Greater Philadelphia Bicycle News

SEPTA purchases 640 bus bike racks

BCGP Acting President Dennis Winters announced that SEPTA has approved the purchase of 640 bike racks from UPC, SEPTA received a prototype which they found to be acceptable. The timetable for the delivery and installation of the bike racks is not known.

However Sportworks will be evaluating the rack for patent infringement. Several components of the Sportworks bike bus rack, in particular the retracting support arm are patent protected. There are other issues which may arise such as ease of use and if the rack damages the bus wash. We can only hope that SEPTA is making use of the prototype to perform some of this testing. (Note to SEPTA - We are here to help).

SEPTA watchdog Creighton Rabs reports in his Frankford Terminal Blog that the next 100 buses are moving along based on a press release Digital Recorders the manufacturer of those bright yellow LED destination signs. It notes that sign delivery is expected to be complete by April 2004. Since all new Low Floor buses come with bike racks this means that 100 more buses with bike racks should be on the road by late spring.

SEPTA has also purchased so called cutaway buses (small van like buses) for lightly used routes, these 28 buses will be delivered in late winter and early spring and will be equipped with bike racks.

Frankford Transportation now has about 20 bike racks, a contractor is in the process of installing racks at a number of regional rail stations with high bike usage including Thorndale, Warminster, Langhorne,
Bristol, Swarthmore, Media, Ridley Park, 69th Street Terminal, Conshohocken, Lansdale, and Willow Grove.

Newark DE has a new paved path that parallels the Amtrak tracks called the James F. Hall Trail. this path connects several Newark neighborhoods with the SEPTA R2 station. DART First State plans to build a new Newark Station east of the current station in the future which will allow for more frequent service on the line.