Both Metro Light Rail trains and Valley Metro buses offers passengers the opportunity to combine bicycles with public transit. Nevertheless, both the horizontal racks on the front of the buses and the vertical racks in trains can be intimidating to some passengers. When I first started mixing a bike and transit, I hesitated to use the racks for several weeks because I was nervous about injuring another passenger, delaying a bus, or just looking foolish in front of others. Once I tried both types of racks a few times, however, I found them easier than they looked and now use both during my daily commute.

Although the racks on the trains should eventually be redesigned to allow more passengers to use them, many passengers could learn to use both the current light rail bike storage and the bus racks if they had an opportunity to practice in a low-pressure environment. To that end, the region's myriad transit agencies should cooperate to install mock-ups of both bus and train bike racks at key transit centers. Central Station and the Tempe Transportation Center would be the most obvious places to begin. End-of-the-line mock-ups might follow at 19th Ave / Dunlap and in Downtown Mesa once those extensions are complete.

In addition, not all bikes and bike accessories are created equal when it comes to public transit. It's more than just the total weight of the bike; the distribution of weight makes a crucial difference in how easily a bike can be lifted into position. Likewise, some styles of panniers and baskets can make bicycles difficult to fit into transit racks. Certain types of handlebars are more prone to entanglement with other bikes. For that reason, practice racks should also be made available to bike stores around the metropolitan area so that customers can assess the transit compatibility of equipment before making a purchase.