Transit suffers from lack of vision and cash
Writer Taras Grescoe on Montreal’s transit problems and the risks from government not putting enough money into extending and improving the public transit system.
Also this week, Quel Avenir continued the contrast of Montreal and Ottawa in transit matters, looking at bike racks on buses (something that the STM is trying on just two bus lines so far) and Ottawa’s successful bus rapid transit system.
Marc 10:10 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
I don’t get why the STM is opposed to the bike racks. Until last week, *every* other transit system I’ve seen in Canada and the US has the bike racks. I was in St John’s, NL last week and they didn’t have the bike racks. That was a first.
Kate 23:34 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
I’ve never seen them in action. Can they slow down a bus’s progress as people attach bikes, detach them, have to get other folks’ bikes down to access theirs, etc.?
Josh 04:36 on 2012/05/20 Permalink
They absolutely can, Kate. It can range from, I would say, 20 seconds to a minute to load or unload a bike.
Clément 06:24 on 2012/05/20 Permalink
They have them on buses in Edmonton and, right in front of the MEC store, there is a “practice” bike rack. One can use it to familiarize themselves with the operations of the rack without the pressure of not wanting to delay the bus. Since we don’t have them in Montréal, I used it myself to practice. It is somewhat intimidating at first, but once you understand, it’s incredibly simple. 20 seconds, tops.
BTW, 20 seconds is a lot longer than the time that gets wasted when people get off the bus using the front door instead of the rear door, while new passengers are trying to get in. The front door is for boarding, the rear door for exiting. So simple, yet…
As to why the bus drivers are against the bike racks, they were also against the OPUS card and before that, they were against the CAM… Change…
ant6n 09:37 on 2012/05/20 Permalink
Well, there are a lot of bus lines that have a lot of ridership, more than most North American cities (basically the 10-minute network). These should probably have all-door boarding. Putting bike racks on those may result in delays, no? Have you ever seen bike racks on articulated buses? Either way, they could implement racks on a subset of the lines that aren’t very busy.
Kate 10:43 on 2012/05/20 Permalink
I wonder how safe the racks are for bike ownership. I mean, what’s stopping someone making off with your nice new bike instead of their old beater?
Josh 12:01 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
I only see the things used in the small city where I live. Here, I can report that many people take longer than 20 seconds fiddling with them when they get on and when they get off. And no one walks off with anyone else’s bike because the bus is never so crowded that it would be easy to. These might both be products of a small-town bus system though.