to those who are biking there, its one hilly ride no matter how you cut it. 3.
Comment by Ian
@ Apr 30, 2008 5 AM
I commuted on Caltrain from San Francisco to Mountain View for a year, often with my bike. I was constantly frustrated by the bike cars. The newer Caltrain trains hold only 16 bikes, not 32. More than once, when the train arrived, the bike car was full, and a whole group of cyclists was forced to wait almost an hour for the next train, making us all very late for work. It is an act of great forgiveness to continue riding the Caltrain after experiences like that. Until Caltrain fixes the insufficient capacity for bikes on their newer trains, and until they improve the general reliability of their system, many people will go on commuting in their cars. Tom H- I live in Southie and bike to Cambridge. A much shorter route than yours, for sure, but it’s definitely faster than either driving or taking the T. I passed my neighbor on the way home yesterday in the seaport district and beat her home soundly. One thing that’s a little tough about Boston proper (possibly as compared to San Fran?) is the lack of bike lanes through most of the city. Coupled with the fact that if you bike on the right side of the right lane, you risk hitting an opening door, it can be a little nerve wracking at times. I’ve found that the safest way to ride is do “make myself a car” and simply and forcefully take up an entire lane of traffic with my bike, which is fine most of the time since cars rarely go faster than 20 or 30mph downtown, but certainly frustrates drivers on the hills. How do other people deal with biking in traffic? -Rob 
I do what you do, Rob — take the lane (I live in New York). Good discussion on this topic here. 6.
Comment by Jerome D umortier
@ Apr 30, 2008 9 AM
I commute almost everyday to work from Portland OR to Hillsboro, which is 15 miles very hilly. I love to come to work by bike: I have a lot of more energy than if I take the MAX (train). My commuting road is very pretty: at first I have to climb over the west hill giving me a beautiful view of Portland Downtown with the white Mount Hood in background at the sun set. After that I ride 4 miles in the nicest neigborhood from Portland in forest before I reach the bike path along the busy hyw 26. From 15 miles, I have only 4 miles high traffic near Nike Company. Using the right equipment and clothes rain or sun shine are not a problem to commute at work. Only 3% of Portlander commute by bike at work. @Rob (and Adam) — The danger of getting “doored” is very real: a careless driver opened his door, which I hit (hard) last October. As it turns out, I was on Mt. Auburn street, which does have a bike lane … on the right side of the road to the left of a row of parked cars. I was being a little less careful than I should have been (hindsight is 20/20 :-). I highly recommend taking a route along back roads and away from traffic, if possible. I am not sure what the rules are about “making yourself a car”, but in some cases you simply have to assert yourself to be safe; being “big and bad” is key: I have a real front light and a flashing LED rear light (both of which are on day and night), a fluorescent yellow jacket and the whole bit. But after my “dooring” the main thing I have done is to go a little out of my way if necessary to get off the road. There’s no wonder that on 3% of Portlanders or any other population rides to work. Most of us live too far away, it’s challenging, and involves exercise. Biking is a great thing, but we still have some challenges to overcome. Tom H 8.
Comment by ian22
@ May 1, 2008 11 AM
I apologize in advance as this question is not directly-related to this ‘blog post. I can’t find contact info for TerraPass staff to e-mail them privately, so I’ll post this publicly, hoping not to hijack an existing thread in the process. Can anyone tell me why existing wind farms aren’t producing anywhere near 100% possible output? I noticed this first a couple of years ago when driving from San Francisco to L.A. through the Altamont Pass wind farm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_Wind_Farm) near Livermore. The wind was blowing, but practically NONE of the generators were turning. I later read on the internet that this farm consists of mostly old, outdated smaller generators which are prone to kill migratory birds and are slowly being replaced with larger, slower spinning models. So I figured that the blades were simply locked-into place by brakes to keep them from spinning in the wind to avoid killing birds until they could be replaced with newer models. Then last night I was driving through the San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gorgonio_Pass_Wind_Farm) and the wind was blowing so hard there were dust storms and it was making my car swerve. But at the huge wind farm I’d guess fewer than 25% of the wind generators were spinning! Everyone keeps saying we need more green wind power farms, but from what I can see the existing ones aren’t even working to near capacity. What’s going on!?!? Thanks in advance to any responses.
Hi Ian, In general, wind farms almost never generate 100% of output, because wind itself is what’s called an “intermittent” source of power, meaning that it only blows part of the time. I don’t know what was going on exactly with the wind turbines you saw, but here are some possibilities: 1) Wind at ground level isn’t the same as wind hundreds of feet in the air. Maybe it wasn’t blowing as hard up where it was needed. 2) Wind turbines sometimes shut down if the wind is blowing too hard, to prevent them from being damaged. There are other possibilities as well. You can rest assured that wind farms are operated to get as much juice as possible juice out of them. 10.
Comment by ian22
@ May 1, 2008 12 PM
Are there any wind generator technologies which can take advantage of ground-level wind in that case? Perhaps a helical-blade inside a protective cage or something? I’m not a meteorologist, but if the wind is blowing hard enough to move my car around the road and a wind turbine is a couple hundred yards away it seems to me like it should be spinning. How could the wind be VERY strong at ground level and non-existent a few hundred feet up? Maybe your speculation that they were shut-down due to extreme winds is right. I hope so. It just seemed silly to be driving through a huge wind farm in extremely high winds and see all those wind generators stationary. Seems like a waste. Especially knowing somewhere a coal-fired power plant is chugging away generating filthy energy… Thanks for the response, Adam. Post a commentSearch the TerraPass blogTurn your old cellphones and PDAs into a FREE TerraPass. |
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I have been commuting to by work by bike most days (except when icy) for the last year or two. It is the simplest things that make the difference between a great experience that many would enjoy, and an additional effort that is hard. The bike valet is just another great way to make what should be a better option truly better.
Last year, I had a route from Newton to Cambridge, MA that was pretty good. There was a supposed bike path along several longer stretches of road. But it was a hazard: bumpy, narrow, unmarked, poorly drained. I rode on the side of the road instead — much smoother and safer.
This year, they repaved an alternate bike route. It’s awesome: off the road, well marked and clear, smooth, and easy. What used to be a nerve-wracking experience dodging cars is now a great ride.
The entire section, something like 3 miles of my ride, was repaved in 2 days. This cannot have been even remotely expensive compared to what we invest in roads (I live in Boston, home of the famed multi-billion dollar Big Dig).
Simple and inexpensive adjustments to our infrastructure and options can make bikes a great option for some people.
In fact, one guy in our office reported that he had ridden to work for the first time. It was not to save energy, get in shape or anything — it was just a lot faster than driving or taking the bus!
Tom H