bus

Starting Saturday, April 25th, 2009, all GO Transit buses will be equipped with racks that can carry two bicycles. This means that you can take your bike with you on any GO bus at any time of day, without any additional cost.

Bike racks were first installed on GO buses in August 2008, starting with buses serving the QEW Express (Union to Hamilton) corridor and the Hamilton to Aldershot corridor. It's great to see that this project has been expanded to the whole system!

I've had the opportunity to use the GO bike racks several times now when traveling between Toronto and Hamilton. It's honestly a little bit nerve-wracking when you first put your bike on the front of a bus that's about to hurtle down the QEW at 100km/h, but the system works well and I'm confident enough to keep using it.

I'm looking forward to many other opportunities to use this. It doesn't help me much on my own commute (Dundas West station to Square One), but I have already been scheming to try other trips. Everything from getting around the GTA faster/easier, to using the GO system as a launch pad for weekend bike tours:

• Take the GO bus downtown after work for events if I don't have the time to cycle
• Save time and local transit fare by riding to and from GO stations

I'm trying to reduce my greenhouse gases while traveling. This experiment began last year as I researched alternatives to flying to visit family out West. It ends with my discovery that taking the train is actually nice and that I'll try to take it over flying. It didn't hurt that airline prices went through the roof as the price of oil reached angelic proportions. The real question is if my resolve will hold with oil prices crashing.

Last Christmas I took the Greyhound bus across the country to visit my family in Alberta. I researched and compared prices between the train, bus and carpooling -- all contribute considerably less carbon dioxide than air travel. Trains and buses are fairly close in terms of the greenhouse gases they emit during similar trip lengths. They differ greatly, however, in terms of comfort and romantic history. There is absolutely nothing romantic about the Greyhound. It's right down there with Coffee Time and Dollarama. It's the working class travel solution. My bus trip was a dreary 50 hours of windy roads of blowing snow, sick and coughing neighbours, and stops at Tim Hortons and Burger King parking lots every few hours. Other than the very low price, there is very little that's redeeming about bus travel.