I recently started bike commuting my 7.2 miles to work. I found it takes a lot less time, a lot less hassle, and gives me a nice workout. Occasionally when my legs start screaming at me, I will stop off and take the max halfway home. Nothing feels better to see an open bike hanger as the train approaches. At the same time, nothing sucks more than when one is not available. I hate imposing on others by dragging my bike into the “other” areas and taking up so much space.
What do you think TriMet can do to accommodate more bicycles on the max? Should they? How do you feel about bikes mixing with standing passengers?
24 comments ↓
Or how about when people are crowding the bike area even though there are places to sit and stand else where?
I’d like tri met to add more hangers on max. I don’t think they would take up a lot of room, and it would make things easier for bikers, while causing less imposition on other passengers.
First, an important caveat: I am absolutely in favor of the current bike rack arrangement on MAX, and support the continuation of the current allowance of bikes on each car.
However, it is important to note that each bike rack occupies the space normally taken by two seating positions (which can also be standee space, of course, under today’s configuration when a bike isn’t present.)
By providing 8 bike racks per two-car low-floor train, 16 seats are essentially eliminated from the floor plan.
These areas are utilized by standees when bikes aren’t around (and even, to an extent, when they are), but with seating already scarce at peak hours, it would be unwise to add further racks which would likely require the removal of more seating.
I would say that the racks take up even more space then two seats because you need a fairly wide area for maneuvering while hanging a bike. The current ones work because they’re right next to the doors. Adding two hooks to say, the back sides of the current ones which take up quite a bit of room indeed.
But I think if you bring your bike, you should expect to ride it to wherever you’re going. Until they can (if ever due to city block length) make trains longer, we’re pretty much stuck with what we’ve got.
Ack, “would” not “which”
If there is no bike rack available you should get off the train.
Paddy, by that logic:
Should everyone get off if there are no actual seats available?
Should anyone with a stroller get off if they can’t have the priority area?
Should someone with a skateboard get off?
Is it OK if someone is carrying luggage, grocery bags, or anything that might take up the same space as a bike?
I don’t know if that is the way to look at it.
I do appreciate all the comments, keep ‘em coming!
I have never really like the flawed logic of “if you have a bike you should ride it the whole way, or you should get off if there is no room”.
Why is it flawed? Because if I didn’t ride my bike I would be taking up more space over time on the max. For intance, I have to travel 13 miles on the max. On a day I do take the max for part of the trip it is only for a couple of miles (Goose Hollow to Sunset). There are somedays the West Hills are too much for my fat ass. If I ride the max there and back I take a total of 26 rider/mile spaces for the day. If I ride my bike and only take the max one way for three miles, and we say my bike and myself take 3 rider spaces, for 3 miles that would be 9 rider/mile spaces.
So if I ride my bike I take almost a third less space than if I were to ride the max the whole way in a day.
There are plenty of people that ride many of miles to get to the max from home and then ride the max to another location and then ride on to work. These people are taking up less space because they aren’t taking up space on the bus too.
There is one ray of hope here:
All of the problems mentioned above are directly related to crowding — with high service frequencies at peak hour, if people have confidence that a bike rack will be available on the _next_ train, they may be more willing to skip a train with no available racks. The same goes for space for strollers, priority seating, available sets for those who prefer not to stand, etc.
When the new Green Line opens in the fall of 2009, those trains will provide an option for a significant chunk of the current ridership.
Anyone traveling between Rose Quarter and Gateway will receive identical route service on Blue, Red, and Green trains. Same platforms, fares, and everything.
Anyone traveling between Rose Quarter-to-Gateway and downtown, who normally boards in the vicinity of Pioneer Courthouse Square, will have a choice of trains as well, but at different Pioneer Courthouse Square-area platforms.
I’m sure schedules and frequencies will be adjusted across-the-board, but the end result will be a net increase of service in the Rose Quarter-to-Gateway corridor.
The new trains to be introduced with the Green Line will hold more passengers than today’s trains. The reason is that they will be semi-permanently coupled two-car trains, with the operator cabs in the middle removed.
I have been told by more than one staffer at TriMet that the intention is that after the fanfare of the green line opening passes, these new trains will be distributed throughout the system, easing crowding on other lines.
Increased frequencies will help bicyclists, and all other users, regardless of whether there is any change to the number of available racks per train.
Why not just follow the current rules?
http://trimet.org/pdfs/code/TriMet_Administrative_Rules_bicycles.pdf
Jake FTW!!!
But there is some wiggle room for interpretation of those rules. I am loving this conversation all!
I could see arguing to have TriMet add bike hooks on the westside routes, but the eastside of Portland is simply too flat to spend that type of money and space accommodating bikers who should be able to bike home on their own.
