The Port Authority just announced this past weekend that they are purchasing 160 additional bike racks for their buses. We’re still trying to find out if this will include the 100 racks we announced last month in the eMessenger as being included with the purchase of 100 new buses, or if this represents an addition 160 racks. This purchase will most likely increase the reliability of the Rack ‘n Roll program, and even allow new routes to be designated as Rack ‘n Roll Routes.
NEWSLETTER
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I know some people on Port Auth staff, and can get a clarification. Will check and report back.
Meanwhile, I asked a Port Auth staffer about bike rack use at a meeting earlier this month. He said he had not noticed much bike rack use. So, while this conversation has no official bearing, it would certainly help our cause to put those racks to use. It’s about the best advertising we can get!
Agreed, and thanks so much for looking into the details on this.
Our observations on the program so far are that people won’t use it if it’s unreliable, and that is the status quo. I’ve used the program at least a dozen times this winter  mostly putting my bike on the EBA or EBS from the East End to Downtown. It’s been great for the most part in that I’ve only been stranded a couple of times by buses without racks or with broken racks… but here’s the thing, neither of those bus routes are even supposed to have racks on them. Meanwhile, there are 500s and 54Cs that show up constantly without racks.
This is all beginning to be addressed by the Port Authority. We’re really happy that they’ve been so enthusiastic about working with us to make the system more reliable. But until they do, people simply won’t use it.
We are striving to have the entire fleet (sans suburban fliers and the short shuttles which aren’t compatible) outfitted with racks in 2010, the year of the next federal funding cycle. When we get 100 percent of all compatible buses outfitted with racks we will see a spike in use.
I found that when I was using them last Spring/Summer they were super-reliable, and they’re pretty easy to use, too.
But around Fall it became closer to 50/50 whether a bus would have a rack on it, and like you said, Scott, I’d see lots of routes that weren’t even part of the program go by with the racks.
Still, even with the (hopefully soon to be amended) availability problems, this is a cool way to just go for a ride to wherever without worrying about having enough time / energy to make it a round-trip.