# Can BART force you to take bike through handicap turnstyle?



## jasonwells4 (Aug 7, 2006)

This one BART employee at the Pleasant Hill station keeps giving me crap about lifting my bike and carying it through the regular turnstyles. She says bikes have to go through the handicap/luggage turnstyle. A quick consultation of the rules on BART's website reveals no such requirement. 

http://bart.gov/guide/bikes/bikeRules.aspx

Should I just tell her to blow it out her ass?


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## tjjm36m3 (Mar 4, 2008)

Probably not a good idea, she'll have a power trip and call on her boys in blue. Best case scenerio is you'll be shot.

Wouldn't taking the bike through the handicap gate much easier and quicker? You don't need to lift your bike over the turnstyles.


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## jasonwells4 (Aug 7, 2006)

If that's the rule, then so be it. 

But if it is just about her power trip, then I should be able to decide for myself which method is more efficient.


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## singlespeed.org (Feb 14, 2006)

I checked your link, and this info isn't there, but I do remember seeing something posted once saying to use luggage turnstiles. And if a luggage turnstile is not available, you are supposed to use the swing gate that is next to the booth. For example, to enter BART, you walk your bike through the swing gate and leave it there, walk back out swing gate and then go through turnstile (running your ticket through machine) and get your bike and continue to the train.


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

There has to be someone you can call at BART that can give you a definitive answer. If the answer is that there is no rule, then you can politely tell the lady that she is wrong next time you come through. But you still run the risk of being shot.


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## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

singlespeed.org said:


> I checked your link, and this info isn't there, but I do remember seeing something posted once saying to use luggage turnstiles. And if a luggage turnstile is not available, you are supposed to use the swing gate that is next to the booth. For example, to enter BART, you walk your bike through the swing gate and leave it there, walk back out swing gate and then go through turnstile (running your ticket through machine) and get your bike and continue to the train.


I can't recall where I saw it, too, but lifting your bike to go through a regular gate in the BART system is a no-no. Use the handicap turnstile or do as singlespeed.org says.

Alternatively, find the gate that is furthest from the station agent and use that one. You didn't hear that from me, though


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## Gee3 (Jan 31, 2006)

Squidward said:


> I can't recall where I saw it, too, but lifting your bike to go through a regular gate in the BART system is a no-no. Use the handicap turnstile or do as singlespeed.org says.
> 
> Alternatively, find the gate that is furthest from the station agent and use that one. You didn't hear that from me, though


the BART station I got to has (or had) signs on the turnstiles that say not to lift bikes over the turnstiles/gates. Instead you are asked to take them throught he swinging door or the wider handicapped turnstile. 

The rule is for safety reasons. Because not all folks look who's around them when they lift the bikes and can possibly smack someone in the face with the bike. 

So to answer your question... NO, you can't do what you're doing and the BART official has every right to tell you not to. Sorry man!


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## California L33 (Jan 20, 2006)

Print out the rules and show them to her, but I think you're going over the top. If there isn't a rule there should be. Somebody's going to take a bike to the face.


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## mytorelli (Dec 19, 2004)

My brother lifted his bike over the turnstyles and a Bart official came up and said you can't do it, and that its a several hundred dollar (~$200) ticket.


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## jasonwells4 (Aug 7, 2006)

damn it!


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## grrrah (Jul 22, 2005)

Why does this upset you?

It would not safe if all the cyclists were to do it, so its common sense. Just curious, if it were not a written rule, why would you want to stir up [email protected], just because you can when its even easier to use the ADA gates. The lines aren't usually any longer. Again, common sense.


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## jasonwells4 (Aug 7, 2006)

Usually there is no line, or even anyone else around, since I go to work earlier than most people. It is not about that. Just wanted to make sure it was not some overbearing employee.


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## Tort (Nov 4, 2008)

Yeah gawd forbid we have an overbearing employee power trippin on ya.


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## brentley (Jul 20, 2008)

I did check this yesterday and at rockridge it is clearly posted to use the handicapped gate to get your bike through. they had the ticket machine closest to the gate open yesterday and I was able to walk through the gate with my bike and process my ez-rider without having to go back through. Then the woman behind me tried to do the same thing (she didn't have a bike) and ended up having to talk with the station agent.

There are some newer stations PIttsburg and Dublin as well as some re-modeled ones (Orinda) that have a special handicap accessable gate that allows you to process your ticket and walk through a turnstile. 

It seems like something that is easy enough so I would not really bother to fight it.


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## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

Be careful going through the handicap turnstiles. I used to go through them at the Balboa Park BART station and the gate thing would almost always catch my seatstays as I'm pulling the bike through. They timed it a little bit too fast. I got into the habbit of stopping at the actual gate mechanism, pushing my bike through closer to me so that my butt would catch the closing gate mechanism on one side while the bike slips through the narrowing gap as the other gate mechanism swings down.


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## brentley (Jul 20, 2008)

Squidward said:


> Be careful going through the handicap turnstiles. I used to go through them at the Balboa Park BART station and the gate thing would almost always catch my seatstays as I'm pulling the bike through. They timed it a little bit too fast. I got into the habbit of stopping at the actual gate mechanism, pushing my bike through closer to me so that my butt would catch the closing gate mechanism on one side while the bike slips through the narrowing gap as the other gate mechanism swings down.


Good advice actually, I was a little bit concerned about exactly that. I sort of prefer the gates at Rockridge and Embarcadero.


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## grrrah (Jul 22, 2005)

they aren't timed, there is a sensor, which probably passes through the frame and thinks you have cleared the gate. Nonetheless, be carefull about it.


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