Our bus services are provided by private companies under contract to the regional council. This year, for the first time, they're making bike racks on the buses a condition of the contracts (a handful of routes come up for contract renewal each year).

I'm part of the local bike-advocacy group that has been lobbying for this change, and I'm one of the people who'll be trying to work with the regional council (where they seem to have only vague notions of why anybody would want to ride either a bike or a bus) and the bus companies on the implementation of the plan.

Negotiating this kind of bureaucracy on the one hand makes me want to claw my eyes out with a blunt pencil, but on the other hand it's a potentially very positive step because the hills in this town deter a lot of potential bike commuters. Wish me luck--and if you have advice or experiences to share, I'd like to hear them.