bmclaughlin807

It's rare to get a bike stolen off a rack, but it DOES happen. I either stick to the front of the bus or throw a lock on the bike when I get on... locking and unlocking the bike adds another 5-10 seconds to loading and unloading time. Just throw my cable lock around the frame and the rack. Gives me a little peace of mind on the longer rides.

cooker

I used them in Toronto once, but I had no fenders then. I don't think these ones would work well with fenders since there is a sprung hook over the wheel and it would crush your fender.

KrisPistofferson

The hook goes over the front wheel, right where there isn't a great deal of fender. Lotsa bikes, lotsa different fender types, no problem. The only problem I ever had was with my Electra Townie-It's extremely long wheelbase barely fit.

facial

I can sympathize with the author of the thread, as I have encountered many of the difficulties myself with bike racks.

Some racks are easy to secure, others require a lot more tug and waste time.

The limit of two bikes on the front can be easily increased to 3 or 4, without the fold-down option. That is, I want the bike racks to be permanently down.

Bikes on the bus would take up too much space, and block some seats on isles.

Side racks would be more susceptible to accidents (side impacts), although that is where the most space can be exploited.

bmclaughlin807

The front hook can go over, under, or in front of most fenders.

My wife's bike has lots of clearance, so the hook goes under the front fender... my bike has very little clearance, so I hook it right over the fender. (Both have Planet Bike Freddy Fenders Hardcore)

Others can hook in front of the fender. I really haven't seen anyone have any issues with the hook and front fenders.

The wheelbase of the bike can be a problem, though... had a 60cm Azuki that didn't quite fit in the rack... the back wheel wasn't sitting flush down in the rack. Never fell off the bus, though.

Dahon.Steve

This is the first time I ever heard someone being able to bring a full size bicycle inside the cabin of a bus. I can just imagine the RAGE people would have in New York City having to give up their seat (3 seats total) to have a bicycle placed in the handicap spot!

Someone already said it by suggesting a 16' inch wheel folder like the Brompton. If you don't have a long distance to travel after leaving the bus, the Strida is also a solid idea because it can fit in the overhead luggage compartment.

https://www.brompton.co.uk/

https://www.strida.com/

patc

Around here most cross-regional and Transitway (bus-only road system) routes have bike racks. It doesn't slow down the bus - it takes only a minute or so to get the bike or or off, it often takes much longer than that to get all passengers boarded at a busy station. I consider bike racks a win-win situation.

donnamb 

Here's a good article on the issues with the Sportsworks triple racks. The comments section also has some good explanations for why racks on the rear of a bus can be problematic.

As to the "stupidity" of bike racks on buses - without those racks on the buses here, I probably would have to buy a car. Maybe I'm just stupid for not having one in the first place.

KnhoJ

I don't depend on bus racks, but I've used them. The buses are air conditioned when I'm overheated and feeling dehydrated. Warm and dry when I'm soaked to the bone and freezing. Cheapest tow in town when I'm out of spare tubes and it's too rainy to patch, or like that time my stem and fork decided they weren't friends anymore and my multitool was right on the counter where I forgot it. I often use bus racks on the way to night classes: working all day, riding twelve miles, then trying to scrape up enough functional brain cells to pull together a midterm doesn't help my grades. And knowing I've got the buses as a backup means my wife doesn't worry about me getting stranded.

And for a lot of people who depend on the bus, taking a bike helps to fill in the spaces that the bus routes don't service. Destinations a mile or two from the nearest bus route might be a 40-80 minute walk in addition to the bus ride, but a bike will easily reduce that by two thirds.

The bus racks aren't perfect, but they are certainly a step in the right direction!

PJones0012

+1
Houston seems to have bike racks on most of it's buses now. I've only had a problem once and that was when I tried putting my bike on the rack and the arm that claps down over the front tire was loose, on both spaces no less. Started to wait for the next bus and decided to pedal anyway and beat the bus to the transit center.

Torrilin

Try 30 minutes for a 2 mile walk unless the weather is truly terrible or I'm trying to carry a silly load (for some reason I slow down a lot when carrying 20 lbs of stuff in plastic shopping bags and it refused to fit in my backpack). 80 minutes is more like the time it'd take me to do a 5 mile walk. But yes, a bike does mean that places that are 1-5 miles off a bus route are a lot more accessible.

Most of the time I don't use bike racks on buses tho. If the weather is good, I'd rather ride my bike since it's faster. If the weather is bad enough that I don't want to ride my bike the full distance, odds are walking or taking the bus wins.

Herman47

...is the lack of space to accommodate bicycles on the bus's bike racks. I mean, who wants to ride all the way to the bus stop just to find the bus doesn't have room to carry your bike? Even if this happens only 20% (or 10%) of the time, it would be a severe problem, because the extreme disadvantages that could very well ensue (having to either forego the trip entirely, do more walking, or come up with some different alternate arrangement), would render one to be risk-adverse. One would wind up foregoing bike use and taking cars or cabs, etc., rather than take the chance that there will not be space for one's bike.

The best solution (which the U.S. is years behind on) is an arrangement by which you can bike to the bus stop, lock your bike there, take the bus, then rent a bike (for a very minimal fee) when you get off!
Check out how they do things in Paris, and other parts of France:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032301753.html

"On July 15 [2007], the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place."

"By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations -- or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city."

Roody

To clarify, I do NOT think it's stupid to have bike racks on buses, and I never said that. I think the current type of racks are stupid because they're inconvenient, slow and limited in capacity.

I'm thinking that hooks stiking out of the side of the bus would be a better system. I had bike hooks on my kitchen wall in a former residence. you just lift the bike onto the hooks--two hooks that either go through the frame or the wheels. They could be near the front door of the bus, and that would help speed things up also.

I suppose this idea has some flaws or needs improvement. But I've been reading lately that one problem with bus usage is the slowness, and the main reason for slowness is loading passengers and to a lesser extent unloading them. One idea I read was to have people pay in advance so the driver doesn't have to collect fares. Another idea was to have wider sliding doors, similar to subway doors.

Roody

Does anybody have an update on the Paris program after its first six months of operation?

patc

I can't speak for your fine city, but in mine we have some lanes barely wide enough for a bus, and some roads along which buses regularly lose side-mirrors (utility poles, retaining walls, even buildings in he way). No way in hell I would put a bike on the SIDE of a bus!

Roody

Good point.

Hooks recessed into the wall of the bus?

patc

What about the bike's width?

You could use Greyhound-style buses with the luggage area re-configured for bikes (not sure if that could work) but that would go against the trend of using low-floor, fully accessible buses.

I like the idea of bike racks on buses... the implementation seems to be really problematic, however.

wahoonc

Now that is an idea...leave the doors off and have rails for the bikes to slide into...but with human nature being what it is, you would probably end up with a wino or two sleeping in the open compartment

Aaron

TurdFerguson2

I was in Paris in October, and I have to say the Velib program is amazing. They have stations with approx 10 bikes, all over the city and there are a lot of them. Once you get your yearly membership or visitors get 1 or 7 day passes, you just walk up, enter your code, and take a bike. The first 1/2 hr is free but you get a long ways in 1/2 hr. The next half hour is 1 euro, then next is 2 euro, next is 4 or 5 euro. It just keeps going up and up. It is all linked to your credit card and the idea is to keep the bikes as 1 way trip or short round trip bikes. Every bike has an integrated lock, I think theres a charge if you lose the key (which is locked away until you take the bike from the station).

Anyways, people use them. A lot. I was shocked to see that every morning, the velib station in front of our apartment was empty. Which reminds me, if you got to an empty station, it can tell you the closest stations and how many bike they each have. Or, if you get to a full station with the bike, it will show you a map of the closet stations with free spots, and give you an extra 5 minutes to get there. It is a pretty slick system. At night, we saw lots of people riding them to and from the bars, in various states of intoxication.

