Results of SVBC Survey on Caltrain Use

We recently partnered with San Francisco Bicycle Coalition to gather your thoughts on our work towards Caltrain’s bike-friendly future through on online survey. A huge thank you to everyone who took their survey and provided feedback! Following a successful campaign to increase bike capacity on future electrified Caltrain trains (coming 2020) and secure $3 million in funding for bike parking at stations, we wanted to hear from you on what improvements would help make accessing Caltrain as easy and convenient as possible for you. The results of this survey will give us a data-driven approach to our future Caltrain advocacy work and help us accurately communicate the needs of our members to Caltrain.With over 300 responses, we heard that:

• Most are long-time riders: over 50% of respondents have been riding Caltrain for more than five years.

• The majority of respondents ride Caltrain every weekday or multiple days a week to commute to and from work.

• Almost all respondents bike from home to the station and from the station to their final destination.

Most common origin:

1. San Francisco 4th and King

2. San José Diridon

3. San Francisco 22nd Street

4. Mountain View

5. Palo Alto

6. Sunnyvale

Most common destination:

1. San Francisco 4th and King

2. Palo Alto

3. Mountain View

4. San José Diridon

5. Menlo Park

6. Redwood City

If they could not bring their bike on the train, most respondents would drive alone to their destination (45%). This question allowed users to choose all that apply. Ranking second were: not making the trip or locking their bike at station and taking Caltrain (30% each). The latter is where there is a lot of opportunity for improvement.Most people have not been bumped (not being able to board a bike car with their bike due to overcapacity) in the last year. However, there is a high level of people who are bumped consistently, meaning the same trains fill up. In addition, many people mentioned in the comments that they’ve changed their schedule to earlier or later trains to avoid being bumped off the fuller trains.To the question, “What would improve your bike + Caltrain commute?” people are most interested in (in order of greatest improvement):

1. Bike space in every Caltrain car.

2. Better method of stacking bikes onboard.

3. Priority boarding for people with bikes.

4. Better training for bike car conductors.

To the question, “How likely would you be to use an alternative to bringing your bike on board?” people are most interested in (in order of most desirable):

1. Staffed or valet bike parking stations.

2. Free bike lockers or BikeLink e-lockers.

3. Monitored bike cages.

4. Bike share.

5. Bike rooms.

6. Bike corrals (overwhelmingly negative response).

From this survey, we can draw several conclusions:

• People need their bikes and most people see bringing it on-board as the best option currently.

• People want to be near their bikes on the train but think that bike cars could be organized better, both in terms of stacking and boarding.

• Respondents considered the options available today when answering this survey, not necessarily future possibilities.

• Many of the comments showed that people need their bike on both ends and right now other options such as transit, shuttles, or bike share aren’t available or don’t make sense for them.

• Partnering with other transit agencies, bike share, and employers could help to provide alternatives.

Thanks to everyone who took this survey, it is very important to consider your needs as we continue to work with Caltrain and other agencies to improve bicycling access to transit.