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| Bike on older style NJ TRANSIT bus. Photo John Boyle, BCGP. |
No date was given as to when all the new buses would be received and the old buses retired.
Friday, January 28, 2011
New buses with bike racks gradually coming to NJ TRANSIT north fleet
At this months meeting of the Middlesex County Transportation Coordinating Committee Meeting this past Tuesday, there was a representative from NJ TRANSIT present. I took the opportunity to ask the representative about the status of the new, low-floor buses entering the North Jersey Region bus fleet owned and operated by NJ TRANSIT. Earlier this Winter, I had seen one of these new buses with an unoccupied bike rack while visiting family in Nutley, NJ.
The NJ TRANSIT representative told me that NJ TRANSIT has received some of the long-anticipated new low-floor buses and that those received, are already in service with the bike racks installed. However, NJ TRANSIT will continue to operating many of their older style buses in the Northern Fleet WITHOUT bike racks installed as the new buses continue to be delivered. Since an individual bus is not reserved for a single route, and may be used on different routes on different days and times, NJ TRANSIT cannot guarantee that individual routes nor particular scheduled buses will be serviced by the new buses with bike racks. As such, passengers should not rely on buses having the capability to carry bicycles until all the new buses are received and the old buses retired.
No date was given as to when all the new buses would be received and the old buses retired.
No date was given as to when all the new buses would be received and the old buses retired.
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5 comments:
I saw these years ago in Providence, RI and was very envious. It will be great to see (and use) them once the fleet is complete.
Oh and, "HI!".
Bus bike racks do not seem to exist in Bergen County NJ, at least in the Paramus-Hackensack-Ramsey region. According to the NJ Transit website "50 percent" of their buses have bike racks. I have yet to see one in this section of Bergen County in the last 30 years.
It's a flat out lie.
Also, "bike paths" in the same area lead nowhere, and are for exercise rather than travel, often access to crossroads is actively prevented.
You are allowed to take your bike on or off the Main-Bergen line trains only at Handicapped Accessible stations where you can board at the middle of the car. These Accessible stations (many with platforms accessible only 'by request' or under construction) are less than half of the stations. Of course bikes are allowed only during mid-day non-peak hours.
Bike commuting in Northern Bergen County is still actively discouraged.
NJT Message to cyclists?
"Get a car!"
So much for ecology or economy.
The "50%" NJ Transit talks about are all located in their Southern Region (South of Princeton and Atlantic City). New buses with racks are slowly entering the Northern Region and one can assume that much less than 50% of the Northern Region buses have these bike racks.
I recently heard that NJ Transit will take delivery of its final new bus, to replace all of its older ones (those without bike racks), in 2015.
As for your other points, I totally hear ya'. Much more needs to be done on a number of fronts.
I think it cool for buses to have bike racks for those who doesn't have cars. But is it safe to install the bike racks on the front of the bus?
Yak,
Bike racks on the front of buses are comonplace all across the country with no reports of major problems. I have heard of bikes occasionally getting stollen but that is rare. Still, I've heard of more stories of bike riders forgeting their bike on the bus when they get off.
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