Bikes on the Metro During Rush Hour – WABA Petition

[infinitebuffalo]

@Judd 181145 wrote:

This is a low effort advocacy event. Just enter your e-mail address and hit enter.

Note that this will get you a survey that asks about how often you ride various forms of transit. Apparently if you don’t ride Metrorail often enough, you won’t get asked about taking your bike on it…

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[CBGanimal]

@infinitebuffalo 181147 wrote:

Note that this will get you a survey that asks about how often you ride various forms of transit. Apparently if you don’t ride Metrorail often enough, you won’t get asked about taking your bike on it…

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Yup! Happened to me too

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tania]

This is a terrible idea. I can barely get ME on the train during rush hour.

[dasgeh]

@Tania 181152 wrote:

This is a terrible idea. I can barely get ME on the train during rush hour.

It seems your situation is more the exception than the rule, and could easily be dealt with by rules that allow bikes when they fit.

[dplasters]

Metro ridership peaked in 2008.

I do feel for Tania here though. There are not great spots to safely put your bike on a train and the city doesn’t have the NYC Subway standard of being the city’s lifeline and we all know the change in policy isn’t coming along with a change in train-car design.

[mstone]

@dasgeh 181156 wrote:

It seems your situation is more the exception than the rule, and could easily be dealt with by rules that allow bikes when they fit.

yup, because people follow the rules and metro is good at enforcing rules on the trains

[lordofthemark]

There are definitely times (the trains are much less crowded on Fridays, somewhat less I think on Mondays, and less crowded near the end of peak) and places (the reverse commute direction in many places, for example) where the current rules are unnecessarily strict, and of course some times and places where there is no room for bikes. IIUC BART asks riders to not take their bikes onto crowded trains, and IIUC that has worked out there. It is of course possible that riders in DC are less likely to be polite than those in the Bay Area, I don’t know.

I would point out that some people already DO violate the rules and take bikes on metro at peak times. I think its likely that adding people who will take their bike on metro only after the rule changes, is likely to bring more rule abiding riders onto metro – but I could be wrong.

[Tania]

@dasgeh 181156 wrote:

It seems your situation is more the exception than the rule, and could easily be dealt with by rules that allow bikes when they fit.

Really? I’d say it seems you live in metro fantasy land. I actually have to take the train a stop or two in the OPPOSITE direction in order to get back on a different train heading in my direction. And that’s at 4:30pm before the real rush hour crush.

We can’t even get cyclists to call their passes; there’s no way they’re not going to board crowded trains. And what if the train fills up after they’ve boarded?

I’ll say it again, it’s a TERRIBLE idea. Metro is bad (crowded) enough as it is. Ridership may be down but safety issues or crowded tracks (OSB for example) mean the trains aren’t running as frequently.

[huskerdont]

Works in San Francisco, why not here? Oh yeah, right.

ETA that I think it is a great *idea* that will never work in practice.

[baiskeli]

@Tania 181162 wrote:

Really? I’d say it seems you live in metro fantasy land. I actually have to take the train a stop or two in the OPPOSITE direction in order to get back on a different train heading in my direction. And that’s at 4:30pm before the real rush hour crush.

We can’t even get cyclists to call their passes; there’s no way they’re not going to board crowded trains. And what if the train fills up after they’ve boarded?

I’ll say it again, it’s a TERRIBLE idea. Metro is bad (crowded) enough as it is. Ridership may be down but safety issues or crowded tracks (OSB for example) mean the trains aren’t running as frequently.

I share your skepticism. And a rule only allowing bikes when there is room for them doesn’t work if the bike is on the train first, before the crush of people.

I’d like to see them figure out how to do this but I don’t think just ending the time restrictions alone will work.

[rcannon100]

Tania speaks my mind. WMATA during rush hour is dangerously crowded. I regularly dont board trains bc they are sardine cans – dont wanna get stuck in a train like that under the river for an hour. And as for people behaving, havent we beaten this topic to death. People dont behave; their is no enforcement; the only thing that works is infrastructure design. This monday I was down at TR and watch a tourist drive down the MVT to Trollheim :rolleyes:

But then I thought this was the whole point. Reason #52 why I love my commute: bc WMATA is the 8th ring of Hell

[ginacico]

@baiskeli 181164 wrote:

I’d like to see them figure out how to do this but I don’t think just ending the time restrictions alone will work.

Ditto. The real problem is their inadequate service levels. Metro needs to run 8-car trains at more frequent intervals, especially on overcrowded routes. Then they could let bikes on at any time of day. The scene Tania describes is all too common, totally unacceptable, and why I didn’t want to live on the Orange line.

It wouldn’t phase me to restrict bikes to the end cars only, so we can get on/off away from the crush of people (and appease some of the haters, cuz you know there will be haters).

All that said, I signed the petition because it opens the conversation I’d like to applaud them for even considering the idea.

[ltierstein]

I live in Arlington and frequently have to head out to Merrifield, Vienna or Reston during morning rush hour. I get on at a station where there are different platforms for inbound and outbound trains (Clarendon or Ballston, for example). The platforms are never crowded and the trains typically have between 10 and 20 people per car, if that many. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to take a bike on one of those trains. Now, I typically go with my stealth bicycle (a folding bicycle) and fold it up if requested. But, clearly, not everyone has a stealth bicycle. Coming back to Arlington from Vienna or Merrifield, if it’s before 9:30, the train may START to get crowded, but it’s typically not standing-room-only when I get off in Ballston.

[bobco85]

Having now lived on the West coast (Seattle) for a year and using a transit system that is in the process of expansion (from 1 line to 3 lines and eventually more) yet seems not to struggle with bicycles on trains, I can say this: Metro needs to be running 8-car trains with more frequent service during rush hour in order to be able to make this work. Also, they need to have designated sections of each train car on which one could board with their bicycle so that everyone would be able to know where to expect them.

I’ve seen folks bring their bicycles on the light rail during rush hour, and it seems to work fine because the trains only occasionally become packed like sardine cans due to the frequency of service. We have 2 or 3 car light rail trains running at the moment, but the system will expand to 4 car trains in coming years.

Here’s info from Seattle’s transit system on bringing bicycles on board:

• General bicycle on transit info: https://www.soundtransit.org/Rider-Guide/bringing-your-bike
• Videos showing how to load/unload a bicycle from trains/buses (Central Link is Seattle’s light rail that I use): https://www.soundtransit.org/Rider-Guide/bringing-your-bike/bike-loading-videos

In short, it is possible for Metro to do this, but they have a lot of baggage to figure out first to be able to actually make it work.

[dasgeh]

I saw a data analysis a while ago that indicated the crowded conditions were limited to less than half the lines for less than half of the rush hour ban. Look at the data and figure out a policy that makes sense for the whole system, not just based on one person’s commute.

[Author]

Posts