Getting here: Bus and Bike-on-Bus

UAA Parking Services is more than just parking!

The Parking Services office also coordinates alternative transportation programs to help UAA achieve a more sustainable carbon footprint. Besides managing the paved surfaces that store our vehicles on a daily basis, parking services also provides ways to get to campus that don’t involve driving your car.

I'll cover bus and bike here, and follow up in a later post with Zimrides, Hertz on demand, and the nuts and bolts of Seawolf Shuttle.

Bus and Bike

Take the bus: Currently enrolled students, staff and faculty can ride FREE any route at any time by using a valid Wolfcard on the bus routes. For schedule information, check the websites below.

• People Mover www.muni.org/peoplemover
• Valley Mover www.valleymover.org
• *AnchorRides www.muni.org/anchorrides
  *additional eligibility requirements apply to this service

Put your bike on the bus:

This is UAA employee Kathleen McCoy jumping in on Glenna's post about alternative transportation. I promised Glenna that if she'd blog for Parking Services, I'd do a testimonial on putting my bike on the bus. Here it is.

I take Route 36 outbound from way over in Spenard/Turnagain. In the morning, I just throw my bike on the bus rack on the front of the bus (click here for short video on how to do it) and once aboard, sip my morning coffee and play with my smartphone. Very civilized way to commute - takes longer than driving, about 25 minutes total, but I can spend that time any way I like.

In the afternoon, I ride my bike home along the Chester Creek Trail. I always have a lot of incentive to get home and relax, so I get a pretty good workout built right into the day -- 25-30 minutes in summer, 45-50  in winter.

I have two old bikes. My summer bike is an ancient 10-speed. My winter bike is my daughter's cast-off hybrid that I put studded tires on.

Winter biking tips:
In winter, I have a good helmet light because the route home is dark from CPISB where I join it, all the way around Goose Lake. But once I cross the bridge over Northern Lights (and see the bumper-to-bumper traffic below me on the road on some winter days), the path is very well-lit and populated with skiers, dog-walkers, other bikers. It was enlightening for me to realize how much the trails are being used in winter and summer.

The last stretch for me is the Coastal Trail past Westchester Lagoon, with no lights on it. But then I'm almost home! I really recommend a good helmet light because as you turn your head to see, you illuminate your path. The light will also reflect off any moose eyes that might be glancing your way from in the woods. Mine has a rechargeable battery and lasts hours and hours.

I don't get super cold in winter, or maybe it's just that I warm up a lot on my bike. I dress about the same as if I was going out for a ski -- not too much bulk, good layers. I really really love having a soft wool neck gaiter to pull up around my neck, ears and mouth. I also use a soft ear-forehead band, and on really cold days, a thin cap under my helmet. I wear gloves under mittens in winter.

Two tips: I do carry a pair of plyers in my backpack to whack the bus rack handle if it's frozen. The buses get a bath before they go into service, and sometimes the handle will freeze up. I've had gracious bus drivers and even passengers jump off and help me with the handle. But I settled on bringing my own vice-grip plyers. One whack usually frees it up. I got this idea from a driver who didn't have anything on his bus to hit it with. Now I've got it covered.

Biking right after a big snowfall is really hard for me. So I give it a rest for a day or two. But the trails are used so heavily that within a day, there is a packed foot path in the middle of the trail that makes it easy to move along quickly. And, it can be a balancing workout to stay on that skinny trail.

Always, always better than traffic. I saw a sign on the back of a bus that read: 'You aren't stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic.' So maybe consider an alternative.