Disability Perspective: Concerns About Bikes on Transit

MUNI wants to allow 25 selected people to take their bikes inside the "K" streetcar on surface stops BUT NOT have the bikes hooked, strapped, or tied anywhere inside the MUNI streetcar, relying on the muscle power and quick reflexes of the bike tester to keep the bike from bumping into other passengers if there's a sudden stop. Light-rail systems in Sacramento and Santa Clara County as well as CalTrain and AmTrak all provide hooks, clamps, or bungee cords to stabilize the bikes when in motion--but not MUNI.


MUNI also ignores that these selected testers would be positively inclined to be polite and do absolutely everything right--hardly a fair and unbiased test. These testers likely would bend over backwards to make everything go right.

It is supposed to last for 30 to 45 days, starting some time in May or June.

I urge you to try to make all aware of this experiment so they can offer comment, either in person or on the bridge telephone line that the Mayor's Office on Disability has available for their meetings. Go the city website section for the Mayor's Office on Disability or contact MOD staffer Ken Stein at 554-6789 for specifics as to the phone # for this call-in option for public comment.

The Mayor's Disability Council will have as agenda item 11 at its 19 May meeting a presentation about a plan to test allowing BICYCLES inside MUNI's streetcars. Best time estimate when this will be heard is some time after 1:30 pm in Room 400 at CIty Hall. The MUNI Access Advisory Committee [ whose constituency is seniors and people with disabilities ] , overwhelmingly opposed this experiment at its regular April meeting.

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3293#more