Biking and public transit — a marriage made in heaven, right? You’re puffing along on your bicycle, getting fit, enjoying the city’s scenic routes and earning points for environmental stewardship. You get tired, or it starts pouring rain, and voila! You can mount your bike on any CTA bus and park your keister onboard, or take your two-wheeled friend on the “L,” unless its rush hour.
That’s all thanks to the mass transit magic of the CTA Bike & Ride program, which the agency says has been in place on the “L” since 2000 and on the buses since 2001. The program is part of a CTA effort to encourage environmentally friendly transportation while boosting bicycle usage in the city.
But this admirable program — much like a bike after a long winter — might need a tune-up, one rider told “Going Public,” especially in advance of Bike the Drive on May 27.
Uptown rider and biker Siouxzi Rodeman said her $1,000 bike nearly bounced off the mount of a No. 135-Clarendon/LaSalle Express bus late last month.
“I told the bus driver that the rack was not working and my bike wasn’t really held on there,” Rodeman, 33, told me during a phone interview. “The driver kind of shrugged at me when I asked her if there was a problem. I got off, got the bike, and I was afraid to ride it because it looked as if had slight damage. I did end up having to take it in for repairs.”
Rodeman said her boyfriend also has experienced problems with his bike on bus mounts. Though both have insurance on their bicycles, Rodeman is concerned that a more serious bike bounce could cause a traffic collision.
“It’s one thing to lose your bike, even if it cost you a fair amount,” Rodeman said. “But if that bike bounced into traffic — I mean, especially if you’re traveling on Lake Shore Drive where there are lots of bumps — that could cause a huge accident.”
The CTA is aware of the issue, said transit agency spokeswoman Wanda Taylor.
“Some customers have reported difficulty with the bike racks, and CTA is investigating,” Taylor told “Going Public.”
Another aspect the CTA might want to investigate is rough roadways and their impact on the bus racks’ stability, said a Chicagoland Bicycle Federation spokesman who told me he has biked between Bucktown and downtown for years without incident.
The federation’s David Callahan has, however, heard of bad bus-and-bike combinations.
“I’ve only heard of two riders who had their bikes fall off of mounts, and, in the most recent case, it happened on a particularly rough patch — a bump — on Lake Shore Drive,” Callahan said. “The woman was riding the [No.14] Jeffrey Express, and she was concerned about her bike, and then she saw it fall off the mount.”
Ride-and-bikers can do their part to avoid such incidents by making sure their bikes are mounted properly on the rack and calling 888-YOUR-CTA if they notice any problems.
Rodeman, however, has devised her own solution.
“I take my bike on the ‘L’ because I can stand there with it, hold it up, and it’s my responsibility if it falls or moves since it’s in my care,” Rodeman said, adding emphatically: “I will never mount my bike on the bus again because there’s no way I can trust it.”
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