Antonovich just proposed a robust pursuit of advice and input from LASD, LAFD, ADD folks, cycling community and advice on how to proceed forward. Sept 30.

Fasana seems to think that the Committee needs to act. Cannell acknowledged that waiting is not a problem. The Attorney agreed that it is okay to wait til September.

If you want to be involved in the process, give me a shout.

Stephen@ThirdEyeCreative.net

Turnstiles do not guarantee anything. They only serve to confound and annoy, and have zero ability to assist a person in trouble.

As anyone who rides the train knows, the enforcement of the bike restriction during rush hours has been haphazard at best. Occassionally, a train operator has made an announcement saying that bikes aren’t allowed during those times, and occassionally, I imagine, people with those bikes have gotten a ticket for being there at the wrong time. The enforcement is sparse and people have “gotten away with” having a bike on at the wrong time. Similarly, people will “get away with” having more than 2 bikes on the cars, and metro authorities will be unable to cite anyone for violating the rule because they won’t know who was there first.

I anticipate that this policy will be revised when the MTA realizes how pointless it actually is in practice.

I’m not surprised that this sort of short-sighted policy is being put in place by the company that put a mass transit system in place without turnstiles to guarantee that everyone has paid to use it.

These rules are proposed, but not implemented. Does anyone know if we have a chance of appealing this? Does Metro have a track record of ignoring sensibility on this issue? I would point out that they can’t take a segment of their riding public, the cyclist, and ignore others that use just as much and in many instances more space than the cyclists. Other segments they ignore are women with strollers, homeless carrying large bags of recyclables, and travels with more than one large bag. Don’t laugh about the homeless with the recyclables, it happens alot on the Blue Line, which is the line I take the most.

I do favor having seats taken out of the trains for large bulky items, but I don’t really think the Blue Line needs it. If they won’t allow more than two bikes per car, then I’m in favor to have seats taken out in order to get more bikes aboard. Removing seats doesn’t really impact the passengers. Just about every time I’m riding the train, there’s a seat or two open somewhere. What impacts them far more is having cars reduced from 3 to 2 cars in the evenings. This would be another avenue to persuade them from limiting bicycles on the lines. If we’re an impact on safety and convince of other passengers, then increase the number of cars used. Problem solved!

Such people are taking bikes an transit as a CHOICE. Not because they are forced to. Are you saying that, because they have the luxury of a choice whether or not to take transit or their cars, their complaints are not valid? If so, it’s rather ironic coming from someone who doesn’t own a car BY CHOICE, and who takes the metro every day BY CHOICE.

i almost always use my bike on the Metro with a group of friends, say 2-6 people, as part of a group ride (to a museum, or event). this means i’ve rarely run into the rush-hour-ban restriction on bikes (which i’m not surprised needs revising in some way). it also mean the new 2-bikes-per-car limit will effect my normal use of bike+Metro, during which i’ve never encountered conflicts with other public transit users.

Where did I make such a statement as to even imply you are no longer a transit user? One wonders that some who spent years analyzing policy for a state assemblyman, might make such an accusation. Did you not diligently analyze my comments, or did you hope to make me come off as a jerk?

Perhaps all you “second-class citizens” should get together so as to prevent the behaviour of each other that I have too often observed, such as leaving bikes unattended on the Red Line platforms while blocking passage, taking up five seats on the Gold Line while others stand, or running one’s giant bike into other straphangers. Once that is done, and there is less animosity toward you people because of a fair amount of you being so obnoxious with your bikes, then we might talk.

Gary, I understand your concerns. You might recall my own bicycle misadventures as far back as 2000, when I was nearly run over by a driver piloting a Metro line #4. That event caused my entire day to be wasted chasing down and having the driver arrested in Santa Monica. I know what it is like. And as a pedestrian with no motor vehicle (nor a girlfriend with a car, as some folk here have) I know what it is like to deal with such shit every day. Moreover, because I refuse to be pushed round, even the LASD deputies all know me by name, and occasionally try to bust my balls. Try having to take the Metro trains every day knowing that an entire corrupt police force who know you on sight by name, and you might understand that I understand all too well what it means to be singled out everywhere. I am confident that all the metro personnel manning the security cameras know me as well, which means I am tracked in that manner too. (I do not hide my camera when I film, and I film conditions on busses and in train stations every day.) I do not even need my bike to enjoy that intense scrutiny of my person.

