Bus racks

On 2018-08-28 21:42, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 28 Aug 2018 21:15:53 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 8/28/2018 9:01 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 28 Aug 2018 21:49:49 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 8/28/2018 7:27 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:43:58 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-08-27 18:13, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:43:40 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-08-27 16:20, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Monday, August 27, 2018 at 5:49:57 PM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-08-27 13:53, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
Reading the thread about bus racks being to short for some bicycles
got me to thinking about how the bicycle is supported in the rack.
When I worked in bicycle shops we called those bicycle parking racks
with the two low hoops to hold the wheels "wheel benders" as we often
had wheel repairs that were caused by the sideways force on the
wheels. I wonder if bus racks have the same problem at times if that
front wheel hook is not supporting the bicycle from swaying a bit
side to side.


The wheel hook is what is supposed to prevent it from swaying. A wheel
itself can't. Just imagine: While the racks on our buses are barely wide
enough to squeeze in my 2.25" wide rear tire a 25mm road bike tire would
make the bike almost fall over, considering that the slot is just around
4" deep. Some people who still run 23mm tires or even less would also
risk marring their rims badly when the sides of the rims would bang
against the steel tube of the rack rail all the time. You'd likely feel
the damage immediately the first time you use the rim brakes.

Another detail I noticed: The handlebar end of my MTB was very close to
the windshield of the bus. Scary. I watched it on the freeway and while
the bike "came closer" it didn't quite touch glass. Despite the
panniers. That only worked because I had shortened the handlebar
significantly a few months after I bought the MTB.

What would happen if the handlebar touched the glass?


Possibly a crack. Since it is curved glass that would cause an expensive
repair and loss of service costs while the bus is in the shop.

One can only speculate. Generally speaking, if you break someone's
window, you get to pay for it, in some manner.


Not if the rack was sub-par and caused the event.

You mean if the bus company is nice enough to install bicycle racks
that, as you previously wrote, fit many bicycles and your bicycle
doesn't fit so a window gets broken it is the bus company's fault?

Logically then it is to the bus company's advantage to get rid of the
bicycle racks and thus avoid the expense of broken windows.

It's a non-issue, important only in Joerg's mind. If the bus company had
a problem with broken windshields, they'd have fixed the racks or
protected the windshields long ago.

One might also speculate on whether the majority of the bus riders
actually care whether bicycle racks are installed, or not.


Sacramento Transit seems to think that two bicycle carriers
per bus are adequate. This may miss the larger trend:

https://www.cato.org/publications/po...sit-apocalypse


Sacramento Transit is suffering a substantial decline in ridership. If
they can't catch more split-commute folks (car-transit and bike-transit)
they'll have serious budget problems soon. Observations:

The light rail from town to the outskirts is often more than maxed out
with bicycles on board. You carry them onto the train car. There are two
allowed per end section of a car but often there are three to four.

P&R parking structures in some areas are already full before 7:30am and
then all day.

There is a large number of homeless on the trains and in local buses
here plus shady people milling around some stops. I know lots of
potential riders who do not use the systems because of that, certainly
not with young kids in tow.

Transfers require another fare, meaning that many people must pay four
to six times per round trip. That can result in the car being a more
economical mode of transportation.

So we know what needs to be done. They are trying to wing it with a 10%
fare reduction but that won't be more than a drop in the bucket.

https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/a...217389425.html


One might ask, "why public transportation" when according to current
figures the average U.S. family owns 1.968 autos?


Typically because they want get to and from work faster. I do it out of
environmental consciousness and it increases my cycling range. So far
only light rail because the bus racks won't accommodate modern MTB. Lots
of cyclists in my area use their pickup trucks instead. The
environmentally worst method is the two-location shuttle method.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/