Too Many Bikes.
 

Good planning.

http://nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/...5743d005ae.txt

How about adding special hooks so bikes can be stored vertically??
You could fit lots more bikes without more cars.

one of my co workers rides the sprinter from Oside to Esco with his bike on there, 4 days a week. He has a big ford 350 LOL

I still never road the sprinter yet, though I do have a one day pass I got from jury duty.

That's a simple, common sense approach. You fail at government management skills.

I thinking of getting a nice folding bike. Not that I really need one......I just want one to putz around in, but a good one.

you gotta get one of those cool alex moulton bikes, maybe not technically a folder but damn cool
http://www.alexmoulton.co.uk/bikes/i...400&Height=285
they do a stainless steel model now. a transparent paint color over the stainless would be awesome

I hate to sound like an economist, but if bike carrying passengers take up more space, they should pay more than regular customers.

Wheelchairs not only take up more space, but they require expensive equipment to get them onto the train. They aren't paying more. They should charge everyone more to travel on the train during the peak hours. That'll encourage people to spread their travel times and generate more revenue to put another car on the train for the peak hours.

Now YOU are sounding like an economist. :eek:

One small point: passengers dependent on wheelchairs have to travel with the wheelchair; passengers with bikes choose to travel with the bike. Besides, not making the trains wheelchair-accessible would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (at least, I think it would), and the ensuing lawsuits would probably be more expensive than making trains wheelchair-accessible in the first place.

I suspect NCTD will eventually find a solution.

Yeah, I wouldn't seriously propose charging more for wheelchairs. I don't like charging more for bikes as I think bike/train commuting should be encouraged. I agree they'll get it figured out in their own bureaucratic manner. It's a tough situation. Since the train is actually losing money and requiring government subsidies, the cost of a second car is going to be a pure expense for them.

I take the train to work in the mornings and ride home. Ya it does get drowded with bikes. But one thing the article failed to mention is the lack of the transit cops doing their job. Many times you will see kids with their bmx bikes just walk on, flip it over and leave it laying around and go sit someplace, or people refusing to give up a space where the folding seats are to allow bikes to fit in when there are seats elsewhere. Also, they could just modify the seating in the other half of the trainset to have fold up seats too, providing more space. The other thing the articlke failed to mention is that there are days in which it is wheelchairs and strollers, not bikes, that cause the problem. Besides, in order to obtain maximum capacity on one trainset, there will be many people standing. That is the design. The funny part about mass transit around here is that people are afraid to sit next to each other. They would rather stand and complain about having to stand rather than just go sit next to someone. This applies to both the Sprinter trains and the bus.

I just remebered something too, and this is actually a pretty good exmple of the poor planning of these people. They want to encourage people to use bikes so they provide special secure, lockable bike storage containers one can reserve for use at some of the major stations. Guess they didn't get the part about using bikes to get around between station and destination, not just home to one station. ALthough we must not forget that the main reason local transit agencies have no money is because the Governator has been siphoning funds that are set aside by state and national law to help fund mass transit.

Some cars should not have any seats at all, or just long benches along the length of the car on each side so they can pack them in like sardines.

Actually the sprinter trains have no special equipment or mods to make them wheelchair friendly. Also, charging more during peak hours would be like taxing people for having a normal day job. And seriously, it's total BS when they say they can't afford to hook up a second train set during a few trips on peak hours. They run doubles on the weekends all day, and even though the service is hourly instead of every half, weekends aren't as busy, especially at 5 in the morning on Sunday. Like it was said previously, they need to revise the planning. Plus, the systems is new. It usually takes a year to perfect everything.

Metrolink's going to be facing a challange similar to this very soon. Rising gas prices are making more people use the train. The number of bike commuters are still very small, but with room for only 2-4 bikes per car (depending on how you organize them), things are going to get crowded very quickly.

There's plans to start adding an extra car to the busiest trains but that still only means room for acouple bikes. I really do wish they'd have just one car where half the lower level was just open space for bikes and other large luggage items (since alot of people use Metrolink to get to and from LAX). Then have folding seats for use during those times when there aren't many bikes or luggage around.

I ride the sprinter on a regular basis and the bike situation does get crowded and a lot of the problem is people who sit in the folding chairs and hold their bike. All they have to do is lay it again the wall but for some reason they feel the need to sit as well. Another problem is people who do not have bikes sit in these seats and not have bikes and get mad that they have to get up. People seem to really not like the idea of sitting and facing other people in the other seats. I think the rule is supposed to be one bike per a car during crowded times but that never works. All it takes is some common sense.

oh man i just looked at the picture in the article and you can see the problem... one guy is sitting in a seat holding his bike instead of letting others bike lean up against it and then you have three people sitting in the folding chairs and not moving to make way for the bikes when there is other seats open.

I ride the red, blue and green lines with my LWB 'bent all the time, usually putting it in the space that has no seats designed for wheelchairs. Only once did I see a person with a wheelchair ever using any of those lines. Works well for me.
Mass transit traditionally runs at a loss. Still does, even in such efficient systems as San Francisco and New York. If it charges enough to break even, ridership goes down. The Pacific Electric transit system (red and yellow cars) that ran in LA in the early 1900s was built by land developers who wanted to sell houses farther and farther from downtown. They could transport at a loss and make up way more than that loss in house sales. It only died as it slowed down to less than 12mph because of all the car traffic, and the fact that it all ran above ground. At one time, there were 1200 miles of track in use!

The limit to the length of train is of course the length of the platform, there is room for more cars and one with more open space would encourage more bike riders. I'm seeing more and more bikes on the trains as time goes on. In Moscow, the subway trains run every 1-2 minutes at peak hours to handle the flow, perhaps we'll get to that point here as gas prices rise, but we'll never get ahead of the commuting traffic curve with new subways and roads. Los Angeles just plain started again too late.