Quote:
Originally Posted by RyLucky
A strong alternative to bikes on buses is Bixi. A bike can be waiting for you at the bus stop with zero burden to transit.
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It's only a strong alternative for trips made within the area that is well-covered by the bike share. Your starting point and transit access point both need to be covered and your transit egress point right by your destination. (Or, obviously, the reverse, or both ends well covered.)
The
proposed Calgary system, concentrated in the Centre City (downtown/Beltline) wouldn't do much to replace a bike-bus combo. Essentially every bus that travels in this area goes within 8 blocks of the area that the bike share covers. So maybe you take the #3 to 17th Ave, and instead of walking from 4th St to 12th St, you can ride a bike. That's a pretty minimal gain in mobility.
An expansive system, like in Montreal, could provide some supplement to transit, but there isn't a lot of the kinds of density that would support that level of bike share in Calgary.
I'm actually not entirely convinced by the idea of bikes on buses, at least using racks like the City has had. For every rider gained by making it easier to get to or from the bus, will there be a rider lost because the bus has to spend a minute sitting there while the rider dicks around getting their bike into/out of the rack?
I think that maybe BRT routes are the most appropriate for bike racks.
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