Apparently, Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon is trying to get a little kickback for those few who bike to work. I'm all for it since I've been biking as often as I can to work. It's actually a great form of exercise, gives me lots of energy, and saves me time and money.

Anyway, here's to great ideas that involve human power...

An Interview With Congressman Earl Blumenauer | Outside Online

A couple of weeks ago, I started online classes at Foothill College. I figured I'd start taking the Amtrak again to get to work since it afforded me time to read and not have to deal with traffic. Boy was that a bad idea: cbs5.com - Student Hit And Killed By Amtrak Train In Hayward. Yup, I was on that train. Now, I feel bad for the victim's family, but the kid was 16 years old and had no business being near the train tracks especially when a train was passing by. Amtrak seriously needs to erect a 20 foot high brick wall to block kids from getting bad ideas and acting on them.

Then a couple days later, the same train derailed. Luckily, no one was injured.

This past week, we saw another mishap where numerous trains were delayed because of a car accident and downed power lines.

While I know that things happen and accidents are usually just freak of nature sorts of things, but I've come to the conclusion that Amtrak is no longer a viable means of transportation for me since it is rather accident prone and is habitually delayed.

There are generally two sorts of things that occur on Amtrak trains: 1) mechanical failure and 2) accidents. Mechanical failures are generally Amtrak's fault. They're just not keeping the trains up like they should be and that leads to failures. Generally these are not very severe, but they do lead to major delays. Accidents are another issue altogether. There seem to be corridors where the Capitol Corridor train runs into trouble. I've been on two trains that have had accidents. This is in the course of about six months or so total ridership. Both accidents occurred in almost the same spot in Hayward. The first time, kids had put an old bike on the tracks to watch it get pummeled as the train sped through. The second time was a couple of weeks ago where a kid decided it would be a good idea to jump in front of a speeding train. The other area seems to be in Dixon, a little north of where I get on/off of the train.

I've come to the realization that perhaps the reason train travel is dismal in this country is that we have loud, awful trains. You see, since trains are loud and polluting, the areas around tracks are usually reserved for industrial business and sites that generally could care less about noise and whatnot. Now, in Hayward, the city has grown to the point where they PUT A HIGH SCHOOL right next to the train tracks and only put up a low fence (easily hoppable) on one side of the school. On the other side of the fence is the train tracks where the TRAIN SPEEDS AT 80MPH. Next to that is a small RESIDENTIAL STREET where low-income families reside in apartments. Wait, what? You mean people live across the street from a train track where trains do 80mph on an hourly basis? And there's no fence? Well, where else are poor folks going to live? By the train tracks, of course. Now, if Amtrak were to switch to an electric system, you'd see that trains would not be as detrimental and land values near the tracks would not be as low. Middle income people would flock to live near trains since they are convenient and they'd demand proper safety equipment (like barriers, warning signals, etc) be installed. Don't think it would happen? Go to Europe...those people know about trains.