12 Days of Bikemas — #8: Salt Lake City, Utah

I hopped on the Frontrunner train, Utah’s commuter train, at Salt Lake City and took it along the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains to Provo, about half of its 83-mile total route. It has the best bike car I’ve experienced in the USA. A fabulous multi-purpose rack system holds not just cycles of any size or type (including adaptive cycles) but also wheelchairs and strollers. Comfortable seats right next to the bike storage keep my bike safely within reach at all times.

And then when I got to Provo, I was in for another treat. The Utah Transportation Authority buses have front racks not for two bikes (like many, but not all, bus systems around the USA) but for THREE bikes. This was the first (and only) time I’ve seen this. My daughters and I used to ride our bikes and take buses but we couldn’t do it all together because the Atlanta buses only have space for two bikes. Plus, there’s always that chance that other people will already have a bike or two on the rack. Three spaces is clearly better and doesn’t seem to create any difficulties for the bus or other motor vehicle traffic.

So, if your city, county or state doesn’t already have a bike car on the commuter train or three spaces for bikes on buses, look to Utah as a role model, please. I used their system numerous times while I was traveling Round America with a Duck (I WWOOFed at a Krishna temple/llama farm about eight miles from Provo for a month), and it was an absolute joy.