Advocacy & Safety - Ride to work ferry system

I just had an idea about how to get people out of their cars. People who are physically able to cycle to work, but do not have the base experience to handle city traffic.

What if there were a ferry system for bike commuters. The "ferry" would be a group of 2 or more experienced vehicular cyclists. There would be an anounced meeting place and time for people who would like to be escorted to their work place by bike.

The ferry could work as follows:

The four or so experienced commuters would all agree on a route through the city from a suburb area. They would invite others, friends, neighbors, family to join them to commute to work in the city (or where their route takes them). For those who are not comfortable on the street by themselves, one of the ride leaders could escort them to their office door.

A variation of this would be little groups being escorted by a ride leader. This way, we get around the large clump of cyclists that the current road laws don't know how to handle.

The idea comes from the discussion about CM. I was arguing that CM was nothing more than a group of people who are all riding at the same time and the same place. This would be the same, but instead of the event turning into a circus like CM frequently does, the people doing this will actually have a place to go, and work to do.

The idea of ferrying cyclists will do a accomplish a few goals of cycling advocacy. First, it will get more people on the road. I think many people don't ride because they don't know how to handle themselves on the road with cars. Second it will show people that commuting by bike is something that is normal. We will have more cyclists on the road, in groups, without any sponsered event. It would just be a private gathering of cyclists that have a common destination. Just like all the car commuters.

Right now, the only time we get large masses of people out on bikes is during sponsered events, which is more like a parade, or during CM, which many object to. Setting up a ferry for inexperienced cyclists to bike to work would be an addition to those methods of advocacy. It will accomplish more than just a few experienced cyclists by themselves will.

I almost want to try this now in Seattle, where I go to school. Maybe I will talk to some of my cycling friends here.

BR

I read something a few years ago about something similar called a "bicycle bus" in Sydney's northern suburbs. It seemed to be working pretty well at the time, but that was around three years ago now. For all I know, it may have been discontinued.

I think the biggest problem you'd have for something like this would be different levels of ability in the riders. As new riders joined the group, they may not be as proficient as some of the more experienced riders. I suppose if you had enough numbers you could have more than one group.

On Bike to work day many riders ccome in groups.

Sounds like a good idea, maybe you could make it happen?

I seem to remember one of Vancouver's cycle advocacy organizations sponsored a "buddy ride" program where an experianced cyclist would meet with an inexperianced cyclist to ride to work together. It seemed like a good idea to me.

When I'm riding in the city, there are plenty of cycle riders to "Ferry" with at any time of the day. Some of these riders are more aggressive than me as I'm not about to swing with them in the middle lane. Still. It's possible.

When I read your post, I though you were talking about taking my bike on an actual ferry. In New York City, we can take my bike on the ferry but I have to pay an extra $2.00 dollars and I'm too cheap.

Originally posted by Dahon.Steve
When I read your post, I though you were talking about taking my bike on an actual ferry. In New York City, we can take our bikes on the ferry but I have to pay an extra $2.00 dollars for the bike and I'm too cheap to do that.

We have the "seabus" in Vancouver that you can take your bike on. It doesn't cost extra but, the route straddles 2 "zones" so you have to pay more to aviod going over a bridge.

:(

Yes, I recall an article about the Australian "bicycle bus," complete with a pilot and a conductor. Since I have not heard about it in several years, I assume the concept fizzled out. It is not a bad idea, although it does greatly compromise one of cycling's greatest benefits, i.e., schedule flexibility.