Cracking down on folding bikes
Over the years, I've been kinda mean to folding bikes and riders of folding bikes. And now, according to the Beeb, the backlash is in full swing in Londontown, as folder-commuters are taking up more space on the tube, flashing their goods in spandex shorts, and even --wrath of Vulcan!-- building their bikes enroute, rather than having the courtesy to wait until their station stop. 
Of course, there's an easy solution: Build bigger train cars with bike-specific accomodations. But it's better, apparently, to let pointless class resentments brew.
On the other hand, I've got an even better solution. Provide more bike parking at train stations. Thataway, commuters can leave a clunker singlespeed parked at their destination, rather than hauling those silly clown-bikes around.
Tags:
clown bikes
1 comment:
I think this is going to become a problem. The bike racks on buses and hooks on light rail are the type of facility that's great as long as nobody wants to use them. The folder is a reasonable solution to the space crunch, and can easily be brought inside (important in London where bike theft is big). We're trailing these developments, but it's not hard to see it going the same way here as time goes on no matter how much you loathe the machines personally.
British Rail used to have guards vans where you could stow your bike, although possibly not on the commuter runs into London. I think CalTrans has a bike car on their Bay Area trains. That's what they need. I wonder if the NorthStar line will get this, or if they'll come up with a bike-oriented Light Rail car.
Post a Comment