mjh's blog

ABQ RIDE – City of Albuquerque

I rode the Rapid Ride bus today. I parked for free

at the Uptown Station (between NMEFCU and Coronado Shopping Mall (I saw a

bike chained to a fence, but did not see a bike rack). When I arrived at 12:27pm, a bus was waiting; it left a minute or so after I

boarded. At Uptown, there may have been half a dozen folks. Along Central we picked up quite a few more, including bike commuters; it

felt half-full, but I didn’t count heads (or make much eye contact, except when a women on a neighboring bus made me smile).

The

trip from Uptown to the Downtown Library at 5th and Copper took about 1/2 hour, but I was busy with the newness of the experience and

with the wireless connection, which worked great for me. Sitting with my TabletPC, the infinite newstand/library of the Web at my

fingers. I even sent email to my wife, telling her I was on my way.

All for one buck (each way). Highly recommended.

When I

exited the bus, I was surprised to see the library partly surrounded by a fence. Even more surprised by the picket line. Between 30 and

50 men and women marched with signs for a carpenter’s union. They had a lively chant, demanding many good things like decent wages and

health care for all, plus “no justice, no peace!” Right on! I don’t expect to see a word of this in the Journal or on TV. You got to get

out of your car to meet the people.

It has been a few years since I walked around downtown as much as today. Great to see several

large murals — we need more. We walked from the City-County Building on the Plaza to the new Flying Star on Silver near Eighth.

Beautiful place, great service, OK food. I felt so urban/urbane, sitting on the balcony, browsing the Web for the cost of the new lofts

across the road (up to $360K!). Felt like visiting a big city, though I had to stop myself from saying hello to everyone I passed.

class="sig">mjh

ABQ RIDE

Rapid Ride travels an 11-mile route along Central Avenue from Unser to Wyoming, then north on Wyoming to the Uptown shopping district.

ABQ RIDE – City of Albuquerque
Rapid Ride Now Has Wireless Web Access

Using

the Rapid Ride just got a lot more interesting for the business commuter and college student. All of the city’s 12 Rapid Ride vehicles

now have wireless web access. There are 83 hot spots along the route that allow the buses to establish a connection from zone to zone.

This new technology will allow passengers with laptop computers to surf the internet, check email, send reports to work or chat with

friends. Now, many people will find their commute time to be productive time.

Map of Route

href="http://www.cabq.gov/transit/pdf/05aprrapidram.pdf">http://www.cabq.gov/transit/pdf/05aprrapidram.pdf

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