[*BCM*] MassBike Victory: MBTA Buses to Get Bike Racks

[Marq Maru]

Nope, not trolling.

I do belive there are better uses for a quarter-million bucks than afixing 
racks to carry usable working vehicles.  I'm all in favor of government 
monies going toward bike-centered initiatives, but that's a lot of money, 
I'd rather it be spread out.  It'd buy a huge pile of bike racks  (the city 
of Portland supplies and installs free bike racks to any business that 
requests one), or ton of paint to make bike lanes (Comm Ave between Fenway 
and Packard's Corner, or on Huntington St, etc.).  While I'm at it, does 
anyone know why that strip of Comm Ave has a 40' wide sidewalk and no bike 
lane?  Wait a minute, is there a single bike lane in the city of Boston? 
I've only seen them in Cambridge and somerville.

If everyon used the rack once per year, it would add up, but an adequate 
bike lane system would be advantagious for all bikes, everyday.  DART bus 
system in Dallas stopped installing new racks on their busses because no one 
was using them.  San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago have racks on 
their bus fleet.  I've never seen a single bike in any of them.  I'm against 
throwing good money after bad.





There are a bunch of reasons this is a good thing, in my opinion:

 * It demonstrates a commitment to cyclists in that it's money going
   towards making the city more bike-friendly. While it may not be
   what we would like to see most, it's something, and I think it's
   a good thing.

 * It's great for casual cyclists who may be trying to choose between
   driving somewhere and not doing so --- say you're trying to go from
   Somerville to Waltham. You might say "I don't really want to walk
   15 minutes to the T, ride the T for 15 minutes, walk to a bus stop,
   wait for the bus, ride the bus for a half hour, and then walk to
   my destination.  I will drive." (This is even almost reasonable.)
   However, "I can bike to the bus stop, and then bike the bus route
   until it catches up with me, and then hop on" is much more
   appealing, and also encourages people to use mass transit.

 * It's useful for people like me (and, presumably, many on this list)
   who would be happy to just bike to Waltham as well. If you start
   feeling ill, get tired, find that the weather is more than you
   bargained for, pop a flat and don't have your tools or, God forbid,
   get in an accident, you probably want to get to either your destination,
   a bike shop, or home, and trying to do that with a non-functioning
   bike or rider is very difficult. Being able to bring your bike with
   you on public transit it always a good thing --- even if you only use
   it once a year, if every cyclist in the city uses it once per year,
   that adds up.

   (I got hit by a bus in Harvard Square a couple of months ago, and
   was fine but my bike wasn't ridable; I was very happy I could hop
   it on the T rather than just leave it locked up in a high-traffic
   area. Had I not been fifty feet from a Red Line stop, I would have
   been in a lot more trouble.)

 * It makes bikes more visible to drivers and people who use mass transit.

So, while I might like to see more money going into enforcing "No parking
in bike lane" or something like that, I think this is valuable.

But it's possible you were just trolling. :)

-r.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rachel Elizabeth Dillon" <red at mit.edu>
To: "Boston Critical Mass" <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 12:46 PM
Subject: Re: [*BCM*] MassBike Victory: MBTA Buses to Get Bike Racks


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