Friday 13 May 2011… The last day of MyCiTi’s test week, and a good day to see whether bicycles really are welcome on board (before the full-service starts on Monday 16 May…). This week the buses have been running hourly, Central Cape Town to Table View, off-peak, and they’ve been full almost every trip.
So far so good… except for the pedestrian who told me I should be wearing a helmet, as a WALKED my bike across the road (er, she was also walking across the road, but without a bicycle – does that make you safer?…)
Note to operations guys: buses need signage that explains where the bicycles go (so we’re spared the discomfort of asking people to move from the flip-up seats…)
Next note to operations guys: If every cyclist carries a stretchy / bungee cord, would make life easier; seatbelts are not the best for keeping bikes from rolling around… And post an illustration showing cyclists how to secure the bikes – like this one from NYC…
Destination TableView shopping centre: the coffee shop has a bicycle as decoration, but no bikes permitted in the Centre. Security guard shows us to the bike parking… The thought counts, but for as long as bike racks damage our bicycles, and leave them open to theft (you can’t secure the frame), we won’t be using them… Or the shopping centre J
Some ‘helmet-shopping’ from street-side vendors en-route homeJ
The devil is in the detail… Forgot that Lola is not tubeless…
Not everyone wears Lycra: the posties say it’s slower, but more fun on the bike lanes (you have fewer route options, he says).
We’ve got your number: even if you’re on official MyCiti business, the bike lanes are not for parking!
But we thought the bike lanes were only for larnies in Lycra, Tony;-)
And now we see them, the devil thorn police – they obviously hadn’t got all the way through the route yet…
And now for the serious devil thorn police…
The verdict? Light years from my blog post of six months ago. The bus is fantastic, the bike lanes even better – all we need now is more… Oh, and good coffee shops en-routeJ But I suspect that bicycles (other than folding versions) might eventually be forbidden during rush hour. Start buying shares in Dahon now…
Andrew Boraine
Nice story-Test driving the new Cape Town IRT bike interface http://t.co/WuBhukN
Friday at 21:53 via Twitter @andrewboraine on Twitter
Morgan Commins love the stickers on the bike
Friday at 11:53 · Like
Stefan Van Steenberge most metro/underground lines don’t allow bikes during peak hours for this reason. over here in belgium for instance you’re never allowed on a bus with your bike. on a tram you can it but you pay an extra ticket. same for trains.
Friday at 11:35 · Like
We live on the farthest reaches of the Cape Metro area, Philadelphia (up the N7 toward Malmesbury) and are going to put the new Cape Town bike route to our own test: in and out of Cape Town by bike via back roads to Melkbos and then linking in with the dedicated routes from Blouberg. Journey starts Tues 24 May and we’ll document it and report back.
Thanks for your informative article- found whilst looking for route information. We will keep in touch.
Excellent – over how many days are you planning to ride? We’ve been off-road around Malmesbury, riding back from Prince Albert, and there are some great roads out that way. Keep us posted with your route as well, then we can update the Bicycle Map with safer, more direct or less congested routes (we’re working on the Winelands map now, too).