After many years of advocacy efforts on the part of EcoCity Cleveland and others, the Greater Cleveland RTA agreed to allow bicycles on board the Rapid during off-peak hours (restricted hours are 7-8 a.m. and 4:30-5:30 p.m. and special events). In addition, direct advocacy secured a committment from RTA to equip all of their buses with bike racks, which they have done. All you have to do is signal the bus driver before boarding and load your bike. For the rapid transit just roll your bike on and stand with it.

May 2005 was the first month of full Bikes-On-Transit data collection for both bus and rail. Comparing May '05 with May '06, rail bike trips dropped a bit (12 trips or 1.8%) but bus bike trips increased 72.1% (969 trips), according to RTA, for a net 47.9% systemwide increase over last May's bike trips. That means 957 more bike trips were taken on RTA in May '06 than May '05, nearly a 50% increase.

"RTA is both surprised and pleased at the number of bike riders that our system now attracts," says Joe Calabrese, CEO & General Manager at RTA. "Over the last six years, we have been working to build more partnerships with transit-related groups, and we welcome the relationship that we have developed with the biking community. Your on-going support is greatly appreciated."

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