Originally Posted by
Lord Chaos
I'm retired now, but for years I combined bicycle with bus, after 10 years of using a motorcycle. I just got tired of traffic.
When I started this, I rode about 2.5 miles to the bus stop, and used the bike rack on the bus.
Bicycling to work has become much more popular. In the last couple of years I worked, the bike rack on the bus was almost always full long before we got through downtown Los Angeles, leaving one or two bicyclists stranded until the next bus.
This was almost my exact same story when I was in Grad school. Some days I had to use my motorcycle because I got out of class after the buses stopped. On any other day I would ride to the bus stop and then read for the 17 mi to a bus stop near my house. I would then ride the rest. The bicycles is a great "last mile" solution (remember, "last mile" is not a measure of a mile, it is a phrase describing the distance between the end of services and the user).
I also frequently ran into the problem that you described, the racks on the buses being full. As mixed mode commuting becomes more popular this is a problem that is going to require addressing. There are several approaches; but, none are perfect.