Bike Racks on Buses

Pedal Power ,Canberra's cycling lobby group issued a media release last Friday on the issue of bike racks on the new Buses that ACTION ( Canberra's only Public transport) has purchased. They are Scania's Omnilink Steer tag buses that can carry 100 passengers.

Nearly half of ACTION's Fleet now has bike racks but according to Tom Elliott, Executive Director of Transport and Infrastructure in Territory & Municipal Services (TAMS) ,ACTION had to seek an exemption from the RTA (Roads Transport Authority) for the bike racks to be installed.

The issue with the bike racks on the new buses is because they are 15 metre's long as compared to the standard 12 metre buses.Pedal Power was concern that theses new buses wouldn't be able to carry the bike racks and thus the service would be abandon, and leaving the use for Bike carry capability to the smaller buses. Tom Elliott believes that ACTION will get another exemption from the RTA for these buses also.  You can here the interview on ABC 666 Canberra ,where Louise Maher has a go at Tony Shields from Pedal Power for issuing a media release that was premature, given that ACTION hasn't sort an exemption yet.

Bike racks on buses are nothing new and are used by different Bus companies all over the world. I note that the Los Angeles Metro BRT uses bike racks and are using them on much larger buses, so I'm not sure why the RTA has a problem with them being used here in Australia.

Check out this film from Streetfilms.org: