Earlier tonight I took my bike out for a ride around Scarborough. One of the things I wanted to do was to test out the new bike racks on the McCowan North buses. Unfortunately for me, I got the same bus driver heading out southbound and heading home on the northbound trip, and both times he discouraged me from using the bike racks. Both times when I indicated that I wanted to use the rack, he waved me onto the bus and said "there's room on the bus". I assumed both times that he was on a tight schedule, so I didn't argue with him.
On the southbound trip there were very few people on the bus. On the northbound trip later in the evening, about 3/4 of the seats were taken, and there were some standees. My bike took up about four seats, so perhaps it was better to use the bike rack on the northbound trip.
My question after tonight's experience is whether the new bike racks are as useful as they seem at first. I've only seen bike racks in use on the TTC once (a Sheppard East bus pulling into Don Mills station with a pair of bikes on the rack). They seem to add to loading/unloading time at stops.
It also seems, at least here in north Scarborough, that bikes and transit don't mix well. There are some people who bring bikes onto the TTC, but most bikers are old Chinese men who use them to go grocery shopping and cannot afford to take the TTC frequently. On the other hand, bus passengers use bikes for purely recreational rides around their neighbourhoods, if they bike at all.
Thoughts?
