29 August 2008

Bikes on the Commuter Rail

As I get ready to leave town on my bike for the holiday weekend, I thought I'd write a bit about our bike/train infrastructure.

If you're lucky your trip on the MBTA Commuter Rail will be glorious, thanks to the ample parking offered by the bike car. It is nice to see that they have both the wheel-mounted racks and also a smaller number of frame-mounted racks.




Note, however, that just because you're riding in the allowable off-peak hours doesn't mean you're ensured the bike car. If you don't get it, be prepared to watch over your bike! These bikes were rolling all over the place.

It was worse than this on my most recent trip, I think we had more than twenty bikes in a car meant to hold zero. Note to MBTA: it's a good idea to send the bike car on the train that goes closest to sundown. That's when the cyclists are likely to be ending their adventures and heading home. I hear the 2PM bike car was completely empty, but bikes were spilling into the aisles of my 7:30PM train.

3 comments:

2whls3spds said...

We don't have commuter rail where I live...but thanks for the heads up! I think if I were to have to depend on mass transit on a regular basis a folder would be a prerequisite for me. BTW the only one for me is a Brompton!

Aaron

Anonymous said...

I just heard about this bike car from another cyclist while at a wonderful party last night. It was so nice to be surrounded by cyclists. It gets kinda lonely up here in NH. I should move to Boston, the city I love.

Nick said...

That's amazing. Even in NL where I now live we don't (as far as I know) have trains specially equipped to transport bikes.