Bikes On METRO Buses Up 47%

[editor]

Got this press release from Metro the other day.  Interesting.  But I wonder what the numbers will look like when it's summer.

 

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More Riders Combining Bicycles and METROBuses for Their Transit Needs

The number of people using bikes to extend their bus trips (or vice versa) increased more than 47 percent jumping from 12,111 bike bus boardings in January 2013 to 17,859 in January this year, That's according to METRO figures which do not account for bikes taken onto light-rail trains.

At the METRO Downtown Transit Center you'll find a bustling bike-share station, and at bus stops and train stations bikes ready to be loaded onto bike racks.

Cyclists converge on the downtown area on a recent Bike to Work Day.

 

"We are preparing for and trying to cultivate, these folks as repeat customers. We're doing that with bike racks on buses and at bike stands at bus stops. We've installed racks on our new trains and are working with the city to provide better infrastructure with bike lid storage at Park&Ride lots and B-Cycle facilities at our Downtown Transit Center,"  says METRO's Interim President & CEO Tom Lambert. 

 

Riders cross the Jackie Freeman hike and bike bridge at METRO's Kingsland Park & Ride.

"The upward trend is gratifying. It's good exercise, gets cars off the road, relieves congestion and certainly cuts emissions that impact our air quality. We work with bus drivers to be more aware of cyclist needs and the rights of the road," Lambert continued.  

In October of 2013 METRO recorded, for the first time ever, more than 22,000 bike boardings on buses. That was 44 percent more than the previous year.

METRO has encouraged bike ridership through collaboration with area agencies - advancing what was a grant for a three-station bike share start-up program to the 29 stations and 227 bikes it has today. Houston B-Cycle has registered more than 55,650 checkouts since opening - which comes to about 1,200 per week since the program expanded in March 2013. One of the most popular bike rental stations is located at METRO headquarters at 1900 Main St.  

METRO is also working on a Transit-Bike Connection study as well as partnering with Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) on a Bike and Ride Access Implementation plan. Meanwhile Rice University engineering students turned to METRO to work on their first project — the design of a rack to transport three bicycles at a time via bus. Their METRO-based project won this year’s Texas Department of Transportation’s College Challenge.

That team was one of three finalists asked to develop concepts to help Texas mobility, connectivity and transportation safety issues. Students were motivated by a recent H-GAC study anticipating  growth.  The three-rack solution is one of several by Houston Action Research Team (HART) undergrads.

 

[Slick Vik]

Interesting

[JamesL]

Monthly bike boardings, a couple years old:

 

https://www.h-gac.com/taq/sub_regional/docs/METRO%20Bike%20Ride_TAC%20Presentation%20DRAFT.pdf

 

Summer heat is not the impediment you might think. I have a theory that Houstonians imagine summertime biking and walking are worse than they actually are because most Houstonians' experience with summertime active transportation consists of walking across blacktop parking lots between metal vehicles. That's about the hottest situation imaginable. Walking in the shade and biking with a breeze are not so bad.

[ricco67]

I can attest that riding a bike in the middle of summer isn't a big deal, as long as you aren't pedaling like lance Armstrong, you shouldn't even sweat.

[Triton]

Since I live near the new extended Red Line, I have taken my bike with me everytime I board. And I can attest both to light rail and the buses that a lot of people are bringing their bikes with them now. It just opens up the possibilities of where to go. No longer does light rail just cover a few blocks around it via walking, you can now go much farther. And with the added bike stops, it has certainly increased activity as well. The big issue I have though is usually from the Medical Center to downtown where it is nearly impossible to bring a bike onboard, simply from the fact the light rail in that section is almost always packed.

 

Besides the added mobility of having a bike with you, I also bring it for safety reasons. I live in an area between the Woodland Heights and the Northside, and one of the key problems along this new Red Line route is the large amount of questionable people that "sleep at night" in this area. Many are homeless. Many look like meth heads... I'm sorry, but it's true. And instead of having to walk through all of that, biking allows me to skip over that fairly quickly in my view. 

[Specwriter]

Monthly bike boardings, a couple years old:

 

https://www.h-gac.com/taq/sub_regional/docs/METRO%20Bike%20Ride_TAC%20Presentation%20DRAFT.pdf

 

Summer heat is not the impediment you might think. I have a theory that Houstonians imagine summertime biking and walking are worse than they actually are because most Houstonians' experience with summertime active transportation consists of walking across blacktop parking lots between metal vehicles. That's about the hottest situation imaginable. Walking in the shade and biking with a breeze are not so bad.

 

I'll attest to that. When I worked in the Greenway Plaza area I would walk to the strip shopping center at Richmond and Weslayan at least once a week to have lunch at one of the restaurants there; Chipotle, Collina's, Skewer's, etc. When I was in the shade - no problem even on 90 degree days but in the direct sun on pavement was it a different story. BTW, I'm middle-aged, over weight, and do not exercise regularly. A person who rides a bicycle frequently would at least have two of those strikes removed, not to mention riding along at 10-15 mph should create a bit of a breeze which you don't get waddling along at 2-3 mph on foot.

 

If anyone is familiar with the arrangement in Copenhagen Denmark for pedestrian, bicycle, and motor vehicle traffic you will know it is possible for the three to co-exist.