Appreciating the Inconvenient: Bombscare, Caltrain, and my nightly commute
Last night I hopped on the Caltrain with my bike to head home only to discover there was a bomb scare at the Milbrae station -- smack dab in the middle of my commute. Milbrae also just happens to be the only transfer point between Caltrain and BART. I heard later that BART was able to handle this OK, Milbrae being a terminal point on their line; they simply re-routed people to the SFO station by bus/shuttle.
People on Caltrain weren't so lucky -- their trains basically came to rest in limbo at whatever station was closest. My girlfriend split a cab ride from San Mateo with 3 other people ($20 each). A lot of others were scrambling for a bus to take instead, and I believe a number of others just ... waited... for the problem to resolve itself (proved to be a 3 hour wait just for the go ahead from police to resume service). Our conductor told us they had instructions to stop and wait at San Carlos station just 3 stops north of Palo Alto where I boarded. Pretty inconvenient. It was at this point I decided to embrace the inconvenience -- I would simply bike to the nearest operating BART station. I assumed Milbrae BART would be closed (hadn't heard any official statement on the matter) but since it was on the way to other stations I set this as my initial destination.
At Redwood City (one stop sooner than San Carlos) I hopped off the train and onto my bike. From there I hammered my way up El Camino Real, small blinky bike safety lights pulsing away.
I rarely ride the bike with any purpose other than training in mind. As a result I rarely experience the thrill of utilizing my fitness for conventional purposes. The fact that, for me, at that moment, the bike was more convenient than the train made the inconvenience almost entirely pleasurable.
I say "almost entirely" because I covered the 14.5 miles in my jeans (lost a little skin on the inner thigh) with my laptop stowed away in my messenger bag and riding on the occasionally pitch dark stretches of El Camino which also at times lacked a proper should or bike path -- nothing like the uncertainty of not knowing whether your wheel is about to drop into a narrow crack in the asphalt and send you over your bars. If you're reading this, I don't suggest commuting this stretch -- there are other routes you can take that are much safer but I don't have them memorized and didn't want to deal with checking my iPhone every few miles.In any case, long story short: I made it to Milbrae in 45 minutes, discovered police still on the scene and no operating trains and sobiked over to SFO where I found an elevator that dropped me off at the BART platform; 50 minutes total including the stops at lights of which there were a number.PS -- if you've ever been to Milbrae you may recall smelling the most delicious chocolate aroma (from a nearby chocolate factory) that can permeate the air there; it was in full effect last night as I pedaled through -- almost worth the trip on its own.
