How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

David Dunham — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 18:54:31 GMT

>> no discussion of Metro Transit planning tools is complete without a plug for Bus Monster. <<

Spoken like a true Windows user -- still not available for Safari on Mac OS X :-(

[If you want Bus Monster to support Safari, then go ask the author of Bus Monster. I can't believe I had to write that. -Raymond]

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Mark — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:07:18 GMT

I didn't know about Bus Monster - it's frakkin' cool!

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Ryan — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:07:20 GMT

From the linked page at Sport Works...

>>They applied for and received a $950M grant to outfit their entire public transit fleet with bike racks.<<

>>It was awarded the contract to outfit the entire fleet of 1300 vehicles with its new bike rack. <<

I never was great at math, but did each bike rack come with a free bus or two? Really hoping that's a typo.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Tim — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:45:23 GMT

I believe communities invent certain devices and mechanisms purely to confuse newcomers and tourists :-)

Case in point: the Toronto tram system. This may be a gotcha for UK people only, and the US/Canada/everywhere else has no trouble with it, but:

The exit doors are automatic. You see people go to the exit, and the door opens, and they get out. So when your stop comes (and good luck knowing that from the mumbling and strongly accented announcements that seem to be compulsory on public transport the world over), you go to the exit door. It doesn't open.

That's because there is a foot-switch under the first step on the stairs out of the bus. The door only opens when you step on it, but you didn't notice that when watching everyone else get off.

So if you don't know about this, you won't start going down the steps until the door opens, and so...deadlock.

It's a conspiracy, I'm sure of it.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Cody — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 21:00:01 GMT

I would imagine that in Toronto, if no one's going for the door, it's more useful to conserve heat and not open the door up unless required.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Serge Wautier — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 21:49:17 GMT

You guys have bike racks on busses!? I've never seen that anywhere in Belgium (or even France or the many other European countries that I have visited). Although I should check Dutch busses. These guys ride more bicycles than they drive cars!

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Kirupa — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:26:14 GMT

I too had never heard of Bus Monster, even though I've been going back and forth between where I live and MS for the past month! This is definitely a lifesaver :)

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Francis — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:45:43 GMT

True, our diagrams leave something to be desired, but then if you watch the video on that page, at about 0:33 you'll see someone loading a bike.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Tierce — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:52:24 GMT

"if you're the first bicycle on the rack, use the slot furthest away from the bus"

We have a similar bike rack on AC Transit busses in the Bay Area. The way I was told, and have since practiced, is to put ones bike in the slot <b>closest</b> to the bus, in order to make it easy for the next bike to be placed in front, rather than having to be squeezed in behind.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Bec — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 04:57:43 GMT

Wow, I've never heard of that. Here, I think you just take your bike on the bus and put it in the disabled section.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Gabe — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 06:16:04 GMT

My guess is that they got a grant for $0.950M to supply bike racks for their buses. Especially when you know there are just about 1300 buses and they mention that racks were expensive at $1000 when they originally came out.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Maarten — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 07:12:50 GMT

SportWorks also made excellent consumer bike racks for your car, based on the same idea, though the consumer division was acquired by Thule recently. They're now sold as Thule models and may not be made here anymore. SporkWorks still makes the bus racks.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

GregM — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 17:44:03 GMT

These look like the same racks added to the WRTA buses in Worcester, MA several years ago.

http://www.therta.com/homebikeracks.htm

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

louis — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 19:16:09 GMT

Wow, I've never seen tire spelled with an 'i' before. Is it an Americanism?
louis

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Mark Wan — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 22:36:45 GMT

Yea, Bus Monster is cool. Compare this with the trip planner here in Vancouver http://tripplanning.translink.bc.ca/hiwire?.a=iTripPlanning&.s=b7f1e593 with the bus stop numbers that are not even on the bus stops themselves.

And yes I use the bus only when I have a flat. Gets me out of trouble when I'm caught with a flat tyre and a time crunch.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Cody — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:36:38 GMT

>>Wow, I've never seen tire spelled with an 'i' before. Is it an Americanism?

