Bike-Friendly Transit on the San Mateo Bridge

News Articles
03/02/2004

When AC Transit recently implemented new California state law permitting use of front-mounted bike racks on the agency’s 45-foot highway cruiser coaches, the agency’s bus fleet became 100 percent accessible to bike riders.

Regional and local officials joined AC Transit at Chabot College recently to unveil the bicycle-friendly improvements — newly added to the District’s beefed-up, limited-stop Line M TransBay Express bus service.

Operated on the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge, Line M links the East Bay with the Peninsula using comfortable highway cruiser coaches that have high back seats, reading lamps and overhead package racks. With the new front-mounted bike racks, in addition to more carriers being built (with direct support from Caltrans) in the luggage bays, each express bus can transport up to six bicycles.

The six bike racks, multiplied by numerous scheduled weekday and new weekend/holiday transbay trips greatly increases access for bicyclists as well as pedestrians across the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge.

Line M was established last year with a federally-funded Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant. More recently, support from the Bay Area Toll Authority funded the newly-added midday and weekend service.

Chabot College, where the bike-friendly bus was displayed, is a major East Bay destination for Line M, as are the Castro Valley and Hayward BART stations. On the Peninsula, Line M serves the Metro Center and Vintage Park business parks, Foster City’s civic center, and the Hillsdale Mall and CalTrain Station.