Trying out the new interior bike racks on the VTA 522 bus

I like to be prepared so I tried looking up how the new bikes-on-board worked but I couldn't find any information. It turns out to be pretty straightforward (after we asked the bus driver how it worked).

As you can see in the video we boarded from the back doors and used the Clipper card reader back there to pay our fare. The racks were pretty intuitive--you just roll your bike right onto them until the handle grabs onto your front wheel.

At one point after we got on someone else tried to board with his bike. He went to the back door but the bus driver didn't open them, presumably since the racks in the back were full so the bike rider had to use the bike racks on the front of the bus instead.

When it came time for us to exit the bus we told the bus driver shortly before our stop that was coming up. He probably would have noticed us grabbing our bikes since the bus wasn't too full, but we figured it was better to be safe.

I liked these bike racks. Whenever I've put my bike on the racks on the front of the bus I've felt the need to keep a close eye on them since it would be pretty easy for anyone to grab it. Having the bikes on the bus felt more secure. More importantly it's great having more bike capacity--without these racks the guy who got on with his bike after us would have had to wait for the next bus or hope the bus driver would let him bring his bike on board.