Everyone who takes long multimodal trips knows the routine: before leaving the house, double-check to make sure you have your keys, wallet, and TriMet bike permit. Right?

Well, that last one isn’t necessary anymore. But some commenters on our recent throwback article about what bike advocacy looked like at the beginning of the millennium reminded us that it used to be a crucial part of your cycling kit.

Here’s the story: when TriMet first took off in the Portland area, they didn’t allow bikes on the bus or MAX at all. It took a lot of advocacy to convince TriMet to give bikes a lift – in fact, this was one of the primary issues for the burgeoning Bike Transportation Alliance (now known as The Street Trust) – and from the looks of old Oregonian articles about the situation, it’s clear there were heated emotions on all sides.

Here’s what I found out…

Disability advocates understandably didn’t want people with bikes to limit mobility for people in wheelchairs, and others were concerned about bicycles making the bus riding experience miserable. Here’s a snip from former The Oregonian Associate Editor Larry Hilderbrand’s 1991 editorial titled, “Tri-Met: People Inside, Bikes Outside“:

“No bus rider wants a pedal in the shin, a handlebar in the shoulder or a grease spot on a shoe. In rainy weather, rubbing shoulders with a dripping fellow traveler may be accepted, but rubbing up against a wet bicycle? That’s no way to run a bus system.”

Despite views like this, in 1992 TriMet conceded to the advocates. At first they agreed to a bike pilot program that was later made permanent. This was much to the delight of area bike riders. It’s interesting to see how people discussed this at the time – one article from The Oregonian archives points out how the bike racks changed the game for people who wanted to go out to rural recreational bike paths.

But it did come at a cost – $5 to be exact. TriMet listed how and where you could buy them on their website. They’re sure to mention that “TriMet supervisors, fare inspectors and police officers may inspect bike permits at any time,” so you had better watch out. (And remember, you couldn’t just take a picture of it and keep it on your phone!)

BikePortland commenters recounting the old days mentioned that when you picked up your permit you were required to take a short class to learn how to put your bike on the bus because the old Yakima front racks were so difficult for people to figure out.

TriMet dropped the permit requirement in 2002, allowing people to put their bikes on the bus racks and take them into the MAX trains for free. It’s good they ended this program, but I wouldn’t mind taking a tutorial class for using front-of-bus bike racks myself. Luckily, The Street Trust sometimes offers these classes (in fact, there’s one tomorrow morning!) TriMet and the Portland Bureau of Transportation also have tutorials you can check out – the internet has made things a lot easier.

Commenter Shonn Preston shared a photo of their old permit, and they do have an endearing quality – particularly because of the cheeky list of “Reasons to Bring a Bike on Tri-Met”:

So next time you struggle to secure your bike on the front of a TriMet bus – if you’re lucky enough to be riding the new Division FX line, happily roll it right on – think on the bright side. At least you don’t have to worry about showing your permit to the fare inspector.

Taylor has been BikePortland’s staff writer since November 2021. She has also written for Street Roots and Eugene Weekly. Contact her at taylorgriggswriter@gmail.com

Thanks Taylor! (I wish I had a digital photo of those horrible Yakima racks…perhaps its on a Superslide somewhere in a dusty box.) 😉

And other area transit systems (C-TRAN) used to make the operator hand a yellow card when ever you placed a bike in a bus rack and you had to surrender it to get your bike back!

Yeah, transit operators were very strict in the old days (pre1992)…plus I could not even carry a bike wheel on a bus to take it to a repair shop, I was sent off the bus in Honolulu!

Dang! Blast from the past. I was new-ish to cycling and just looking into getting my permit when they discontinued the requirement.

In those days, the floors in MAX trains weren’t street level (you had to mount 2-3 stairs just inside the doors, many of those were still in service through the aughts I believe). Similar with the buses, a couple of stairs inside the door (I think the kneeling buses were introduces just a couple years later).

Thanks for the article, Taylor! It’s sometimes good to remember how far we’ve come, even if it isn’t as far as we should have gone by now.

As an aside, if any Trimet movers and shakers are seeing this: Bring back the old sector signs! I know the system works differently now, but they were awesome. Surely there must be a way to incorporate them.

They are in the process of replacing the high floor cars now, but since 1997, they should always be paired with a low floor car.

Trimet is still running the high-floor max cars (always in a train with a low-floor car). Saw one on Interstate just 3 days ago!

I had one of those permits, back in the day!

I don’t have my pass any longer. As I recall; the “class” I had to take to get the permit was watching a 5 minute video at the trimet office in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Remember it well…I was working at a bike shop at the time and knew all the rules well since we were one of the places issuing the cards. I also remember a particular bus driver who made up his own rules about when bikes could use the racks and refused to let me on with my bike one morning. Eventually, I convinced him he needed to let me put my bike on the rack but it was a bit of a stand off for a couple of minutes. So glad it’s these are not a thing anymore!

I think I still have mine. I’ll dig it out and post it on Ebay. Maybe I’ll get enough for it to buy a new bike!

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