Integrating Bicycling and Public Transport in North America

The Bike League has a link to the study Integrating Bicycling and Public Transport in North America from the latest issue of the Journal of Public Transportation. John Pucher of Rutgers and Ralph Buehler of Virginia Tech perform case studies of San Francisco, Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, DC, New York, Vancouver and Toronto.

Much progress has been made over the past decade in coordinating cycling with public transport, but the demand for bike and-ride far exceeds the supply of facilities in some cities. More funding, in particular, is needed to provide more secure, sheltered bike parking at rail stations and to increase bike-carrying capacity on rail vehicles.

in only eight years, from 27 percent in 2000 to 71 percent in 2008

For Washington they write

Bike parking is available at almost all of Washington’s 86 Metrorail subway stations, with a total of 1,800 bike racks and 1,300 bike lockers. The parking facilities are popular, with usage rates at most stations ranging from 50-100 percent. In October 2009, a new bike station with spaces for 150 bikes will open next to Union Station, providing convenient connections to Metrorail as well as suburban trains leaving from Union Station. The bike station will also offer bike rentals, repairs, and accessories as well as storage lockers and changing rooms.

In 2008, a new bike-sharing program began in Washington, similar in technology to the Velib system in Paris, but on a much smaller scale: only 120 bikes compared to over 20,000 bikes in Paris. It facilitates bike-and-ride because 8 of the 10 bikesharing docking stations are at Metrorail stops. The short-term rental bikes can be used to get to and from Metrorail stations, thus serving as feeders and distributors for transit.

Bikes are allowed on Metrorail trains except during morning and afternoon rush hours on weekdays. All 86 Metrorail stations have elevators (271 in total) and are ADA accessible, which facilitates access to platforms for cyclists as well, who are, in fact, required to use the elevators and are not permitted on escalators. In contrast to Metrorail, MARC suburban trains never allow full-size bikes on board, and VRE allows bikes only on certain trains. Both rail systems allow folding bikes at any time. All 1,450 WMATA buses have bike racks, but some buses run by suburban agencies do not.

In theory, bike plans for the Washington area establish the goal of coordinating bike routes with transit routes, but, in fact, nothing has really been accomplished in this area except by accident.

Ouch.

For Challenges they list restricted bike access hours on WMATA, no bikes on MARC and restricted bikes on VRE.

Conclusions include:

in North American cities with overcrowding of rail vehicles during rush hours, the focus should probably be on providing improved bike parking at rail stations. Not only is more parking needed, but it should be of higher quality, with more sheltered and secure spaces. Major transit terminals should include multi-service bike stations, such as those in northern Europe. Similar to the concept of “complete streets,” an appropriate goal of transit systems in North America should be to provide “complete stations,” which fully accommodate the needs of cyclists.

Transit systems should shift their focus from park-and-ride to bike-and-ride, which is more cost-effective as well as more environmentally friendly.

The league has a short quiz about cities, bikes and transit.

Photo by M.V.Jantzen

Comments

[Tim H]

[comment related to the WashCycle blog in general, not this post]

You are a modern day hero. I read your blog often and am continuously awed by the breadth and depth of your reporting and thoughtful recommendations. How is this possible? Are you operating a sweatshop of cyclist planners and advocates abducted from masters programs and bike messenger networks?

With holiday season forcing me to consider all that I take for granted, I must admit I am grateful for derailleurs and for WashCycle.

[Washcycle]

Thanks that means a lot to me. Enjoy it while you can. This summer we're expecting a little Washcycle Jr and I suspect the blog will suffer as a result.

[SJE]

Congratulations on Washcycle Jr (is that a quick rinse?)

On the transit issue: this is thrown into sharp relief by the storm. With trails completely unplowed, sidewalks largely uncleared, cyclists are forced to rely more on the roads or transit.