BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I received thsi email from the Port Authority earlier this week:

Would it be possible to add to your agenda a quick announcement that all* of Port Authority buses are equipped with bike racks?

*One caveat - there are a couple dozen old Novas which are used for parts and emergencies which will be retired over the next six months that will not be equipped with racks.

I don't know the technical question about the Novas, and whether they might be running on the P12, but Stu might be able to weigh in on the details there.....

All of the big 1900-series coaches are rack equipped.

The Novas are the oldest buses, now fully 15 years old, numbered 2600-2770. A few of them do not have racks and will not, since they're being scrapped soon.

The P12 often uses the 1900s, but any type of bus could theoretically be used on that route.

Chances are now close to 98% that you will get a rack on any route.

Those novas must be what they were sending to pick me up to take me to work a few times these past couple weeks.

@Stu - Are they supposed to check and see if the rack is functional during the day? I tried to come home (which is a relative term since I still have to bike five miles from the bus stop to get home since the last route cuts) on the 28X and the rack on one of them wouldn't come down. Upon inspection one of the bars was bent preventing normal operation. I rely on these things, but after a bunch of fails between broken racks and buses without them I've decided to move closer to town and just forego PAT altogether and bike the whole way.

No test requirement AFAIK. If you encounter a bent rack, report it.

Cool.

BTW Stu... I feel like we've met. Are you friends with Stef Moser? Been to the hoop jam? I feel like your name came up when I mentioned unicycles to her once upon a time (I'm a circus performer).

Yes and yes. I was last at a hOOp session back in late March, after a 40-mile trip to and on the Montour Trail.

saltm513, ins't it? Ha, ha, small world!

Yes, the entire fleet minus ~12 Novas have bike racks. In a fleet of 800+ buses it will be rare that a bus arrives w/o a rack. The Novas will be phased out by Fall/Winter 2011, at which point 100% of the buses will have racks.

@humblesage they are supposed to check if the rack works, but it helps if you report it. just take down the bus' 4-digit ID and the route it was on/time when you experienced it.

Check this out for more information.

http://bike-pgh.org/resources/bikesontransit/

Thanks for the info

The guy I spoke with on the phone could only list a few routes with bike racks. The website is out of date too.

There is no such thing (anymore) of a "route with a bike rack". ALL routes have bike racks.

I'll retire my map of the 10 or so selected routes that used to be the only 100% racked routes.

yay!

Yes... Although I was on tour in March with a fellow performer. So... yeah, I'm the Gary that ends up tagged in tons of the Steel City Hoop Union photos on Facebook. But yeah, I found out about this whole Bike PGH thing through Stef (saltm513 as Edmonds pointed out)... Hope to meet some of you at the bike party on Friday.

As it turns out... I received apologies for the couple of Nova buses that I did encounter in my commute. Even though I wont have to rely on PAT as much in the future, this rack thing is the greatest, and I do encourage it for people that want to ride anywhere that may normally be out of "range" for them otherwise.

I've seen a few brand new, "New Flyer" articulated buses on P12 routes. All of them have racks. Look for them, they're red. Guess they do have some money floating around somewhere, or at least when they ordered them however many years ago.

Bus purchases are capital funds, an entirely different pot from the operating funds that so routinely make the headlines. There's some lead time in getting these spec'd, bid, approved, ordered and delivered, but usually delivery within a year of bid approval. We're getting 25 of the new three-door artics this year, 35 more next year when we start phasing out the 1900s.