There is a moment after a long, grey winter, when, late in the afternoon, the sun breaks through the curtain of clouds, and the colors explode off the pavement. It’s brief. It’s magic. It’s spring.

I was standing in an enormous parking lot in Folsom, California. I had a speaking engagement at the REI located at the Folsom Gateway shopping center.

A real estate website states, “Folsom Gateway II is one of Northern California’s premiere regional shopping centers.” And later offers this highlight, “Highly visible, prime retail location on the Highway 50 Freeway, viewed by 200,000 vehicles daily.”

Notice how the above description gives vehicles the gift of sight.

And that is appropriate. Because cars, not people, appear to have been the focus of this development.

Cars get the prime real estate. The entire middle of the complex–big box stores on one end of the parking lot–fast food and chain restaurants on the other. The distance between the retail and food is so great, that people get in their cars and drive across the parking lot from one to the other.

The shopping complex has followed building code, I’m sure. There are sidewalks and bike lanes and even a few little benches for people to sit. But they were all empty. The scale is so huge, so spread out, that humans find it daunting.

Does anyone really want to walk the mile and a half along the edge of the big box buildings to the Starbucks? (It’s much closer in your car).

If someone was to consider walking, the intersections are so wide that I imagined rest stations halfway across with water and snacks to prepare pedestrians for the second half of their journey.

The parking lots are clean, with lovely new banners that one would find at the entrance of a Renaissance or County Fair. But no jugglers, musicians or food booths await your arrival. In reality, the banners just dress up a an ugly, ocean of asphalt.

Premiere? Is this the best we can do?

If our goal is to increase the rates of obesity and diabetes. If we want to encourage people to stay in their cars. To walk less. To spend as little time outdoors as possible. Then this truly is a premiere example of how we should move forward.

Our pedal  into the city of Évora, Portugal was made easy by following a bike trail (ecopista) that runs north of the city about 25kms to the town of Arraiolos. The trail was flat,  mostly through farm land. Away from traffic.  The sun was out. Hoopoes (a delightful bird with a comical crest) flitted from tree to tree. The smell of fall was in the air.

Yet I was just a tad depressed. This trail served as a rail line in its former life. But like so many other rail lines, it had been abandoned.

Rails-to-Trails conversions has provided cyclists and walkers and runners with some of the best trails you’ll find on the planet. But each one also marks the death of a rail line. I want to celebrate each trail, but I’m also saddened with the loss … because I love trains.  Do we have to give up one to get the other?

The only way to have both is to find other huge projects that use public land and are graded for easy use.

I would like to propose a new non-profit group … the Interstate-to-Trails Conservancy.

OK. I might be a couple of decades early, but I’d love to live long enough to see walking, cycling and public transportation become such the social norm in the United States, that our government wonders what to do with these outdated, enormous rivers of asphalt and concrete. Imagine the grand trails and greenbelts stretching for hundreds of miles. There would even be room to run rail lines.  And instead of old rail cars as cute trail-side snack bars and restaurants … maybe we’ll see old converted semi’s and RV’s instead.

Just dreaming.

Kat and I leave our hotel/hostel (no bunk beds, but a shared kitchen and bathrooms) and walk two minutes to the Metro. We descend the steps, buy tickets and catch the blue line toward downtown.

Some of the folks around us have the look of boredom and drudgery of daily commuters. But we are excited. Giddy even. This will be a day filled with transit in a big beautiful city.  I love riding any kind of transit.  Give me a bus pass and I am one happy camper. But trains and trolleys?–I’m seven-year-old-at-Disneyland-happy.

We get off at the Restauradores station and walk less than a block to our first funicular stop. Funiculars (here in Lisbon they are called “Ascensores”, are vertical trains made to climb up steep grades. A pair of trams or trains are attached to a cable.  One goes up, while the other goes down.

Ascensor da Gloria was the second to come into operation in Lisbon. It began in 1885. First run on steam, it, and all the other funiculars run on electricity now.

The passengers are a mixture of locals and tourists. The tram fills up. This is the most popular line in the city. The ride is slow, smooth and steep. You could jog up the hill faster. But the folks seated around me haven’t jogged in 30 years.

The ride takes 2 minutes and 30 seconds. But without the funicular, many elderly residents wouldn’t make it down the hill to shop, let alone back up with shopping bags. Come to think of it … I’m not sure I’d make it up the hill loaded down with groceries.

Kat and I wander around Barrio Alta–its cobblestone streets filled with small shops and residences. This city has enough museums, galleries and churches to fill any length of visit. But give me the small neighborhood streets to explore anytime.

Our wanderings lead us to our second funicular stop. Ascensor da Bica. No tourists here. One old man is in the tram, waiting. The conductor is outside talking with his buddies. One must be a maintenance man, because he opens a large metal trap door at the top of the line and steps down inside. He is whistling to himself. He has his lunch and discretely wrapped up in some paper … a bottle of wine. He continues to whistle as he closes the trap door.

Some other locals board the tram, the conductor quickly springs into action, hops on and closes the modest metal gates. We have to ask him to reopen to one to let us board.

