Johnson isn't fond of the shorter bike racks on Caltrain. It's been one month since the Caltrain Board of Directors approved a plan to increase bicycle capacity on its trains, a move advocates welcomed but felt didn't go far enough because it won't entirely prevent bicyclists from getting bumped.
Tomorrow, the Caltrain board is expected to get an update on the plan but some of the meager improvements its staff has made on bike cars in the last month aren't winning over bicyclists. In an email, Shirley Johnson, the head of the SFBC's Bikes ONBoard campaign, said Caltrain has installed some new bike racks that really don't work.
AlthoughCaltrain's staff says it wants input from cyclists they installed theseracks without collecting input. This is a flawed design, and we couldhave saved Caltrain the costs of building and installing these racksif they had just asked cyclists first.
Among the issues: the racks are too low and not easily secured with the bungee cords, which causes them to drift into the aisles.
Johnson is encouraging other bicyclists to turn out for tomorrow's board meeting to tell Caltrain what it's doing isn't good enough. The meeting is at 10am at 1250 San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos.
Photo: Shirley Johnson
