February 12, 2002

Draft Policy for Bicycles Inside Buses (BIB)

for the

Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District

drafted by: Batya Kagan & Ron Goodman

(831)421-0139

whatisron@hotmail.com

BIB Policy Priorities

The guiding priorities of the BIB program are as follows:

• It is imperative that transit accessibility for the mobility-impaired community be safeguarded. This federally-mandated access must be maintained by the Transit District.
• Passenger and driver safety must be insured. The driver of a bus and their supervisors must have the discretion to decide when it is or is not appropriate to bring a bicycle inside the coach. Therefore, the program must insure that bicyclists willingly respect that authority.
• Bicycling is an important part of the solution to our county’s transportation problems, and as such we should endeavor to make the bike/bus mode as useful as possible.

BIB Program Policy

The BIB program depends on cooperation between SCMTD staff, bicyclists, and mobility-impaired and other users of the bus. Bringing a bicycle inside the coach requires that users understand the policy priorities and how to respect them. For this reason, BIB participants are required to acquire a BIB permit before they are allowed to bring their bicycle inside the bus (no permit is necessary to use the front racks).

The permit process educates the cyclist about their responsibility to respect the discretion of the driver and other SCMTD staff, to be sensitive to the rights of all fellow passengers, and how to safely manage a bicycle inside the coach. Without this permit, a cyclist is not permitted to bring a bicycle inside the coach. The permit process is outlined below.

Bicycles are not allowed inside all buses. The BIB program has 3 planned phases of implementation that will successively increase access for bicyclists.

The first phase involve routes that have been selected after analysis of ridership statistics for the months of July and November 2001 (Table 1a & 1b). Routes with high bicycle usage and low wheelchair usage will allow bicycles inside in phase I. Total ridership numbers are also taken into account, but there are some routes that are selected with a high total ridership because there are times of the day that ridership would be low enough to be able to accommodate a bicycle and the bicycle needs are high (e.g. routes 12A, 35, 70 and 91.)

During the first 6 months, staff will monitor the program and attempt to troubleshoot any problems that arise. After 6 months, the Phase I should be evaluated by staff, MUG and MASTF to determine how, or if, Phase II should be implemented. If problems arise that SCMTD cannot resolve, then the BIB program would be reduced or discontinued accordingly.

Rules for bicyclists include:

1. When the exterior bike rack is full, up to two (2) bicycles will be allowed inside the bus.
2. When loading / unloading your bike please use the front door and exercise extreme caution. Please be aware that other customers need to board / deboard the bus and / or may be sitting in adjoining seats.
3. The bicycle must be secured in the wheelchair area using the straps provided by the bus operator.
4. Should a wheelchair user wish to board the vehicle, you must immediately remove your bicycle from the bus. The wheelchair positions are for wheelchair customers.
5. If the bus is crowded and the additional seating is needed, you may be asked to remove your bicycle from the bus to board more passengers.
6. SCMTD is not responsible for loss or damages to or by bicycles on transit system property or buses.

Routes recommended for Phase I:
3N - Mission Night
3B - Mission/ Natural Bridges
7N - Beach Night/ Capitola Mall
9 - Stroke Center
12A - University East Side
33 - Lompico
34 - South Felton
35 - Boulder Creek
36 - Valley/ Santa Cruz Express
69N - Capitola Mall
70 - Cabrillo
91 - Watsonville Express


Routes recommended for Phase II:
3A - Mission/ Lighthouse
6 - Seabright
7 - Beach
30 - Scotts Valley/ Graham Hill
31 - Scotts Valley/ Santa Cruz Via Hwy. 17
59 - Capitola/ Soquel
60 - Soquel
69A -Capitola/ Watsonville
72 - Corralitos
75 - Green Valley
78 - East Lake/Fairgrounds
79 - East Lake

Routes recommended for Phase III:

Routes recommended for phase III include all other routes except route 63, 66, 71 and UCSC routes. These routes are either heavily used by people in wheelchairs, have high ridership rates, or both. Depending on the success of Phase I and II, SCMTD staff should determine if these routes would also be appropriate for phase III.

BIB Permit Process
Every bicyclist who wishes to participate in the BIB program must have obtained a BIB permit in advance. Permits may be obtained at a location specified in the Headways publication. The Hub for Sustainable Transportation on 224 Walnut Street has agreed to administer the program, but another facility could be used instead or in addition if appropriate. The permit applicant watches a training video and signs a written agreement that covers: SCMTD bicycle policy, the importance of abiding by the driver's discretion, being sensitive to other riders and bicyclists, and how best to bring the bicycle onto and off of the bus. The administering facility would have the right to charge up to $10 to fund the costs of the permit program.

Because one of the goals of the BIB program is to make bus/bike transportation more dependable, a cyclist may select up to 4 “priority” bus routes on their permit. Although this would not confer any special privileges to the bicyclist on those routes, bicyclists would be told during the permit process that when multiple bicyclists needed the same space, they should consider these priorities while negotiating amongst themselves which bicyclist will get to bring their bicycle on board. The “priority” routes will be permanently written on the permit at time of issuance. If a cyclist wishes to change the selected routs, they can purchase a new permit. The administering facility would have the right to charge up to $6 to reissue a permit to fund the associated costs.

The permit process is intended to help prevent conflicts before they arise, help bicyclists that are regular commuters get to work consistently, and to insure that cyclists know clearly what is expected from them if they are to enjoy the privilege of bringing bicycles inside buses.

Permit Process Evaluation

There are many bus districts that allow bicycles inside buses, none of which requires a permit. Santa Cruz is unique, however, in that our utilization of the bicycle/bus combination is much higher than in other areas. This is why this policy includes a permit program. At some point in the future, however, SCMTD should evaluate the need to continue the permit system, since many bike/transit programs have started with permit systems, but subsequently eliminated the permits because they were deemed unnecessary.