The city of Boston would like to make cycling easier for people working downtown, which makes sense in theory. But the practicality of their plan leaves much to be desired. This is particularly true when our public transit system announced in June 2022 that it is cutting back on services due to staffing shortages.

A lot of people would like the city and the MBTA (usually just called "The T") to work together to help bike riders reach downtown with less difficulty. Some have suggested that the public transit system should have a dedicated car at the end of every Blue Line train for the cyclists to carry their bikes onboard. That would be great, but... exactly how is that going to work?

First, there is the issue of crowding. Each day, approximately 657,000 people use MBTA public transit. Many of these people use the Blue Line. If one car on each blue line train were to be entirely dedicated to cyclists and their bikes, it would cause a big problem. The same number of people that currently take the train will continue to do so. Only now, they will have to squeeze into fewer cars, since one car is specifically reserved for bicycles. 

The T is behaving valiantly in their effort to address the issues raised by bicyclists and stakeholders in East Boston and elsewhere along the Blue Line. They want to find an answer to keep their riders happy, but dedicating some of the cars as "bikes only" is not an appropriate solution. Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for MBTA, told Boston.com that the T had not heard of the dedicated bike car idea before. He was decidedly unenthusiastic about its practicality. “It is not feasible to dedicate an entire car for bikes, in light of ridership demand." That sounds pretty definitive.

A better idea would be to allow bikes on the train, but have them spread out among all of the train cars. This is far more practical than trying to crowd all of the bikes into one car and squeezing pedestrians into even fewer compartments that they already have. If people insist on keeping bicycles on the train, wouldn't that be a more effective solution? 

Not everyone is sold on the idea of bikes on trains in the first place, though. If you have ever ridden on the Blue Line during rush hour, you will understand why this is. Even as it stands now, there isn't enough space for commuters to be anywhere close to comfortable. This is evidenced by the fact that in May of 2021, MBTA created a new page on their website that gives "Crowding Information for Riders."  But it is unclear how many people want a specific car only for the bikes… are there even enough passengers with bikes to justify this?

The whole purpose for having a public transit system is to transport more people efficiently, cutting back on traffic congestion and hopefully reducing carbon emissions. Bicycles take up a lot more space than a pedestrian does. Allowing them on the train means less people will be able to fit for each trip. This is the opposite of what the transit system is trying to accomplish. 

Keeping one train car specifically for bikes would be a bad idea, because we already don't have enough resources; that's the reason for the reduction in service. Removing more riders would greatly reduce MBTA's ability to obtain funding from fares, and this would also greatly limit the efficiency of the entire system.

You know the rush hour, and you know the crowd. When the influx of people pushes towards the trains' doors during rush hour, it is nearly impossible to avoid being swept along with them. The fact that pedestrians have to fight to find a seat should tell you something. The crowding already makes it very difficult for anyone to get on the train with a bike. We need to let this idea die on the vine.