I want MAX to start accommodating my truck. I mean, gas is way too expensive these days. But I need my truck so I can hit the strip club during lunch. Why should cyclists be able to ride MAX with their vehicles, while us poor automobile drivers get the shaft?
brewcaster,
PaddyMcGuire is just a troll from the OregonLive forums. He has hundreds of monikers over there. He hates TriMet. He hates MAX. He hates everything about Portland. Just ignore him.
He’s never even taken a ride on MAX. He is scared of the passengers.
Can’t just add bike hooks to the west trains, since all trains end up going east too!
Agreed! I am trying to figure out how to ride my bike for part of my commute, but since I go from PGE Park to Millikan Way I can’t ride my bike the whole way (without dying). But morning commutes pack the MAX! I wish there was a way they could go on the outside, like the buses.
Adding an additional hook the existing area would double the capacity for bikes without sacraficing seated space. If there were 2 hooks, one bike could face in, while the other faces out.
Putting racks on the front of cars, like buses, would be great. I’m not sure if that’s viable, but it would be very nice. It would make things easier for everyone.
I hope tri met encourages intergrated bike use. Any policy that encourages people to drive less, pollute less, and consume less benefits the entire community. Biking as transport is critical to urban sustainability. Hopefully the green line addition will alievate some of the crowding issues and calm nervers during peak hours.
I don’t think it’s feasible add more hooks for bicycles. Safety prohibits the possibility of a bus-like addition to the front of the trains, as does the time factor. Bicycles getting on and off the train already slow things down, as it is.
Yes, so do strollers, but that’s an entirely different story. (Don’t get me started about the increasing size of strollers, in general, and the increasing use of strollers for ever older children.)
At any rate, I can’t see how it’s positive to take away more seats for the minority of time when there are too many bikes for the hooks that are available. I can’t see crowding in more hooks, as that is likely to cost even more time, and more bumping between passengers. At the end of the day, the status quo seems to best serve the most people.
I guess I wonder why bicyclists who want to ride part of the way don’t hit a bus, if MAX is too crowded.
Staheli - The max is more predictable. Bus are slower.
Andy - they do, it is called a park and ride lot.
I say make one car standing only. Really it seems that most people perfer to stand than sit to someone else. Plus the seats that face each other are wasting space. If you have long legs, some one can’t or won’t sit in the seat facing you. If a car is standing only it will hold more people, make those with bikes or strollers less in the way.
Shane - it’s also hard to sit when people are constantly taking up two or three seats
Shane,
That may be, but the MAX may alse be less capable of hauling bicycles. That part of the equation needs to be considered by TriMet and by cyclists.
As for the seat issues, I don’t know what’s wrong with people in Portland. They seem to be afraid to touch one another. Even walking around is an issue for Portlanders. They’d rather waste time dancing than take the chance that they might brush up against each other as they pass by on the street. In NYC, my two year old wobbles down the street, in and out of people, and everyone walks by without a blink. In Portland, people see him 20 feet away, and they don’t know what to do. There can be no one else on the sidewalk, and they are freaking out about a wobbly youngin. It’s ridiculous.
I have been in the process of transitioning into biking part of my commute (7 miles each way) over the past few weeks. My commute is from North Portland to Hillsboro at the normal rush hour time (8:00am and then at 5:00pm). I bike from home to PGE park which is a great spot to hop on because the downtown commuters have already gotten off. On the way home, I do the reverse, getting off at PGE Park which again avoids the downtown commuter traffic. I think it’s just a matter of problem solving when the best time is to be on the max with your bike, not just for you but for the other passengers.
Second of all, this does not abide by the rules that Jake P. posted but this seems to make a lot of sense to me. A few weeks ago a bike passenger got onto the max and all bike hangers were full. He pulled out his own S clamp (not sure if this is the technical term) strapped it on next to my bike. It worked perfectly. I do not recall where he hooked it on but it worked and it was brilliant. Something to consider. This also made me wonder why there couldn’t be two hooks installed. Before this, I had assumed the rocking of the bike furthest from the window could hit someone in the walkway but this was not a problem. The passenger put the hook as close to my bike as possible and arranged the handle bars where my bike would keep his bike from swinging into the aisle. Ideas on this?
I also want to note that I was nervous in the beginning about bringing my bike on the max but I have had nothing but kindness from other passengers when getting on and off the max. I’m a petite women who is often a bit clumsy but again everyone has been so helpful. Thumbs up Portland!
[…] for the “bike hook area” even not during rush hour times can be hit-and-miss… and people are wanting a better solution for what we have now. Well, I guess the increased capacity may help in clearing that area a bit… but I’d […]
A standing room only area seems to make sense, particularly - as some say - when some folks tend to stand in the bike hook area rather than sit anyway. The area could have pull down jump seats along the wall so that if there were less (or no) bikes on the MAX, riders could pull them down and sit around the edges of that area.
Leave a Comment