Photo by JamesCalder

The rules of Metro are numerous but generally well-accepted. Residents know not to eat or drink on trains, and people playing music loudly will often get dirty looks from commuters who enjoy the relative silence of their morning ride to work. As for bikes, it has long been the rule that they’re not allowed on trains during rush hour. Should that change?

TBD reports on a petition making the rounds that asks Metro to revise its no-bikes-during-rush-hour policy:

It discourages people to use bicycles as a form of transportation and contribute to urban congestion. Also it inconveniences many commuters who do commute on their bikes. Not all workplaces are within walking distance of Metro stops. Finally, the citation that bicycles are a safety hazard during rush hour is flawed. If bikes were a safety hazard, why do we allow them on the Metro in the first place? I have seen people get on the Metro with bikes during rush hour because of the inconsistent application of this rule. People are smart enough to avoid tripping on a bike.

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association supports such a change, and some of the 91 current signatories argue that since oversized luggage and baby strollers are allowed on, why shouldn’t bikes? (One signer proposes that Metro cars have designated bike spaces—the first and last rail cars.)

Despite the fact that I’m a cyclist, I’m going to go ahead and say heck no to this idea. During rush hour, Metro is crowded, and Metro’s rail cars are not designed to comfortably fit bicycles. (Metrobuses all have handy bike racks, though.) And that’s just on the train—heaven forbid trying to navigate a bike through a crowded Metro station during the morning or evening rush.

Yes, more and more people are riding their bikes these days, and yes, sometimes they don’t want to ride home after a long day at work. (Rain, flat tire and so on.) But those situations are few and far between enough to not require upending a standing policy that makes sense and works well. Most importantly, the rule isn’t really that onerous to begin with—bikes are only forbidden on weekdays from 7-10 a.m. and 4-7 p.m., and that doesn’t include folding bikes, which are allowed on at any time.

But should more exceptions be made? How about a cyclist riding from one outer fringe station to the next one, in the opposite flow of the rush? Or the idea that bikes be allowed on the first and last cars? There’s some merit to the idea, but how would they be properly enforced? They really can’t.

So until Metro radically redesigns its rail cars to better fit bikes—rooftop racks!—let’s keep bikes on the road and off the rails.