Petition to WMATA to change their policy regarding bikes during rush hour

[Greenbelt]

I’m going to continue to be contrarian here. I think Metro should experiment with this, and I signed the petition. There is plenty of unused space even in rush hour on trains outside the downtown core. It could be extremely useful for suburban commuters to be able to go bike–train–bike to get from suburb to suburb. Suburban bus service is slow and infrequent. Changing Metro’s policy could take lots of cars off the road. If they want to forbid bikes in certain stations in rush hour, fine. I’d be fine if they forbid bikes in the whole downtown core and/or on inbound heavy load routes.

But there’s no reason not to allow someone from Columbia Heights to take their bike to College Park for class or Greenbelt for work during rush hour. There’s plenty of room on every outbound train in the morning and inbound in the evening. Let’s experiment with this next fall and winter, outside of tourist season, and see how it works!

[americancyclo]

I think the problem (besides metro’s unwillingness to even talk about this) is that it would become too piecemeal and specific to the station and direction of travel. There are too many variables to account for to keep it contained in a concise policy. I don’t disagree that there are times on outbound trains that there might be room for a bike, but I don’t really think that the policy will change, or that the need is really that great. Particularly when Metro can point to Metrobus.

[mstone]

@Greenbelt 16586 wrote:

I think Metro should allow bikes on trains during rush hour only in the first (front) car and only at the operator’s discretion. That is, when he or she opens the little window, you ask if you can board with your bike. Most of the time the front car is less crowded, especially on suburban or off-direction runs, and this would allow many cyclists to use Metro as needed. The cyclist would take the risk if trains were too crowded and boarding was denied by the operator — you’d just have to wait for an uncrowded train.

That wouldn’t solve the problem of hoards of tourists with bikes on overcrowded platforms. Trying to have different policies for different places is unmanageable–there’s no way they could control whether people got off at the approved stations. Heck, they can’t even enforce the system-wide “no food” policy anymore.

[MCL1981]

I agree. Selective stations and routes would be impossible to control or enforce.

[baiskeli]

@acc 16626 wrote:

Then there’s Saturday afternoons. Downtown. At the Smithsonian Station. [ATTACH=CONFIG]838[/ATTACH]
With an enormous bike. Never again.

And enormous heels.

[CCrew]

@MCL1981 16635 wrote:

I agree. Selective stations and routes would be impossible to control or enforce.

Agreed. You have people even now confused with rules that to most seem simplistic.

[pfunkallstar]

Even outside of the restricted hours it can be pretty miserable bringing your bike on a train. I work by Metro Center and tried to use the North Entrance elevator to no avail about two months ago. After hauling my bike down the escalator, the station manager was irate that I hadn’t used the elevator and insisted that I go back up the escalator and use it. I informed him that it was broken and had a maintenance sign on the door to which he replied “Well you should’ve still tried using it.” I love Metro.

[mrkenny83]

Looks like DCist doesn’t like this either…. although, I love the idea of allowing bikes going the opposite direction of rush hour…. I also LOVE the idea of reserving the front/back train for passengers with bicycles!

http://dcist.com/2012/03/should_bikes_be_allowed_on_metro_th.php

[ponchera]

I def agree that trying to get a bike at 5pm is total chaos. My suggestion is to at least reduce the hours, at least one hour. 7pm is ridiculous.

I get out of work at 6-630pm and sometimes, specially during the winter, I may not want to ride 14miles back home in the dark/cold. I’ve gotten good at sneaking into the metro but been stopped as well. Trains are empty at this time. maybe reduce it to 6pm and in the morning allow after 830am, every other train is empty at that time.

[MCL1981]

Hey, I know!!! They should put these on the back of the 6 car trains!! I’m sure the FRA would not be pleased, but what they don’t know doesn’t hurt us.

[dasgeh]

I think if you defined an inner core, and said no bikes in the core during rush hour, you’d be fine. It’s easy to forget that some of the distances even between two stations can be great as you get further out in the system. Bikes during rush hour would only be allowed for those staying outside the core — e.g. the Columbia Heights to Greenbelt example. It would probably make bike commuting more attractive for some who work, say 3 miles from a Metro stop, but 10 miles from home, and aren’t up for the long commute.

I realize that even the outlying stations can be full during rush hour, but that’s where you make the common sense rule that people have priority.

Enforcement and communication wouldn’t be much harder than for the current rule.

Lastly, why should we concede that bikes DON’T belong on Metro during peak hours? Given the overcrowded system we have now, it makes sense to have some restriction in the short term, but as we expand they should be planning for ways to make Metro bike friendly all the time.

[MCL1981]

And how do you keep people from abusing the giant security hole and keep them out of the “inner core”? It is impossible. Rules and laws can not be based on “well it is ok for right now”. Once you’re through the fare gates, you can go anywhere on any line. There is no control. It is impossible. We’re conceding they don’t belong on metro during rush hour because they DON’T. Building bikes into future expansion is going to be problematic. The trains are and always will only be maximum 8 cars. The platforms have 32 cars worth of people on them, and that number will always grow. Unless you plan on renting a tunnel boring machine to make the platforms all twice as long, it’s not going to happen.

[mstone]

The “inner core” idea is somewhat farcical on some lines even now, and will become even more so with the silver line. There are a whole lot of crowded trains outside the core. The platforms are better, but does anyone really believe that people will really not try to cram bikes on overcrowded trains once they’re on the platform?

[dasgeh]

@MCL1981 16960 wrote:

And how do you keep people from abusing the giant security hole and keep them out of the “inner core”?

If you’re caught with a bike in the inner core during the window, you get a ticket. It’s really not that hard. It’s the same enforcement that’s used for most everything else — e.g. you jump the fare gate, you get a ticket.

@MCL1981 16960 wrote:

We’re conceding they don’t belong on metro during rush hour because they DON’T.

I simply disagree with you. I think any functioning public transportation system should serve all of its riders. Some of those riders choose to ride bikes to and from stations, and taking the bikes on the trains just makes sense. I’ll give you that Metro currently isn’t a functioning system, so limitations on bikes now make sense. But as we work to make it better, I believe we shouldn’t concede that bikes don’t belong. There are plenty of examples from Europe and elsewhere in the U.S. where bikes can go on trains all the time.

Oh, and I meant to second the point that’s been made that the rush hour window is currently too big. If only Metro released ridership data like some public transportation systems…

[baiskeli]

@dasgeh 16977 wrote:

I simply disagree with you. I think any functioning public transportation system should serve all of its riders.

By that standard, you’d support no restrictions on bikes at any time or any place.

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