Commuters soon will have more opportunities to use bicycles on parts of their trips as two local transit agencies make more room for bikes in time for Friday’s Bike to Work Day.
Virginia Railway Express will begin allowing full-size bicycles on trains starting Friday as part of a pilot program, according to an agency report. The commuter train service that runs from Manassas and Fredericksburg into the District previously allowed only folding bikes on its trains.
Bicyclists have been asking to take regular bikes on the trains for years, but the new rules have some restrictions. Bicycles will be allowed only on the last three northbound trains, the midday and the last three southbound trains of the day. VRE is limiting bikes to two per train car and says they must be tethered to train seats.
Meanwhile, Metro said it was adding 300 bicycle racks around the Metrorail system and replacing 350 old racks with the U-shaped ones that cyclists prefer. The system already has about 1,600 racks and 1,300 bicycle lockers at rail stations.
Metro plans to begin a bike and pedestrian study this year to consider such options as adding bike cages to parking garages that can be entered only by cyclists with key swipe cards. It also proposed spending $45 million in bike and pedestrian improvements between 2011 and 2020.
The push comes as more bicyclists are using the transit system for a portion of their commutes, according to Metro officials. It’s still a small fraction of overall ridership, but the number of cyclists biking to a rail station during the morning rush hour increased 60 percent — to 1,550 cyclists — between 2002 and 2007, according to Metro. The numbers rose even higher last summer amid the spike in gas prices, they said. An additional 650 people use the racks on Metrobuses each day.
Biking advocates are pushing for more. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Commuter Connections are hosting this week’s Bike to Work Day, an annual event to encourage people to try bicycling instead of driving. As of Tuesday, more than 6,400 commuters had registered for the free event, according to Commuter Connections.
