After the conference dinner for the ET GOVICT2008, it was a little late, so I put my folding bicycle in the luggage carrier on the number 34 Canberra ACTION bus to get home. As I got on the bus driver commented that if I unfolded it and put it on the carrier on the outside of the bus I could travel for free. I thought this was a joke, but it turns out be part of ACTION's bike ‘n ride policy.The catch is that I can only travel free if my bike is one of the two on the carrier on the outside front of the bus. The bike racks on the busses are designed for bicycles with wheels 22 inches (55 cm) or larger, so small wheel bicycles and most folding bicycles are not permitted. Placing bikes within the bus is not permitted. The ACTION web site does not mention folding bicycles, so on the face of it these bicycles are banned from ACTION buses, which is not a very environmentally friendly policy. Cities in Denmark have much more bicycle friendly polices than the ACT Government.
1 comment:
I suspect that might be the policy when I picked up that the new timetables were not planning to make a major effort to connect to the airport as there was insufficient luggage room on the buses.
I've recently bought an Arnimal Joel folding bike with 24 inch wheels. Because of the time required to fold it and put it in the carry bag there would be no time to fold it on feeder routes if a bus without a rack turned up but I'de use the rack un the inter-town buses. I agree the policy is stupid as is the more general one of limiting the luggage space on buses
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