New buses with bike racks gradually coming to NJ TRANSIT north fleet

At this months meeting of the Middlesex County Transportation Coordinating Committee Meeting this past Tuesday, there was a representative from NJ TRANSIT present.  I took the opportunity to ask the representative about the status of the new, low-floor buses entering the North Jersey Region bus fleet owned and operated by NJ TRANSIT.  Earlier this Winter, I had seen one of these new buses with an unoccupied bike rack while visiting family in Nutley, NJ.

Bike on older style NJ TRANSIT bus.  Photo John Boyle, BCGP.

The NJ TRANSIT representative told me that NJ TRANSIT has received some of the long-anticipated new low-floor buses and that those received, are already in service with the bike racks installed.  However, NJ TRANSIT will continue to operating many of their older style buses in the Northern Fleet WITHOUT bike racks installed as the new buses continue to be delivered.  Since an individual bus is not reserved for a single route, and may be used on different routes on different days and times, NJ TRANSIT cannot guarantee that individual routes nor particular scheduled buses will be serviced by the new buses with bike racks.  As such, passengers should not rely on buses having the capability to carry bicycles until all the new buses are received and the old buses retired.

No date was given as to when all the new buses would be received and the old buses retired.

New Report Evaluates NJ TRANSIT Bicycle Access

This report was prepared as a graduation requirement for a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning at the Bloustein School at Rutgers University. It was written to help make the adequate service provided by NJ TRANSIT even better. Many of the ideas and observations in the report could easily be applied to other transit services.

This report is the sole product of the author with Prof. John Pucher providing editorial guidance.

Download the report (pdf. 2.71 megs. 47 pages) here.

More Bike Access Needed on Shore Buses

Denver RTD motorcoaches have under the floor luggage bins and front bus bike racks. These buses can carry 2 - 8 bicycles depending on luggage loads. Photo by Sidney on Picasa

As I have written before getting to the Jersey Shore on a NJ TRANSIT bus can be a challenge. Bikes must be placed in the luggage bins and are expected to be loaded last. Because the center compartment has been modified to hold a wheelchair lift there is essentially one bin to store luggage and bikes. During the summer everyone has luggage and cyclists can be left stranded.

So why not make the small investment in bus bike racks on these long distance motorcoaches. This would preserve bike access during peak luggage times and would allow buses to carry 4 or 5 bikes.