OT: Report all bicycle bumps to Caltrain Board

[Shirley Johnson]

Dear Bicycle Riders and Supporters, We need your help to convince the Caltrain Board to stop staff from decreasing bike capacity on electrified trains! Report all bicycle bumps to the Caltrain Board through November 1 To understand overcrowding in bike cars, the Caltrain Board needs to hear about bicycle bumps first-hand from Caltrain passengers. Let’s make a big push to report every bump this month. Click here to email bump reports to the board and copy all the right folks. Please spread the word! Please report the following: Number of bumped bike riders (even if you are not one of them) Day, station, and train number or time plus travel direction Additional information such as how getting bumped affected your day Include your city of residence after your name Why the Caltrain Board needs to hear about bicycle bumps now Six of nine board members are new on the board since 2015, when the board unanimously approved increased bike capacity on electrified trains. The board does not receive bicycle bump reports and new board members may not be fully aware of the severity of bicycle bumps. We need your help to report bumps this month as a sampling to encourage the current board to pressure staff to meet the board’s 2015 mandate for increased bike capacity. Staff’s obfuscation about bike capacity on electrified trains Staff plans to reduce bike capacity from 77 to 72 bike spaces per train. Instead of being transparent about this decrease, staff is touting an increase in “system-wide” bike capacity of 12.5% due to one more train per hour – but that extra train was always in the plan. The board unanimously approved more bike capacity per train, but staff focuses on train frequency to hide the fact that bike capacity per train is being decreased. We're dumbfounded that staff proposed decreasing bike capacity per train even further with angle bike parking. Bike stacking (same as today) is the tightest packing possible to fit the most bikes. It’s a no brainer to continue with bike stacking when onboard space is so limited. After a huge public outcry for more bike capacity (thanks in large part to your emails), staff has finally selected bike stacking instead of angle bike parking. Now staff is claiming to “maximize” bike capacity by choosing bike stacking. Come on – we can see through that! All the public outreach on bike storage options served to distract from the real issue of decreased bike capacity! Over the last dozen years, bike boardings have increased approximately 10% per year, despite being capped by maxed out bike cars. The so-called system-wide increase of 12.5 % in 2021 corresponds to only 3% per year – nowhere near adequate! Staff claims to “maximize bike capacity through the increase in the ratio of bikes to seats approved by the Board in 2015,” but they don’t reveal that they are meeting that ratio by removing over 200 seats in electrified trains compared with trains today! The proposed electrified system is inadequate for both bikes and seats! Our recommendation for electrified trains We recommend 84 bike spaces per electrified train distributed evenly among all cars to allow seats near bikes, no hanging bikes, and dedicated wheelchair space. Eighty-four bikes per train minimally meets the board’s directive for more bike capacity per train, though in fact more is needed to accommodate projected demand. The bottom line is that Caltrain needs to run longer electrified trains. Next Caltrain Board meeting November 2 Please plan to attend the Caltrain Board meeting at 10am, Thursday, November 2 at 1250 San Carlos Avenue, San Carlos. We need to speak up before it’s too late! Relevant links For detailed information about what’s really going on, please see Concerns about Caltrain Electrified Train Design Local newspapers have published many letters to the editor from concerned Caltrain passengers Blog post from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition titled Caltrain staff can do better Caltrain staff’s obfuscatory news release about bike capacity on electrified trains Video of the October 5 Caltrain Board meeting; particularly relevant are agenda item 4 (public comment) and agenda item 8a (start at 48 minutes for staff presentation on bike capacity)   Please forward this email to other bike riders and anyone who cares about bicycle commuting. Thank you for your support!   More bikes, no bumps, Shirley Johnson On behalf of the ol’ BIKES ONboard crew Contact us at bikeso...@sonic.net