43
WRTA buses will carry bicycles
YOUNGSTOWN
For the first time in its history, the Western Reserve Transit Authority will feature bicycle racks on its buses.
Eight new buses costing $427,000 each, including the racks, radios and fareboxes, and built by Gillig Corp. of Hayward, Calif., will go into service during November.
“It’s a good opportunity to get people, who previously didn’t consider riding a bus, to ride a bus,” said James Ferraro, authority director.
“We think that people are now in the exercise mode,” Ferraro said, adding that bus riders now will be able to extend their trips by riding their bicycles after they leave the buses.
“They’ve been a long time coming,” Ferraro said of the bicycle racks, which cost $1,201 each and will be on 11 additional new buses over the next six months.
The authority has a total of 38 new, full-size buses on order.
Every new, full-size bus the authority buys from now on will have a bike rack, Ferraro said.
The delay in obtaining the racks was due to the authority’s decision to equip new buses with them, rather than retrofit buses in the 12-year-old fleet with them near the end of their service life, he explained.
The racks, capable of carrying two bicycles each, will be on the front of each bus, and riders will not pay any fare surcharge for having bicycles on the racks.
“Over the years, a number of people have asked about them, and other cities are using them,” on their transit-authority buses, Steven Gondol, authority-board chairman, said of the bike racks.
After examining a new bicycle-rack-equipped bus Thursday, the WRTA board passed a resolution to buy up to 35 new bus-passenger waiting shelters from Brasco International of Madison Heights, Mich., for $3,225 each.
It will cost WRTA an additional $2,300 per shelter to pour the concrete pads and install protective posts.
The authority is seeking suggestions from the public concerning shelter placement.
Ferraro told the board that WRTA bus ridership increased from 126,367 passengers in September 2013 to 133,586 in September 2014 for a gain of 6 percent.