# Bikes on Buses



## User (11 Mar 2011)




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## slugonabike (11 Mar 2011)

Well done, let's hope this spreads to other areas.


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## Tim Bennet. (11 Mar 2011)

Lancaster City Council has had racks on the back of the buses round here for about six or seven years. 

They apparently have never carried a single bike in all that time.


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## Riverman (13 Mar 2011)

To be honest I can see some practical limitations to buses carrying bikes given the frequency of stops and the speed at which people have to get off. How are these things overcome?


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## DTD (13 Mar 2011)

On holiday in Las Vegas last year, noticed most of the buses had bike racks on the front.


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## HLaB (13 Mar 2011)

Further west, Dumfries & Galloway have some sort of system according to CAPS, 2010:



> The Scottish Government will seek to encourage modal integration where​possible while mindful that the carriage of bicycles on buses remains a matter​for individual bus operators. For example, Stagecoach often uses a bikefriendly​bus on the No.81 service between Lockerbie and Dumfries. The​regional transport partnership (SWESTRANS) subsidises a bike-friendly bus​service between Dumfries and Stranraer (No.500 service) and it has​aspirations to extend this service through to connect with trains from​Edinburgh at Lockerbie. Dumfries and Galloway Council also still operates the​Bike Bus shown below.



View attachment Bike Bus.bmp


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## ColinJ (13 Mar 2011)

In theory, some of our little Hebden Bridger buses can carry bikes, but I can't remember ever seeing one doing so.

Suggesting that bike carriage should be booked at least one day ahead doesn't exactly encourage tired cyclists to take to the bus to get up a hill.


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## david1701 (14 Mar 2011)

would be dead handy, my nearest train station (Exeter) is 50 miles away and if I could get a bus there then I could cycle anywhere in the country


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## Riverman (14 Mar 2011)

ColinJ said:


> In theory, some of our little Hebden Bridger buses can carry bikes, but I can't remember ever seeing one doing so.
> 
> Suggesting that bike carriage should be booked at least one day ahead doesn't exactly encourage tired cyclists to take to the bus to get up a hill.



It's a shame bikes aren't taken into account in bus design. They should have a kinda horizontal docking system at the back of the bus that you could simply wheel your bike into and lock it in place before boarding.


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## marinyork (14 Mar 2011)

Riverman said:


> It's a shame bikes aren't taken into account in bus design. They should have a kinda horizontal docking system at the back of the bus that you could simply wheel your bike into and lock it in place before boarding.



Docking at the back of the bus when trials were conducted in the UK was why it was dropped (bus services survive that can take bikes here and there). It's much better to have carriers at the front of buses.


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## Echolalia (14 Mar 2011)

North west Scotland in Ullapool has the fabled Bike Bus! But having just seen this...

http://www.timdearmancoaches.co.uk/

It may be no longer as of April! Gutted.


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## dellzeqq (14 Mar 2011)

the CTC has a bike/bus expert in the redoubtable form of Dave Holladay. If you'd like advice, or have anything to share, he's your man.


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## Riverman (14 Mar 2011)

Bring back bus conductors... problems with rear racks solved.

Also I know this sounds crazy but how about the roof? Also a double decker with the lower deck just for bikes and disabled people would be interesting.


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## domd1979 (22 Mar 2011)

Riverman said:


> Also I know this sounds crazy but how about the roof? Also a double decker with the lower deck just for bikes and disabled people would be interesting.


I think there are some summer services in Snowdonia that use deckers to carry bikes on bottom deck.

Close to my neck of the woods, Moorlands Connect, a demand responsive bus service in the Staffordshire Moorlands (Peak District bit) carries bikes - www.moorlandsconnect.info


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## fimm (23 Mar 2011)

My boyfriend grew up in Austria - specifically, his parents live in a little village on the side of the valley above Innsbruck. He tells me he'd often cycle down to school in Innsbruck, and then stick the bike in the locker space under the bus for the journey home! It is about 200m ascent IIRC. (He would cycle home too, sometimes, this might explain why he's so good at cycling up hills...)


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## e-rider (23 Mar 2011)

in canada buses have racks on the front so the driver can see what's happening and not drive off whilst someone is in the middle of loading /unloading their bike

they seem to be used a lot and it works


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## domd1979 (23 Mar 2011)

tundragumski said:


> in canada buses have racks on the front so the driver can see what's happening and not drive off whilst someone is in the middle of loading /unloading their bike
> 
> they seem to be used a lot and it works




With buses in UK now being predominantly low floor, am not sure where height of a bike would reach on the windscreen compared to driver's view.


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## Jezston (24 Mar 2011)

When I started bike commuting to work, living in Nottingham and working west of Derby, I would take the Red Arrow 'fast' bus from Nottingham to Derby city center, which are big coaches rather than regular low floor buses, and have a cargo hold underneath.

Despite Trent Barton, the bus operator, assuring me that I was allowed to take my bike and put it in the hold, most times I'd try to do it I'd get an irate driver jumping off shouting "oi you can't do that!". Once I even got one 'teach me a lesson' by pretending to drive off (before stopping a few meters later) before I got a chance to take it off. Even after repeatedly asking Trent Barton to please tell their drivers that I am allowed to do so, and even resorting to having to carry around a printed off email from them assuring me I was allowed to which I could show the drivers, I STILL would get grief several times a week.

In the end I just started taking the train.


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