Originally Posted by
AngeloDolce
Thanks for the info. Are you saying you signed up on the Bolt site? I generally took NJ Transit/SEPTA when I was in NJ (better service from NJ than Bolt), but maybe I'll sign up for Bolt's reward program. To be fair, when I've spoken to the Bolt drivers in Newark, NJ, they were helpful to everyone.
Yes, I signed up on the Bolt site. After I come back from my next visit to Washington, I will be halfway to earning a free ride. (You get one free ride after taking eight trips.)
Originally Posted by
AngeloDolce
Yes, Amtrak is very strict that bicycles must always be folded, even when the train is 20% occupied and the luggage areas are empty at 5:30 am;
From what I understand, only folding bikes are allowed on most Amtrak trains. But I have recently found out that the Palmetto and the Carolinian allow full-sized bikes with no folding or boxing necessary, for a fee of $20 extra. Both of these operate from New York to points south.
According to the schedule information at
this page at the Amtrak site, the Palmetto no. 89 leaves New York daily at 6:02am. It gets to Philadelphia at 7:36, and to Washington at 9:30.
The Carolinian no. 79 leaves New York at 7:05am. It gets to Philadelphia at 8:30, and to Washington at 10:25.
In the other direction, the Palmetto no. 90 leaves Washington at 8:30pm, gets to Philadelphia at 10:24, and to New York at 11:56.
It appears that the northbound Carolinian no. 80 skips right over Washington and Philadelphia.
Originally Posted by
AngeloDolce
SEPTA and PATH conductors react more to how crowded the train is.
SEPTA also has some hours during which bikes cannot be brought on: morning trains that arrive at a Center City station between 6:00 and 9:30am (an unreasonably early start to that exclusion period, I'd say) and evening trains that leave from a Center City station between 4:00 and 6:30pm. NJ Transit has a similar (but not identical) set of exclusion hours, using Hoboken, Newark, and New York as the operative stations.
Bikes are allowed on the New York City subway at all hours; but train operators have the right to prohibit them at any time based on their discretion. The LIRR requires a pass (though most times they don't check for it), and prohibits riding in peak direction during rush hours.
Originally Posted by
AngeloDolce
I don't find drivers in Boston any worse than NY, Philadelphia, or a short visit to Washington. Traffic enforcement is limited, and congestion and unpredictable drivers keep speeds down. Drivers seem to deal with bicyclists like any other traffic. Some Philadelphia drivers were hostile to bicyclists not using the bike lanes when they were first installed (I still see no penalties for parking in bike lanes), but they seem to have figured out that it still works if they treat bicyclists like any other traffic. I hear this is true and bike lanes are generally ignored in Boston also.
I found drivers in Philadelphia to be extraordinarily polite, by New York standards. The ones in Washington observed the law better than the New York drivers did, but not nearly as much as the Philly drivers did. For instance, in Philly I consistently saw drivers making observable stops at stop signs, even when no pedestrians were present. This contrasts sharply to New York drivers, who routinely treat stop signs as mere suggestions, and typically just slow down and roll through them.
The thing that struck me the most in Philadelphia was the drivers' response to my hand signals, most especially to the one that I give when I am travelling on a two-way street, and a driver coming in the opposite direction is making a left turn across my path. My practice is to hold up my hand, palm out, in a recognised "stop!" motion, so as to signal that I as the vehicle going straight have the right of way.
When I do this here in New York, the drivers of the turning cars slow down a little bit, while continuing to roll into their turn. Actually, I should say that they do that most of the time. Sometimes they ignore my signal completely, and just go and make an illegal turn in front of me. By contrast, every time I did this in Philly, the turning car stopped -- not "slowed down", but stopped -- and proceeded only after I was through the intersection. This was emblematic of a much lower level of aggression on the part of drivers in Philly than I am used to here at home.
Over the course of three visits during the previous two summers, I have ridden in Philadelphia for a total of only nine days. So I cannot claim to have a huge base of experience there. But the relative politeness was noticeable, and was not at all what I had expected to see in a town that is famous for booing Santa Claus.