Where do you put your bicycle when catching the bus?

[Brains]

Bike OR Bus
or
Bus & Brompton

 

[ColinJ]

Fortunately I knew that the train operator had to honour my ticket, so I got the station manager to call a taxi for me .

An elderly great aunt of mine tried to catch a train from Glasgow to Oban but there was a problem on the line which was causing long delays. The station manager went out of his way to sort out a taxi for her 90+ mile journey and paid the driver in advance!

 

[the reluctant cyclist]

I often wonder if this is a possibility too. I don't carry puncture repair kits or anything like that because my fingers can never get the tyre back on anyway (weak girly girl) so if I get a pucture or some other failure I have to walk home. It's not too much hassle because I am never more than 4 miles home but sometimes it is a pain.

The other day my wheel seized up and it was as if the brakes were jammed on and I couldn't even push the bike. I had to phone my husband and he came and picked me up but it would have been so easy to get the bus.

I have heard that in an emergency the bike will go in a black cab but never had to try it.

 

[Tin Pot]

i put my bike in the garden shed when I'm catching a bus.

Which is never.

 

[Tin Pot]

You can get two whole bikes in a black cab, no problem.

But try to find a black cab that will stop for a cyclist...

 

[Cuchilo]

Cycle to bus stop-
Wait for bus-
Draft bus to the stop I would have got off at-
Feel the warm glow at the money saved and the exercise taken-

Do you know how dangerous it is to draft a bus Good fun though innit

 

[potsy]

Do you know how dangerous it is to draft a bus Good fun though innit

The only thing I could draft would be a milk float, even then it would be an effort

 

[Tin Pot]

I've not had a problem - are you ugly?

I'm in London.

Maybe that's the same thing?

Oh wait, no - I'm a man.

 

[ColinJ]

Of course. I didn't say, because I assumed it was obvious, that the taxi is paid for by the train operator in that situation.

I thought it was incredibly obvious, but I have had plenty of people miss the obvious and ask me silly questions so I thought that I would play safe!

 

[Sara_H]

My friend once sweet talked a bus driver into letting her on the bus when she had a puncture, I suspect she was very lucky - my OH has been refused numerous times trying to board with his folding bike, I think they just don't like the look of him! He now has a cover for it and says he will claim its a tuba if the driver asks!
I've took the Brompton on the bus a few times, wouldn't dream of trying to take my hybbrid on the bus though!

 

[Dan B]

Do you know how dangerous it is to draft a bus

Less so than most other vehicles of similar size: you can often see through it, and you know it's not going to stop suddenly because the driver doesn't want the standing passengers to fall over.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@Natashapreece the solution is to carry a lock and lock your bike up, assuming you're coming back by bus to the same location.
I do sometimes work in another town 50 miles away - don't have a car, the Glasgow based employer provides a bus from the city centre, so I cycle there, lock the bike up in the best location I can find, then get my bike again on the return. Take off lights, helmet, cycle computer if you use them, carry them on the bus.
You could also look into hiring a rental bike, if your city has a scheme, like the Boris bikes in London.
We have the Next Bikes docking stations.

 

[Mr Foldy]

It's why I have a Dahon folder. Buses and trains are easy.

 

[thatname]

I'm in London.

Maybe that's the same thing?

Oh wait, no - I'm a man.

I've had to call upon the services of a black cab twice in recent years when their was simply no other option with a bike that had a flat and the weather was so die I couldn't contemplate changing/patching the inner tube. Remarkably both times the first cab I flagged down stopped and was more the gracious to take me and my bike into the cab and onwards to work. Luck of the draw I suppose. They ain't the worst road users out there. Don't get me started on Addison Lee drivers.....

 

[snorri]

I'm always unsure what to do with my bike when I cycle to the bus stop? I can't take my bike onto the bus as the buses do not allow it. Do you guys have any similar problems?

A case of a problem caused by a lack of integrated transport, a common failing throughout the land.
The only place I can recall seeing good bike bus interfaces was in rural Orkney where bus stops had a shelter and sheffield stands sitting side by side.
It would take a strong heart to cycle very far on a daily basis in Orkney throughout the winter mind you.