Full size bikes on public transport doesn’t work well when crowded though. I briefly took a bikee recumbent (really small) on BART and it was great for me but pretty annoying for others for 1 stop (sorry if you went between Ashby and Oakland in 2011!)

Even in the Netherlands you need to pay €8.50 to bring your bike on, perhaps so the trains aren’t overrun.

Thankfully uncommon in North America. Growing up in Los Angeles where every bus has racks and every train car has bike spots, I was shocked the first time I visited SF and found I couldn't bring it on Muni trains.

I know DC bans them and Boston/NYC/Toronto have limited hours, but every other city with a metro seems to welcome them.

Yeah, this definitely wouldn't fly in any country where a lot of people bike and use transit. Tokyo metro would be hell if full sized bikes would be allowed.

I remember one time on the bus a commuter had his full sized bike in the bus. This was a full sized with plenty of space bus, so it wasn't really in the way at all. The bike rack was full and it was a summer day. So probably the guy figured he may as well just try bringing it on instead of waiting another hour for a bus and hoping there's space.

Anyway one busybody got all uppity. But the driver and rest of the passengers didn't care. So it was fine.

Granted I live in a smaller town, but I see a lot of bikes on the bus. Given that we don't have a super dense transit system, bike + bus is a practical way for a lot of people to make buses work. The bike solves the "last mile problem."

Both of my kids have jobs that let out after the last buses run at night, so they take the bus to work and ride their bikes home.

I understand the frustration but also bikes take up a lot of space. When someone brings one on the NYC subway at rush hour it’s definitely an inconvenience.

This depends on the metro. NYC generally doesn't care for the trains/subways so they only make a difference on buses.