We slowly descend back down to the commercial district.

This is the entrance on the downhill side. All the funiculars were classified as national monuments in 2002.

We step out into the street and here comes our first trolley. The #25E runs out and up into the Lapa and Estrela neighborhoods.

These babies are old. They creak and groan and squeak and shimmy along the tracks. But the move at a good clip when the traffic allows or the operator decides to put the trolley (tram) into high gear.

We take the #25E to the end of the line. We walk about the shops.  Stop in to buy some sliced ham and then settle in at a corner cafe for a coffee.

Oh. And a smoke. Got to have a smoke. Well, we didn’t. But everyone else did.

After a stop to look at a local cathedral, we boarded the #28E. This is one of the longer trolley routes in the city and probably the most fun and diverse. The route winds and curves and climbs and descends along wide boulevards and impossibly narrow streets.

We managed to score some window seats on the sidewalk side of the trolley. This is the way to see Lisbon!

The windows slide open, so you have a open air view of life in the city.

I don’t know what kind of training the operators go through, but they are skilled drivers. Between the cars, buses, trucks unloading goods, the narrow streets and steep hills–they definitely earn their living.

Wait. Wasn’t that Rob Lowe??

The city reaches out and touches you … literally. I felt a hand on my arm and turned to see a young man who was grabbing a free ride by hanging onto the trolley. There were some turns that were so tight up against buildings, I thought he (and his girlfriend) were going to be scraped off. They both arrived at the top of the hill in one piece.

You can hop off the trolley at one of the miradors (scenic lookouts) where people by the hundreds pause for a coffee or beer and stunning views.

The trolleys fill up fast. I can’t imagine what it is like in peak summer. This girl couldn’t get on the trolley, but she did hop on long enough to get the photo.

We caught the #12E line back to the Rossio district for a lunch break and some spicy piri piri chicken. On this line we had an encounter with some pickpockets working as a team of three. One guy with tourist map. One guy standing way too close and eating a sandwich in my face.  There was room in the rest of the car, but they were packed in tight next to us. We hopped off the back and caught the next trolley.

After lunch, it was onto one of the more unique elements of Lisbon’s transportation network. The Elevador de Santa Justa. It is just that. An elevator designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard and used to link Bairro Alto with downtown.

Great views from the top. You can pay extra for the higher lookout deck or linger at the cafe for another cup of coffee.

Having a much better feel for the city, we knew that funicular Gloria was a close walk away. So we boarded for the downhill journey.

These kids were so excited that they couldn’t contain themselves. Jumping up and down on the seats and laughing. But kids can get away with that. I had to remain calm and adult-like. I suppose I could have jumped up and down, but might have had the police waiting for me.

Our final funicular is Ascensor do Lavra. The oldest in the city. Unfortunately, the taggers in Lisbon will tag anything … even a national monument.

The street is barely wide enough to fit both trams. You can easily reach out and touch the buildings as it makes its way up the steep incline. At the top we wander around until we find a bus stop and take the first bus headed in what looks to be the right direction towards downtown.

Only a few more electric tram routes to go. We board the #15E. Not on old fashion trolley, but a large, two-car tram (light rail). We take it west near the waterfront to Belem …

where we locate “the place” to consume “pastel de nata.” We’ve eaten these custard pastries all over the country–served cold. They are good. But hot out of the oven with a cup of coffee? Wow! And that’s the way they are served at Antiga Confeteitara de Belem. Open since 1837, this place is enormous. You work your way through a maze of tiled dinning areas until you finally find an open table. Our waiter was friendly and happy to show the correct way to sprinkle first cinnamon and then powdered sugar on our pastales.

Full and content, we boarded the #15E again and down the line transferred to a #18E, the last of the trolley routes. The evening light reveals fewer flaws and adds more romance to our final trolley ride. It whisks us back into downtown–squeaking and creaking the whole way.

We walk down the stairs of the Metro and grab the first blue line back toward our hotel.

It had been ten and a half hours of exploration, transportation and exhilaration.

And the cost? For every metro, trolley, funicular and elevador ride combined?

7.40 Euros. Total. For both of us. (That’s ten bucks at the current exchange rate)! A day pass for the city of Lisbon costs 3.70 Euro for an adult, which gets you on all public transportation.

Possibly the best ten bucks we’ve ever spent. What a day!

Parking: Pandora will provide complimentary parking for attendees at the Seattle Public Library parking garage on Spring Street between 4th and 5th Ave. The entrance is mid-block on the south side of Spring St.   Please bring the ticket from the machine to the meeting and you will be given a coupon that you can present to the parking lot attendant after the event.

Really? Pandora is going to pay people for driving to downtown Seattle? That just strikes me as an old, tired way of thinking which I didn’t expect from such an exciting new company and our über modern library.

So this was my response to their invitation:

Hi Tim,
It would be wonderfully  progressive if Pandora gave an incentive for arriving by public transportation, foot or bicycle instead of rewarding people for driving a vehicle to a downtown urban center. You want to change the way we listen to music. I want to change the way we live in our communities.

