RTA: 3 cool things for bikes

Thanks to a Twitter post from Bike Cleveland member Krissie Wells, and the initiative of Councilman Joe Cimperman, Bike Cleveland had the opportunity to meet with a few staff leaders at RTA this past week to talk about ways RTA and the biking community can work together. During our meeting we learned of some awesome bike-related things RTA is doing to make it easier for bikes to use transit:

1. RTA has purchased and will be installing bike racks on the buses that can accommodate 3 bikes, like this one. These will replace the two bike racks that we currently have increasing the capacity.

2. RTA will be installing a “bike gutter” on the steps of the rebuilt Mayfield Road Rapid Station, which will allow bikes to roll up the stairs, as opposed to be carried.

3. After January 1st RTA will be redesigning the interior of all the trains. Within this redesign they will be removing a few seats to better accommodate bikes. They will also install better signage telling cyclists where to park their bikes on the train. We will also be following up with RTA on ways to secure bikes on the trains, so cyclists do not have to hold them up while riding.

We were also informed that when you are biking if you have an experience with RTA, good or bad, that you would like to share, then e-mail RTA with the details (bus number, time, location, etc.) and it will be handled directly. The people to e-mail are Michael York, Joseph Shaffer, and Joseph Calabrese. Be sure to copy info@bikecleveland.org as well, so we can keep a record.

We are excited to see some improvements for cyclists who are interacting with RTA and look forward to continuing the conversation with RTA in the coming year.