Metra is only the tiniest bit bike friendly, but the times you can bring a bike on the train are so limited, that it's impossible for me to bring my bike on the train in the morning and make it in to work during traditional working hours. So I keep my bike either parked outside of Union Station. I'm not wild about that arrangement, and fear theft and vandalism. So far I have been "lucky" in that I have only had my tires punctured once, but my bike hasn't been stolen...yet.
(My bike locked up at Union Station)
I have Pinhead locking skewers on my wheels and saddle and a sturdy kryptonite lock which has seemed to do the trick so far.
So my first item for the Summer Games was to write Metra suggesting three things to make things easier for multi-modal bike commuters.
1. Adding channels on the sides of station's stairs to make rolling bikes up and down the stairs easier.
2. Creating indoor bike racks at Union Station. They seem to have lots of unused space on the Clinton side of the building that I think is used for employee parking. It seems to me they could easily add a few bike racks there without giving up too much space.
3. Consider increasing the times bike can travel on trains or better yet, create bike trains like other commuter rail lines in other cities have. That would be ideal.
I mailed the letter 7/29/2011 and have yet to hear from anyone. Here's a copy of the letter:
