Originally Posted by
jsdavis
That said, I am weary of either having the bike nabbed or the driver taking off before I can get to the bike but neither has happened. The front half of the bus is reserved for seniors/disabled and crush loads can mean enough standees that I can really only get off the back.
I always sit or stand as close to the front of the bus as possible and exit at the front when with bike. And ALWAYS alert the driver that you're offloading your bike. One transit company I've ridden actually has the driver hand you a big yellow card which you then hand back to the driver as you exit.
For some other things I saw mentioned in the thread:
Most racks hold 20" wheeled bikes no problem. Some transit operations have a location with a rack bolted to the ground that you can practice on. Back in the day Portland's TriMet required rack users to carry a bike rack user card which you were to show to the driver before racking. It cost $5 and required watching a video then practicing on the static display bike rack.
My favorite multi-modal trip is riding up to Tumwater, WA (100 miles) then putting the bike on busses for the trip from there to Seattle.