"there really was no discussion about not including bike racks on light rail"

The decision to include bike racks on Valley Metro Rail's light rail vehicles was based upon a previous decision to equip all buses in the Phoenix and Valley Metro fleets with bike racks. The decision to add bike racks on all buses was made about 15 years ago (+/-) and today all buses in the region are equipped with these racks. The addition of bike racks on buses was an immediate success, improved ridership and improved access to the bus system. Given the success of the bus bike rack program and the long standing Valley Metro and Phoenix policies to include this feature on all buses, there really was no discussion about not including bike racks on light rail. Including bike racks was a given at the beginning of the LRT design phase. By the way, we will also have bike racks at several of the LRT stations for those who don't want to take their bike on light rail.

The only discussions we had were regarding the location of the racks on the vehicle, what type of rack to use, and how many to provide. We concluded that there would be four hanging racks per vehicle and decided to locate them in the center, articulation section, of the light rail vehicle. Our decision to use hanging racks was based upon success with similar racks in other light rail cities. (I think we first saw these racks in San Jose, but I'm not sure on this one.)

I hope this helps.



Wulf Grote, PE
Director, Project Development
METRO (Phoenix, AZ)