Apparently.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Jonathan — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:41:42 GMT

>> Tierce:
>>"if you're the first bicycle on the rack, use the slot furthest away from the bus"

I would guess that putting the bike in the farthest slot helps the bus driver remember that he has a 3 foot long battering ram sticking out the front of his bus.

The bike would be in his field of vision, and would be as close to the front of the rack as possible, thus serving as a better visual indicator of where the rack ends that a bike in the closest slot to the bus would be.

>>louis:
>>Wow, I've never seen tire spelled with an 'i' before. Is it an Americanism?

Yes, tire is the correct spelling in the US.
Blame Noah Webster. :)

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Wesley — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 13:36:39 GMT

The funny thing is I can write almost the exact same post as you did... The Metro bus system in Washington uses the same bike racks as Arlington Transit. The only difference being my Washington is the one that borders Arlington. (DC and Arlington, VA).

Tragically, our Metro doesn't even offer a confusing diagram on their site ( http://www.wmata.com/metrobus/bikeonbus.cfm -- a page that seems to only be accessible by search...not linked to anywhere on the site ) but just a link to a page that's nowhere as good as the one from Arlington County.

Tragically, it seems par for the course that Arlington County makes better Metrobus pages (http://www.commuterpage.com/ART/metrobus.htm ) than Metro does! ( http://www.wmata.com/timetables/timetables-state.cfm?State=VA )

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Aaargh! — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:27:26 GMT

Why would you want to take your bike on the bus ?

Why not just use the bike to get where you're going, it's usually a lot faster.

I usually take the bike to work, it's a 15 minute ride from my house to the bicycle storage @ work.
If I take the bus (like I had to today because of a flat tire) it takes 20 minutes, excluding the time it takes to walk to and from the busstops.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

GregM — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 18:54:46 GMT

When your goal is to bike a trail that's on the other side of town (as opposed to biking to work and back), then you don't necessarily want to bike all the way across town before biking the trail, and then all the way back across town when you're done.

Also, if you have a flat tire or other mechanical problem after biking to work, you can take the bus home.

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Aaargh! — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 19:36:08 GMT

> "When your goal is to bike a trail that's on the other side of town (as opposed to biking to work and back)"

Reminds me of all the people who use the car to go to the gym and then spend an hour on a stationary bike. Or people who use the elevator at work all day and then spend their free time on a stairmaster. :-)
Besides, is going to the other side of town by bus faster than cycling ? Over here it isn't (and I don't live in a particularly crowded part of the country)

Where I live (the Netherlands) a bike is primarily a transportation device and not sporting equipment, and it's the main form of transportation for a lot of people. That's probably the reason why taking your bike on the bus seems so weird to me. Why take the bus when you've got a perfecly good bicycle at hand ? It's faster, more convenient and less annoying than sitting in a bus between a smelly person and a woman with a crying baby.

[Unlike the Netherlands, it is not practical to bicycle everywhere in the Seattle area. The terrain is very hilly (one hill in Issaquah is taller than the maximum elevation gain in all of the Netherlands), and bike lanes are not ubiquitous. And I don't know about you, but I can't go 90kph on my bicycle. -Raymond]

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Aaargh! — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:42:32 GMT

Ofcourse the US is a bit different than .nl , cities over here are usually more compact and roads for cars where added as an afterthought.

> And I don't know about you, but I can't go 90kph on my bicycle.

But within the city, you can't do 90 kph in your car either, and with all the congestions a bike is a LOT faster.

[Our cities are so big, we have highways within them. (And certainly we have highways for going from city to city.) Even if you avoid the highway, you can easily go 65kph on major surface streets. -Raymond]

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

Father Fungus Face — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 19:24:45 GMT

Here in Grand Rapids, MI, the transit authority says the first bike should load closest to the bus.

My question is where does the third bike go?

re: How do you use the bike rack on a Metro bus?

GregM — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:45:35 GMT

The third bike goes on the next bus. ;)