All Over Albany

Alternate side parking in Albany

Now means now. Not fifteen minutes ago. Not five minutes from now--but now. At least when it comes to alternate parking rules in the city of Albany. If you live on an alternate parking street in A-Town, it's not uncommon to see folks moving their cars a little early in an effort to avoid a ticket and grab a coveted space near home. But last week residents on one Washington Park side street were surprised to find an officer ticketing them for having moved too early. About fifteen minutes early.

Which prompted us to ask if there's a grace period for alternate parking.

(there's more)

Gas hits four dollars and everyone's squeezed

At least here you get full service.

So, it's finally happened. Gas prices have crossed the four dollar mark. And while we're pretty sure somebody's getting rich, it certainly isn't the gas station owners.

(there's more)

Gas prices: it's getting hot in here

New Jersey, you taunt us with your cheap prices!

Check out this gas price "temperature" map from Gas Buddy. As you can probably see from the screengrab above, prices are rather warm here.

According to AlbanyGasPrices.com, the average price for regular unleaded here in the Capital Region is $3.915. The national average is $3.791. It could be worse, though. Both New York City and Hartford are over the four dollar mark.

map: GasBuddy.com

And it's the bike by a mile!

Afterward, Willem sipped the sweet, sweet nectar of victory -- which looked a lot like a Starbucks frozen drink.

The bike easily beat out the car and bus in the National Bike Month Commuter Contest yesterday evening. Here are the final times among the various modes of transportation for the Starbucks (downtown Albany) to Starbucks (Stuyvesant Plaza) route, which was about five miles long:

1. First Bike - 15:41 (19 mph)

2. The Smart Car - 21:00 (14 mph)

3. The Bus Riders - 44:00 (6.8 mph)

Willem Heydendael rode the first bike to the finish. He commutes everyday from Troy to Albany Med, where he's a grad student in the neurosciences program. And get this, he says that during the past year he's only driven to AMC from Troy about six times. The rest of his trips were all on the bike.

Earlier on AOA:
+ Does it pay to ride the bus?

National Bike Month Commuter Contest

What's the quickest way home in rush hour traffic? No, clicking your heels three times doesn't work, we've tried. For the last four years the NY Bicycling Coalition has proved that in A-Town, it's the bicycle. Tonight they'll try and do it again.

(there's more)

Thruway tolls going up, E-ZPass discount cut

A ride on the NY State Thruway is about to get more expensive. The NYS Thruway Authority voted today to increase tolls by 5 percent in 2009 and another 5 percent in 2010. They also cut the discount for E-ZPass users to 5 percent of the cash toll starting in July (pdf). That means if you're an E-ZPass user, you could end up paying about 28 percent more than you're currently paying.

Here's an unofficial breakdown of how prices will go up for a trip from Albany to the Garden State Parkway:

(there's more)

Woman charged with starving mother, bus fares probably going up, farmers market staying for now, Rats game goes on and on and on

An Albany woman has been indicted on charges that she allowed her elderly mother to starve to death. [TU]

Facing a budget gap, CDTA says it's very likely that fares will have to go up sometime during the next year. Bus fares haven't increased since 1995. (Does it pay to take the bus to work?) [TU]

The Town of Colonie is close to selling Heritage Park to Albany County for $2.7 million. The money would be used to pay down the town's $18 million budget deficit. [Daily Gazette]

The Troy Farmers Market will be staying in its regular location for at least the first few months of the summer. Construction of a hotel will eventually bump the market someplace else. [TU]

A developer is proposing to build a new five-story office building at the corner of New Scotland and Myrtle across from Albany Med. [TU]

It sounds like a N. Greenbush town "workshop" didn't work very well. The meeting ended with the town supervisor locking himself in a room and the town attorney storming off in his car -- all while a TV reporter chased after them. [Troy Record]

The River Rats lost last night in a game that went to five overtimes. It was the longest game in AHL history. [Daily Gazette]

Does it pay to ride the bus?

The wheels on the bus go... well, you know how they go.

Now that gas prices have reached "Are you frakking kidding me?" levels, we were curious to find out if you could save a few bucks by taking the bus to work. And the answer is yes, sort of, maybe, it depends.

Next stop: the details.

(there's more)

Getting from Albany to New York City

Is this the best place to start your trip to NYC?

It's a pretty common trip for people in this area. But what's the fastest way? What's the cheapest? What's the best? We've done the math so you don't have to. The full details, including explanations, after the jump.

(there's more)

Amtrak: Do the trains run on time?

OK, you're heading to New York for a show, a game or a meeting, but you don't want to deal with traffic and parking so you opt for Amtrak. Riding the rails from the A-Town to The Big Apple is scenic and more relaxing than driving, but will you get there on time? The trip should take about 2 hours and 25 minutes. Anyone whose taken the train knows you're sort of at the mercy of the rail gods, though. But now there's amtrakdelays.com, aims to give us a little more control (or at least the illusion of control) over when we arrive. The site keeps delay records for Amtrak lines and calculates the the average delay for each train.

So, we did a search for a bunch of trains that run from Albany to New York City. Here's what we found...

(there's more)

Trippin' with CDTA

One of the problems with public transportation in Albany has always been the wait. Yes, there were timetables and schedules available, but it felt like you needed a secret decoder ring to read them. And waiting for a bus -- seemingly at random -- in Upstate New York in February is NOT fun. But suddenly, it seems like the folks at CDTA not only want you to take the bus -- they want to make it easy.

First the expanded service to Saratoga and now there's this CDTA trip planner. It's kind of like Expedia, only for buses in the Capital District. You can plan trips anywhere in the CDTA coverage area by either shortest walk, fastest trip, or fewest number of transfers. You can select an intersection or a landmark as your start point or destination. If you want to go to a park in Troy, you select "park" and the names of all the city's parks just pop up. The best part though, is that the trip planner tells you what time to catch the bus, no secret decoder ring required. It looks cool and easy to use. We haven't tried it yet, but a test "ride" is definitely in our future.

(Thanks for the tip, Stephen!)