Celebrate National Bike Month with Bikes on Buses!

All HART buses and vans feature bike racks!

May is National Bike Month and HART makes connecting to the bus by riding a bike a breeze!

Discover how easy (and quick!) it is to Bike & Bus. HART has bike racks on every bus and van so you can experience the ease of riding HART with your bike year-round. National Bike Month is a great opportunity to give it a try!

At HART, we're dedicated to getting our riders to their destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. We see bikes as complementary to our service and that's why we added racks to our buses over 20 years ago. More recently, bike racks have also been added to all of our HARTFlex vans.

Need a bike for just the first or last mile of your trip? Coast Bike Share stations are set up at a number of HART locations, including Marion Transit Center, and Dick Greco Plaza Station.

Have a folding bike? HART also permits them in carrying bags aboard all HART buses and HARTFlex vans. Users of bicycles with larger wheels should continue using the bicycle rack. Each HART bus and HARTFlex van accommodates two bicycles. Only single-seat, two-wheel bicycles are permitted on buses; no tandems or three-wheelers.

Heading to Pinellas County? The Bikes on Buses program also enables riders to take their bikes with them and transfer from a HART bus to the PSTA network without a special permit.  

Four easy steps to loading your bike on a HART bus

Bike-friendly transit provides customers with quicker commutes and additional commuting options.

Customers might not view a 30-mile round trip bike ride to downtown as an attractive commute. However, pair a quick 1-2 mile bike ride with a HART route to pick up the majority of the miles and you have some serious pedal power.

Cycling HART riders (almost 20,000 monthly trips) find that bikes not only speed up their commutes but also provide them greater exercise, ground coverage, and route options. 

Want to learn the ropes of cycling around town? Find a "bike buddy"! TBARTA helps match cycling commuters together.

Click here to learn more about the HART Bikes on Buses program, including how to secure your bike on the bus bike rack.

March is Florida Bike Month!

Coast Bikes can be rented from Marion Transit Center and Dick Greco Plaza

Happy Florida Bike Month! We're celebrating alternative commutes and looking at the relationship between personal (bikes) and public transportation.

Once seen as a child's toy, bikes are now considered a serious commuting option. Coast Bike Share, a bike rental service, has rolled out dozens of bike hubs throughout Tampa (and now St. Petersburg), including at our Marion Transit Center in Downtown.

At HART, we're dedicated to getting our riders to their destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. We see bikes as supplemental to our service and that's why we added racks to our buses and rubber-wheeled trolleys almost 20 years ago. More recently, bike racks have also been added to all of our HARTFlex vans.

In November 2011, folding bikes - in proper carrying bags - were allowed on board.

Bikes on Buses saves time, money and the environment!

Bike riders might not view a 30-mile round trip bike ride to downtown as an attractive commute. However, pair a quick 1-2 mile bike ride with a HART route to pick up the majority of the miles and you have some serious pedal power.

Cycling HART riders find that bikes not only speed up their commutes, but also provide them greater exercise, ground coverage, and route options.

For example, you might live within walking distance of a route 34 stop, but possible transfers don't work well with your schedule. Instead, you choose to bike to the route 1 stop where you can catch a straight shot to Marion Transit Center and save 10 minutes. Couple those time savings with the low-cost of a HART 1-day pass ($4.00) or 31-day pass ($65, $2.10 a day) and you've saved time, money and the environment!

Don't take our word for it though. Roughly 20,000 Bikes on Buses trips were taken last month.

Click here to learn more about the HART Bikes on Buses program, including how to secure your bike on the bus bike rack.  We also have a Bikes on Buses how-to video on our YouTube page here.

Placing your bike on the bus is easy! Just follow these quick steps.

Ride on!

Have HART, Share the Road!

As Florida Bike Month comes to an end, we wanted to give awareness for the often overlooked neighbors on the road - pedestrians and cyclists.

2010 was a rough year for pedestrians in the Tampa Bay area.  2011 hasn't started much better.

In 2010, 492 pedestrians were killed statewide with 78 deaths in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough locally, making Florida no. 1 per capita in the United States for pedestrian deaths.  In 2008, 17.4% of fatal bike accidents reported nationwide, occurred in the state of Florida. Recently, the Top 10 list of most dangerous metro areas for pedestrians included four Florida metro areas.

Interior cards like this one were placed on all HART buses

Operating over 190 buses in Hillsborough County and logging almost 9 million miles a year on Hillsborough County roads, HART has a big interest in pedestrian/cyclist safety.  Last year, Alan Snel, a local cycling advocate, approached HART about educating HART Operators and the general public about Florida state law known as "3 Feet to Pass," which requires motor vehicle operators to give cyclists 3-feet when passing.  Last year in April, HART launched the educational campaign on all HART buses, goHART.org, and social media outlets.  Interior cards like the one shown above were placed inside all HART buses, and buses were also wrapped with similar graphics. 

Walkwise Tampa Bay is another pedestrian/cyclist safety initiative looking to educate the citizens of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas' Counties.  The educational campaign has partnered with beach towns in Pinellas County and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to promote Pedestrian safety by introducing a new Pedestrian Flag program.

The program uses retro-reflective flags and vests on each end of a crosswalk to gain the attention of oncoming drivers.  Pedestrians carry the flag across the crosswalk.

According to FDOT, a pedestrian is injured every seven hours in Florida, with one killed every five days.  By law, bicycles are considered vehicles and cyclists are given the same rights as car drivers.  So the next time you pass a cyclist or another car on the road, please treat them equally, and give 3 feet!

Click here to view a video on the 8 weeks of training that HART Bus Operators go through before they are allowed to transport passengers.

For more information on Walkwise Tampa Bay, please visit www.walkwisetampabay.com.