Reader comments
Cyclists take issue with UTA bike policy

Seems easy. The bus drivers who frequently have a problem with too many bikes, need to tell their management to install a bigger bike rack on that bus / bus route. Not a bigger bus, just a bigger rack. Make this a uta policy.

Bike riding is good exercise (my reason), a money saver, and good for the air. Go bicyclists!

I'm limited to feet and bus, too. I don't use a bike, and I'm irritated, at least, on those few occasions when a bus driver allows a biker to wheel his *vehicle* down the aisle -- it's not a lot of fun to be jabbed in the shoulder by a bike handle, or to have a foot pedal streak grease along your skirt or rip your hose. Still, the big (MCI) buses that are used to Provo and Ogden have huge empty baggage compartments under the seats. Why does UTA refuse to allow bikers to stow their bikes there? I've seen bikers in a near panic about being stranded in Salt Lake when they have been unable to get their bikes on two or three buses.

And they're right: if you live or work anywhere but the narrow paths UTA serves, you're outta luck without a bike or a hike.

Seems like a another one of those problems being blown out of proportion. I ride the bus frequently and can only remember twice since 1999 were there was a third bicyclist wanted on.

But if you were to put racks on the buses were will the customers sit? After all you would have to remove seats then more people are standing which creates a bigger problem.

I have been on the last 801 southbound before when the bus driver tells someone they can't get on the bus because there are too many bikes. This is the last bus going from Salt Lake county to Utah county. The bike rider probably had to ride his bike like 40 miles to get home, or stay in Sandy for the night. If you need to catch the last bus south every night, the problem isn't being blown out of proportion. The driver could have safely let the guy carry his bike in the front of the bus because the bus was not very full at all.

The UTA rep says: "it doesn't happen often that someone is stranded,"

Perhaps not, but when it happens to you, it HAPPENS.

Why can't the people at UTA stop making stupid excuses that things don't happen often? Why don't they get out of their cars and actually have to depend on their own system to get around?

They won't. They already know how impractical they've made their system to those of us who need it. Until then, it's blah, blah, blah, insert excuse #______ here.

It seems like UTA has a circular argument.

UTA says that it doesn't need more bike racks because it has only a few bike riders. It appears that UTA can't envision the obvious: perhaps UTA has only a few bike riders because that's all it's system can currently accommodate.

Instead of burying it's head in the sand, a more proactive approach would be to schedule and advertise a few buses outfitted to accommodate a larger number of bike riders to & from a few key routes and see if they do in fact attract more patrons.

If the bicycle-friendly buses do attract patronage, selectively expand the program. If the new service doesn't attract new riders--UTA has made the attempt and can now respond to any complaints or detractors that the current services accommodate the current bicycle riders and that there doesn't exist an economic model for further expansion.

Right now, there are only unsupported & esoteric assertions on both sides of the issue.