From Good Magazine: "Best Bus Route in America Contest: Winners Announced," by Kyla Fullenwider

As we head into the busiest travel day of the year, when more than 42 million of us will be traveling at least 50 miles by car, we're excited to announce the winners of our Best Bus Route in America contest. The winners are not from one of the East Coast cities you might expect but hail from the Midwest where, apparently, public transit is alive and well—or at least much beloved by its riders. (Read more here. Spoiler alert: Albuquerque is not a winner.)

From Chicago: Absolut Vodka Commissions Bus Shelters

Absolut Vodka has commissioned a set of bus shelters in Chicago, bringing to life the worlds that embody Absolut Lemon Drop, Absolut Twist and Absolut Bloody. (Read, and see, more here.)

From Boston: "Man vs. T: Race through Hub," by Richard Weir for the Boston Herald

I raced the T and . . . the T lost!

In a Man vs. MBTA test of commuter cunning and stamina, I climbed on my old-school mountain bike in Cleveland Circle yesterday morning. Herald staffer Ira Kantor climbed aboard on a trolley. It was a race to the Common, two wheels against 24. (Read more here.)

From San Francisco: "Giants parade lifts BART to ridership record" from SFBART's Blog

This story originally appeared on SFBART's Blog at this address: http://sfbart.posterous.com/giants-parade-lifts-bart-to-ridership-record. This website no longer exists. A copy of the original story appears below.


BART carried the most riders of any day in its 38-year history on Wednesday -- 522,200 -- many of them going to cheer the San Francisco Giants in a World Series victory parade. The highest previous single day of BART ridership was Oct. 29, 2009, during an emergency closure of the Bay Bridge, with 442,100 riders.

The World Series parade day easily smashed that record by nearly 20% and -- while there were some issues with long lines and crowd control to be expected when moving a half-million people -- the day on BART was a relatively smooth one. In fact, BART's preliminary customer on-time performance figures for the morning commute, when the largest crush of people were heading to the 11 a.m. parade, showed a customer on-time rate of better than 90 percent.

"We are truly thankful for all the Bay Area residents who chose to take public transportation to this historic event, and are humbled to have played a part in this celebration," said BART Chief Communications Officer Linton Johnson. BART had urged riders to get to stations early and buy roundtrip tickets in advance, or, better yet, get an electronic Clipper card (www.clippercard.com) so they could move quickly through faregates without having to wait in ticket-machine lines. BART planned ahead and put additional resources in place to handle the crowds, such as extending train lengths, beefing up security and adding station personnel. The extra revenue generated by the surge in ridership helps offset those expenses.

BART's highest daily ridership on a sustained basis, without special circumstances or events, occurred in September 2008 when BART averaged about 380,000 riders per day. Since that time, ridership dipped, largely attributed to the economic slump and high unemployment that followed.  But it has begun to rebound this year and is approaching around 350,000 riders per average weekday.
 
Before Wednesday, the previous Top 10 BART ridership days were:

1. Oct. 29, 2009; 442,100; Emergency Bay Bridge closure


2. Oct. 30, 2009; 437,700; Emergency Bay Bridge closure


3. Oct. 28, 2009; 437,200; Emergency Bay Bridge closure


4. Sept. 8, 2008; 405,400; Oakland Raiders, San Francisco Giants games


5. Sept. 4, 2009; 395,300; Scheduled Bay Bridge closure; A's game


6. June 19, 2008; 394,400; Spare The Air Day


7. Nov. 2, 2009; 393,200; Bay Bridge reopened at 9 a.m. after closure


8. April 9, 2008: 391,900; San Francisco Giants game; Olympic Torch run


9. sept. 25, 2008; 390,600; Oracle Open World; San Francisco Giants game


10. Aug. 31, 2007; 389,400; Oakland A's; Beyonce concert; Bay Bridge closure

From Good Magazine: "Project: What's the Best Bus Route in America?" by Kyla Fullenwider

Bicycles can be chic, subways artful, but buses? Buses are not exactly the golden child of transportation. They're more like the red-headed step child: Deep down you know they mean well but they're just a little harder to love. (Read more here.)

From Portland, Oregon: "What results when an upper arm collides with a No Parking/Bus Goes Here sign?" by Lynette via Portland Oregon Daily Photo

I took this photo on Thursday as I waited to catch the bus at that same intersection.

Yes, I am the woman who solidly collided with the edge of the then upright sign. (Read, and see, more here.)