Does the Seattle Public Library and Pandora really want people to drive to the event? They offered drivers a carrot…

Portland's Train Station

Seattle's Train Station

Two cities. Two train stations. Two completely different vibes and messages.

Portland’s AMTRAK station:
Walk outside the doors and you see the Greyhound station 500 feet away. A light rail train glides by. Bike paths with signage pointing you toward downtown are clear and highly visible. Wide sidewalks too.
The message is clear without a word being spoken. The physical surroundings announce, “Welcome to our city. Come explore. We assume you don’t have your own car. In fact, thanks for not driving.”

Seattle’s AMTRAK station:
Walk outside the doors and … you are greeted by an ENORMOUS parking lot for Qwest field. A few taxi’s are waiting at the curb. Yes. Seattle has bike lanes and local bus service, even light rail. But where are they? I guess you have to be a local to know that the Greyhound station is across town. No easy bus connection and a very long walk with baggage. The bus tunnel and light rail are a couple of blocks away … but that appears to be privaleged information as well.

The physical environment screams, “You’re on your own. Take a cab and remember to drive your own car next time.”

First impressions? As a cyclist or pedestrian, Portland embraces you … while Seattle tolerates you.

Dragon Boats racing along Portland's waterfront

We’d been in Portland only a couple hours and already we had cheered on cancer survivors paddling dragon boats, wondered through a street fair, and wove our way along the Waterfront Park bike path when we came upon Portland’s aerial tram.

A few months ago, when we were eagerly waiting for Seattle’s first line of light rail to open, we took a quick trip to Portland just to ride the rails. We trained and trolleyed, but didn’t have the time to hop on their newly opened tram connecting the waterfront to the hospital complex high on the hill. It was a stone left unturned, and here we were with our loaded touring bikes wanting to take that ride.

Portland Ariel Tram

We watched a car come into the station and passengers offload and onload when I asked Willie if he thought we could take  bikes on that thing? He turned to me and said, “They’re not going to take bikes on that thing.” It was said with a definitive, almost scornful tone. So I smiled, walked over to the attenedent and asked the very same question. Just as definitive, but with an incredulous tone that I would even ask such a question, he said, “Of course you can take your bike.”

Welcome to Portland.

AMTRAK with the New York Times

No Box Required

Riding a bike is a joy. Traveling with a bike can be a major hassle. Once you stop pedaling, a bike can be a traveling liability. Most buses, trains and airplanes in the US require you to box your bike. But times are changing. More and more city buses have bike racks. You can bring your bike on the Sounder commuter train … and light rail … and even AMTRAK.

Our Portland adventure begins by catching the 7:30am AMTRAK Cascades. Tickets purchased a month ago, along with $5 tickets for our bikes. The baggage car has racks for several bikes. It is a good time to make your reservation early, because the racks fill up, and then you are stuck having to box your bike.

For the next 3 1/2 hours we will glide along the rails (stopping for freight traffic, no doubt), sip our morning coffee from our leaking thermos, and read the Sunday New York Times while the scenery rolls by.

When we arrive in Portland, we’ll grab our bikes off the racks in the luggage department–attach our panniers, and begin our Pedal Portland adventure.

Heather Pass--North Cascades

Probably the thing we miss most about not having a car is the getaway. The ability to zoom out of the city and be out on a trail in the mountains. It is possible to do this via public transit, but it takes lots of time. We had an offer of a cabin in Mazama from a friend. It was time to rent a car.

The beauty about a rental car is that everything generally works.  Our Chevy Aveo got around 30 mpg. We used it to transport us (and our cat … he didn’t hike) our gear and way too much food out to Mazama. We hiked a loop trail up the Heather Pass, attended the Winthrop Rodeo, bought 20 lbs of the sweetest, juiciest nectarines this side of Eden and wandered around back roads just because we could.

Since renting a car for a week is generally less expensive than for three or four days … back in Seattle we took the opportunity to run errands that are normally a hassle on our bikes.

Then we returned the car. No need to worry about whether it needs new brakes or a tuneup. No oil is leaking out into our gutter and out into the Puget Sound. A perfect getaway.

I turned 48 on August 4th. The same day that Barack Obama did. Yep. We are birthday buddies (he didn’t call). We were both born on August 4, 1961. I have to say that having the same birthday as your president does have a “so what have you done with your life?” element to it. So, while Barack shared birthday cake with White House correspondent Helen Thomas (another birthday bud), I got to live out a dream of riding the rails all the way to Vancouver.

With the completion of the first link of Seattle’s Light Rail, it is now possible to take rail transit from our neighborhood in Seattle to Vancouver.

My mom flew up from Sacramento and joined Kat and me on our trip up north.

Highlights from the trip:

No time spent on I-5.
A bike ride around Stanley Park with my mom on the back of a tandem. The first time she’s been on a bike in 45 years!
Meeting Momentum magazine columnist Ulrike Rodrigues.
A pedi-cab ride around the waterfront arranged by Ulrike and fellow bicycle advocate Chris Keam.

For as long as I can remember, AMTRAK has had only one train a day to Vancouver. But they have now added a second train, making this trip twice as convenient. What a treat!