Something Doesn’t ‘Resgister’ on the T’s New Bike Cage Signs

Image courtesy of Adam Tanner

A private contractor hired to make signs for the MBTA’s new bike rack stations is back-pedaling after the transit agency noticed a few glaring mistakes over the weekend.

As shown in the photo above, which was captured by a passenger perusing the new, yet-to-be-opened Back Bay bike rack, a prompt encouraging users to sign-up online so that they can use their CharlieCards to access the facility was marred by a misspelled word, and also led riders to the incorrect website.

The wording on the sign, in the second reference that’s meant to send people to the appropriate registration landing page, spells “register” as “resgister.”

T officials said they’re aware of the typo, which impacts five of the gated-bike-rack signs around the system. The error was a mistake made by both the contractor that submitted the signs to the T, and the employee that was tasked with proofreading the signs before they were properly installed at the bike racks recently.

“This mistake was made by the contractor, who is erecting the bike facilities. The mistake was discovered by MBTA staff over the weekend. It is limited to five signs, which the contractor will replace,” said T spokesman Joe Pesaturo. “The contractor submitted the flawed sign to T staff to proofread. The person who proofread the sign did not catch the error.”

Officials from the MBTA said that while they work on “patching” up the signage, their web team redirected the incorrect link to the correct one to deter any confusion.

Signs will need to be replaced at Back Bay, Dudley, Wollaston, Alewife, and Wonderland, according to officials. The Back Bay bike station hasn’t opened yet, and is a new addition in a series of gated, electronically secured “Pedal and Park” bike facilities that the T has been rolling out to attract more riders to the transit lines. That facility is slated to open in two to three weeks. The T hopes the secure cages will subside riders’ fears about leaving their bicycles out in the open with just a regular lock when hopping on the transit lines.

With the help of federal grant money, the MBTA officially started opening up the new Pedal and Park facilities to the public in April last year. The first structure was unveiled to riders at the Oak Grove station. Each Pedal and Park is fully enclosed and provides parking for 50-150 bikes, and is backed up by six security cameras, lighting, and a police intercom system.