One of my concerns as a cyclist is having a place to securely park my bike at my destination. Most of this parking is made available by businesses, employers, and landlords, and there's wide variation in availability and quality.
What defines good and bad when it comes to secure bike parking? Why, me, of course. Although I guess that's really a 'who'. But the criteria I use to judge my happiness with a rack includes such things as:
- Can a u-lock secure both the frame and at least one wheel to the rack?
- Can a bike lean against the rack in such a way that the bike won't tip over (preferably 2 points of support)?
- Is it covered/sheltered from the rain?
- Is it well-lit and and have good sight-lines?
- How easy and safe is it to get to the rack?
- How close is it to the entrance I want to use?
Some of those criteria are detailed in the City of Toronto's advice re. Bicycle Parking - Choosing a Rack. The City of Portland also has great advice for anyone looking to install bike parking, which was helpful when the condo board I was on for several years was considering adding capacity.
I'll be praising bike parking that makes me happy; criticizing parking that needs improvement; and noting with wonderment some of the crazy things people do with metal tubing. The ultimate goal is to use this as a springboard to improve poor bike biking parking situations.
It's worth noting that twice in my life I've spoken to a grocery store manager about poor bike parking, and both times the situation was substantially improved not too much later -- one of them was the Trader Joe's here in town. I highly doubt I was the only person to speak up in these situations, but it does emphasize the importance of letting your suggestions for improvement be known.
If you know of a bike parking situation in Bellingham that deserves a "Needs Improvement", feel free to let me know, and I'll see if a tiny bit of publicity can help. But also, please be sure to tell whomever would be responsible for making a change. Most likely they don't use a bike for transportation and don't know their bike parking is sub-par.
After the jump you'll find the first bike rack!
This Arty rack is found on the campus of Bellingham Technical College, just outside the Haskell Center (see BTC Campus Directory for maps). Thanks to G. for the photo.
I find it odd that each upright has only two small metal angles for affixing a lock. And it's probably a bit inconvenient that half those loops are pre-occupied, although you may be able to fit another lock through them.
Is it telling that the only bike in the vicinity is not locked to the arty rack? It's not locked at all, I don't think, so maybe not.
It's hard for me to judge this rack since I haven't used it, but it looks like it was designed to secure 6 bikes, two per upright. It's far enough from the wall that you could position your bike as needed to park as you prefer and still thread your lock through the metal angles. The angles are at different heights to potentially serve different sizes of bikes. It is covered, and I think I see a floodlight up toward the ceiling. It's near a door, too.
So it gets good marks for placement; it's visually distinctive; and it's certainly unique. The real question is the usability of those little angles welded to the uprights. If you've used this rack, please comment and tell us how workable it is.
"Is it telling that the only bike in the vicinity is not locked to the arty rack? It's not locked at all, I don't think, so maybe not."
ReplyDeleteFWIW, the bike had a cable lock that was strung through a large steel loop embedded in the brick wall.