For many people, getting to put your bike on the front racks of our buses is a handy feature; just last weekend I used it to take my bike over to Harewood. But for the next few months at least, there may be a slight wrinkle to that…
The NZ Transport Agency has found that some bikes on front racks can obscure the headlights of certain buses at night-time, leading to potential visibility issues (although no crashes have been reported). Therefore, while this issue is being investigated further and potential changes made to buses, they have asked for a restriction on bike rack use during night-time hours.
For Christchurch, that means Environment Canterbury won’t be allowing bikes to be put on their bus racks at night, starting from Sat Nov 2nd. The hours will vary as the daylight hours change but, for November, you won’t be able to use them between 8.45pm – 5.45am. It’s probably a good thing that they didn’t uncover this issue during winter, otherwise we might have had a ban from about 5pm through to 8am…
Hopefully these hours shouldn’t affect too many people’s trips, and hopefully they can resolve the issue relatively quickly. And you can still happily continue to connect your bike ride with the buses during the day.
What do you think of this temporary bus rack ban?
Can they move the affected bike racks to the rear of the bus?
I’d expect H&S to say “no” for lack of visibility and danger to others in a rear-end, plus the hot exhaust might damage bikes.
It just got a little bit crazier: starting from 8.45pm this Friday 8th Nov, you won’t be allowed to use your bike on the bus racks AT ALL any time – https://www.ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/news-and-events/2024/national-restriction-on-the-use-of-bike-racks-on-buses/