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Index of Subjects In a recent letter to sust-mar, Paul Falvo calls on HRM council to put bike racks on Metro Transit buses, because other cities do this and that this is a "great way to encourage public transit and cycling". Before anyone follows Mr. Falvo's lead and demands this service from Metro Transit, they should look at another city that offers this service, notably OC Transpo in Ottawa. If you visit the OC Transpo web site: http://www.octranspo.com/maps_menue_upcoming7.htm you will find a very informative discussion on how OC Transpo supports bikes on its buses (their 'Rack&Roll' service, operating from spring until fall). There are two important points to note here: - first, there is a maximum of two bikes per bus. - second, the bus routes in question. The OC Transpo bus routes in question [2, 95, and 97] run every five to ten minutes throughout the day. The 97 runs a three minute schedule at peak hours, allowing at least 40 bikes/hour to take advantage of this service. Metro Transit can only dream of this type of service. Why? First, it doesn't have the number of buses that OC Transpo does [it has about 175 buses, over half of which, by Metro Transit's own admission, should have been replaced years ago]. Second, Metro Transit's scheduling [due to repeated cuts in service by HRM council] is such that most routes now have 30 to 60 minute schedules. By all means, get HRM council to put bike racks on buses [a cost estimated at $200,000 in 2000]. But at the same time, remember that bus ridership is steadily eroding in this city and that adding a bus rack to each bus may attract a few new riders, but not enough to reclaim the nearly 1.2 million riders that have abandoned the bus since HRM council has been in existance. lh. Larry Hughes, PhD Associate Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2X4, Canada v: 902.494.3950 f: 902.422.7535 e: larry.hughes@dal.ca u: http://www.dal.ca/~lhughes2 -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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Index of Subjects