BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I would agree. I try to take the 500 near harmarville, but usually end up catching a non-bike route with a rack, the 93A. I will say that when I call to report them, the compliant/ commodations dept always has friendly people answerign their phones.

I just glanced over the new proposals of the Port Authority, but did not see anything about what routes would be bike specific. I hope that if they do revamp the system that much, they replace the routes that are losing their bike service with another route that is a designated bike route, and they figure out how to, at the very least, train their drivers to look at the front of the bus before they get on and say..."Hey there is no rack there, I have a guy who everyday racks his bike on my bus, maybe I should mention it to the dispatcher before I leave for my route."

I spoke with the Port Authority yesterday. It is their intent to apply for funding that would permit them to equip ALL buses (with the exception of the oldest buses that are scheduled to be retired in the next year or two) with bus mounted bike racks. If successful in their funding application, federal funds flows slowly, so it will still be a couple of years before all buses are equipped for the Rack and Roll program. But, the Port Authority is trying to move to 100 percent fleet participation.

Ya, Im definately awaiting that 100% participation! Unless we can get that trail to extend up through harmarville into my front yard and I wont have to worry about the bus anymore

On Tuesday I spoke directly with the guy at Port Authority responsible for getting racks installed. The immediate plan is to finish the 35-footers (I've seen I think four w/o racks, of 60), then do the 60-foot articulateds (bend-in-the-middle buses) (think EBA).

This doesn't do much for the above routes, which all use 40-footers (26xx, 27xx, 5xxx). With only 55 new buses coming before next June, we're going to be stuck with those 175ish rack-less buses for some time.

If you're on a 41E or 11E, though, I'd say there's almost a 100% chance of getting a rack, since all they use are the 35' buses (15xx).

The 16A isn't actually a Rack 'n Roll route. (The nearby 21A is, though. Many of its trips serve Sewickley and cross routes with the 16A.)

I haven't noticed PAT getting any worse at assigning buses with racks. It might vary by garage.

@the beast: A fellow 93A'er! Seems to me it is a different bus everyday.

The phone number for the complaints supervisor at PAT is 412-566-5500, ask for Brian. After four complaint calls in the past 40 days, usually concerning the 56C route with no rack, today I had to complain about the 11D and insisted on the sup's #. Of course no human answered but I did leave a message.

Rack n Roll is used as a selling point for PAT. It leaves me utterly befuddled they let their "pickers" (the person at the garage who assigns buses to routes) send out rackless buses on R n R routes. I guess since Bike Pitts still toutes the program and sells it for PAT, PAT doesn't feel the need to change their behavior.