Last time I talked to someone at the STM, I was told they study which line to put them on as to not cause delay on the bus line. But yeah, that's kind of sad, since the 121 is usually stuck in traffic everywhere there's no reserved lane, I'm not sure the bike rack would be the cause of delays...
Exactly. While there is a reserved lane for the 121 on parts of Côte-Vertu Boulevard, the 121 competes with on-street parking in parts of Côte-Vertu Boulevard and Sauvé Street. Moreover, a bike rack could make sense, because the 121 connects you to both REVs.
In Vancouver we have bike racks on the 99 B-Line, the busiest bus line in North America. It does not add that much dwell and the benefits far outweigh the minimal delay
I don't recall the exact numbers off the top of my head, but my recollection is that they're deployed a few dozen times a day on the 99. We have APC counters on our bike racks so we have a good idea of their use on almost every route.
The only time I tried to use one, it was broken on the first bus, waited for the next one, and the bus driver refused to let me use it because it took me more than 20 seconds to try and secure my bike. Locked my bike there and took the third bus. Arrived 1h late. Never tried again.
IMO no reason not to have them, and STM is a huge North American outlier in not having them. Bike racks provide a useful last-mile option for multimodal trips and don't add too much dwell time since they're not used on every single trip.
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