A word a caution if you go. You will either need a credit card with a chip on it that is standard in France, or you need to find a Velib office to buy your pass. With the right kind of card (our Canadian cards wouldn't work), you can buy the 1 day, 7 day, and yearly passes eight from the machine at each station.

Here's some pics:
I was so excited the night I got there when I saw a station right outside our apartment:

People almost always had something in the basket:


Everything is covered, check the security and the generator lights:

Ekdog

Terrific report, Fergy. These systems are popping up all over Europe. The one here in Seville is called Sevici, and it is run by the same French company, JC Decaux, that administers the Velib program in Paris. It works the same as Velib, but there's no map of the nearest stations with free spaces or five extra minutes to get there. Those features sound great. The other night the station I wanted to leave my bike in was full, so I had to ride around looking for another one. I must say, though, that that was the first time such a thing has happened in the sixty days or so that I've been using the service.

I don't know about Paris, but here you can avoid paying by returning your bike to a station before your thirty minutes are up and checking it out again, so there's really no reason to ever pay anything but the ten euro annual fee.

So far the service is working well, although there was a recent spate of vandalism in which eight or nine bikes were destroyed. There is a small group of right-wingers who hate our new bike paths and the Sevici system, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were behind this. But, in spite of them, people are cycling more than ever, and new stations are being built every day. I was looked upon as eccentric twenty years ago when I came to this city and started commuting by bike. Now there are thousands of us. How things are changing!

BFG

Boy, i wish we had bike racks on buses her in Western Australia. You should see the hill i climb to get to the local downhill trails!

Could someone take a photo of these seemingly controversial racks?
EDIT: Nevermind, i saw the video.

bmclaughlin807

Buses are slow because the have to adhere to a set schedule and they have to stop all the time. Bikes do NOT slow the buses down any further.

I'm frequently on a bus that is rolling along at less than the speed of traffic so that he doesn't have to stop and just WAIT... though that has happened too. Nothing like being on a bus that's sitting on the side of the road waiting for the schedule to catch up.

Again... anyone that uses the bike racks on the bus regularly will be able to load or unload in well under 30 seconds... the bus usually has to sit longer than that to board regular passengers and again waiting to pull out into traffic on busier roads. And heaven forbid if someone actually needs the handicap ramp!

Especially those huge SUV strollers some people have! Yikes! Not only do they take forever to load/unload, but they take up 2 seats (One handicap space) and run over toes on the way in and out!

patc

LOCAL buses are slow. As much as I am a fan or LRT, I had to admit our own local data shows BRT (bus rapid transit) is just as fast on bus routes which stay completely or mostly off shared-use roads.

bmclaughlin807

True enough... the express buses are pretty fast here! From the local Park 'n Ride to downtown takes an hour to an hour and a half on the local buses (depending on route and traffic)... about 20 minutes on the express bus!

The nice thing about the express and regional buses is that if the bike rack is full you can put your bike in the luggage bins underneath the bus. You can EASILY put 8 or more bikes on the bus this way... only problem is that the bikes tend to slide around a bit... so you might end up with some scratches or something if you don't bring something to lay the bike on.... Not a big deal with my commuter tank... I mean bike. But something to consider before putting a carbon fiber dream bike under there!

patc

With the exception of a few old relics, all our buses are low-floor and wheelchair accessible. That means no luggage bins of any sort. Station-to-station times are pretty fast, airport to downtown in 20 minutes off-peak.

Our system breaks down in two areas - the "temporary" system downtown in use since the late 80's, and relative lack of high-speed corridors by-passing downtown entirely. The system was designed for a very different city, and improvements have not kept pace with the "new Ottawa". As soon as your bus route has to contend with sharing the road with cars, things can get s-l-o-w-w-w.