However, I find that the way the bike issue is being accommodated by Metro is going to serve only to upset the majority of straphangers. There is a loud noise being made and I can assure you that when the din dies down—owing to the City Council offering some concessions—there will be worse problems because of the stop-gap measures instituted. Ubrayj02 might agree with me personally on this, but he has enough years as an insider to understand exactly what I mean.

I don’t like the two bicycle rule on the train or the no cyclists on a train rules for this reason.

I take the Blue Line.

I see lots and lots of young Latino and African-American boys on their bikes on the Blue Line. People who are harrassed simply walking up the street. These group of people are regular denied jobs, given shitty educations by a public school system, beat up by cops even when they are not on their bicycles and not doing anything. And when I’m on the Blue Line I always see the Sheriffs sniffing around these boys, waiting for them to do something wrong.

This law isn’t going to bother the bicyclist on the Red Line who are on some eco kick, this rule is going to impact real second class citizens. It’s going to give the cops a reason to bother young African-American and Latino boys and this is why I don’t like it.

Browne

Cool, so having a bike on a train makes me no longer a transit user?

How about this, I’m hanging my backpack on my bike which is now magically transported into being a luggage carrier for my bags – what is the difference between me and the confused European tourists on the Green Line?

Bikes don’t show up on the train by themselves – they are driven there by cyclists. Cyclist is a word for a human being using a bike. A human on transit is a transit system user. Let’s be honest, this is a policy to reduce the number of transit system users also using bikes – which is a stupid, stupid, stupid policy.

What bothers me about this proposed rule change is the inflexible nature of saying only 2 bikes per train car, especially to say that limit all the time and with no distinction between the car size differences on the red/purple line and the light rail. I’m fine with placing constraints on rush hours, space is limited and many other transit agencies have limits or bans at rush hour. But frankly there are many off peak times when the train has plenty of space, and at least for me personally, I’m only riding the rails with my bike at off peak times. My work commute is all by bike. So from my perspective anyways, to lift the rush hour ban but replace it with a 2 bike per car limit makes the train a serious hassle. Since most of my off peak Metro time is mixing bikes and trains with my girl friend, we would constantly run into the limit problem since there are 2 of us. That is assuming they enforced it which they won’t because they don’t enforce anything even when they should.

Those who own a motor vehicle have no say in this matter, and those who can afford to make a mess in the name of art by flooding the trains with their friends and canoes, et al (NYC has a far greater system and far fewer people with motor vehicles, so I can understand that arty agit-prop; but in L.A. only those who do not need to rely on Metro would do such a dim stunt) need to piss off.

Once more: if you own a motor vehicle, and especially if you have a bike rack on said conveyance, shove off.

There are far too many people who have been negatively affected by the removal of seats on the Red Line as well as the almost total lack of enforcement of bikes on the Metro trains during rush hours, for this to be an issue—except to those who imagine themselves as among the oppressed. (I ride the rails and busses every day, first at 6 a.m. or so and then again a few other times before and after the afternoon rush and IO know what I am stating—so don’t make me put up all that footage as one of you might have been recorded.)

I have seen many a kid running around the Red Line while their parents ignore them, crashing into passengers and generally making a nuisance of themselves, multiple storllers parked in my bike space, aisles, piled into two perfectly good seats, etc.

Maybe I should adopt my bike – would they ticket a proud parent for breaking the 2 Per Car rule?

Otherwise, I’m going to put luggage tags on my bikes and insist on my common carrier rights.

1. Insert a line stating that the 2-bike per car restriction does not apply to folded bicycles. This would be consistent with their rationale that a bicycle takes up the room of 2-3 people. Folding bikes do not, and therefore should be excepted from this rule.

2. I tend to agree that the 2-bike per car rule is a step backward. Perhaps they should limit that rule to only rush-hour time periods. There is no reason to impose such a rule during off-peak hours.

3. The different rail lines should definitely have their own rules. Red/Purple Line cars, especially with seats removed, could easily accomodate 5 bikes or more. The light rail lines are more hurting for space.

4. Finally, I’d agree with others who predict these rules are not likely to be enforced, except perhaps during rush hour. So those of you who are worried about the 2-bike limit: I doubt you’ll see any impact at all if you happen to travel during non-peak hours.