Halleluya!! They added bike racks on bus ride home!!

[cylegoddess]

I like to ride to work,I like to ride home,
I am sometimes too tired to ride home( work on feet all day, ride is 20 km each way, home is slightly uphill the whole way, have chronic fatigue etc).
But ! No racks on buses to my suburb.

New trial bus! With racks! Every 15 min, from work to my suburbs, from 7 am to 7 pm! If I get a flat, just walk the bike to bus and throw it on!

Oh I am sooo soo happy!
Also as its stinking hot and melanoma weather now, so riding home at 430 pm not the nice ride one gets at 7 am.

Life is good!:D

[uk elephant]

Sounds brilliant! I hope they decide it's a good trial worth keeping. I've seen a few buses with bike racks around here too, but you can never predict which route they might be on, and with buses only once/hour it can be a long wait before one with a rack turns up heading my way. I would definitely use it if I had the option to do so!

[Tri Girl]

Wahoo!!!! That's great news! :)

[KnottedYet]

We've got racks on all our buses now here in Seattle. It is marvellous! Be sure to write your bus company about how excited you are over the racks. They need to hear feedback like that!

I love the racks. They are so easy to use, and even on rough roads and through crazy traffic my bike has always stayed secure. (I've had lil' panic attacks :eek:, but the bike has been FINE!)

These are the racks we have: http://www.bicycleracks.com/busrack_video.asp Click "video", and you get to see our buses!

[Maxxxie]

Brisbane City Council trialled those racks on the Great Circle Bus Line (does a big loop of the city). Problem was, nobody who cycled actually used that particular bus route. The BCC declared the trial a failure and the racks have vanished. What a shame :( Be sure to write to your local councillor to let them know you love the racks!!

Max

[shootingstar]

Brisbane City Council trialled those racks on the Great Circle Bus Line (does a big loop of the city). Problem was, nobody who cycled actually used that particular bus route. The BCC declared the trial a failure and the racks have vanished. What a shame :( Be sure to write to your local councillor to let them know you love the racks!!

Maybe the trial was not long enough? Greater Vancouver area nearly has racks on most of its buses by now..covers the suburbs as well. You can appreciate that not all buses will have a bike every hr. at this point in cycle-commuting history, since the suburbs are slower in embracing in alternative transportation options combined with transit. But there is a noticeable increase of cycle-commuting compared to 5 years ago in our city and more people combining cycling with transit travel when things get difficult or one lacks enough time. Of course, prolonged periods of steady rain is a strong powerful motivator in our part of the world. :p

Great that Cannebera has more bus bike racks, cyclegoddess!

[shootingstar]

Come to think of it...for certain areas of a city, it may take several years to change people's travel habits.

Right now, this certainly is being discussed and analyzed closely here in Metro Vancouver since this year, our area recently constructed and opened up an additional commuter train line, a 20 km. greenway/MUP, 2 major road bridges which all of these additional, more convenient cycling routes that feed into the public transit (train & bus) lines and all are connecting the suburbs better with the downtown core. All this new stuff is a big plus to the existing real estate of local cycling network infrastructure.

Overall monthly statistics of: cycling, car volume in these areas and transit use, are receiving considerable interest here.

Note: Next stage is the local transit authority is considering installation of sensors on bike rack to "count" or measure the number of times the rack is pulled down to plop a bike onto the rack. This will help to measure bike rack usage. Based on the existing cost of a bike rack that is on our buses: a bike rack used 500 times will cover its cost.

[cylegoddess]

Hey, thats great aboot vancouver:D!

TRied out bus today. Wild ride in, a flat only 6 km out. Four people stopped to help! Had to ride rest of way in on road bike commuters lane - alongside many driveways, and shared by the bus, as I was late after that, and too late to get the new bus - and all the the other buses that came along, no racks.
Ride home awful. Nice air con bus, but then had to get off for last 6 km in gritty, wild hot winds. Not at all nice.:mad:
But, day after tommorrow - Im riding in again. Love those buses. I will, write then to tell them ,Thanks!!!


Its so nice having some female cycling company to tell this too!

[shootingstar]

Actually BC Transit is transitioning most of its buses to having with bike racks over time, not just in Metro Vancouver, but across the province of British Columbia. I have seen bike racks in the smaller municipalties and on Vancouver Island.

Perhaps those living outside of Vancouver can speak more about this.