Re: Four Cyclists Killed in Wales

Tom Keats wrote: 
In article <%bzCf.17065$ft2.302441@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
	The Wogster <wogsterca@xxxxxxxx> writes:


In most locales, more bike parking is a reasonable suggestion but I can
see no reason why  it, "must, like the disabled parking, be as close to
the doors of any buildings as possible." Is there anyone anywhere that
says, "If it wasn't such a long walk from the bike rack to the door of
the building I work in I'd bike to work." and *means* it?

Because, if you don't require that they put it close, then employers and mall owners will put it in the farthest corner. This means that fringe riders will not bother, dedicated cycle or bust riders are few in number. For every super dedicated cyclists, there are 25 people who would like to ride, but do not for various reasons, lack of convenient parking, is am issue for some of them. 


If there isn't a rack nearby but there /is/ a parking meter or a
good, solid signpost to lock to, I generally opt for the latter.

The problem with parking meters, is that it's possible to lift a bike high enough, that the bike, lock and all, could slip over the head of the meter. Here in Toronto, Ontario the city has bike post and rings ( see http://tinyurl.com/cprzr for a photo ), a parking meter post could be adapted using the same idea.

What is really, really interesting, is that a new plaza built a couple of years ago, has 5 similar post and rings to allow parking for about 10 bicycles on the property, and yes, I have used one, and will use them again while there.


The lack of a fancy-schmancy bike rack doesn't stop me.  What does
stop me are areas where there's too much theft and vandalism.

Unfortunately that's one of the issues, always has been, always will be. If I was making a trip, where I was going to be somewhere for a while, I likely wouldn't take my bike, or I would make sure I had a good locking procedure, so that the bike, or parts of it, are not wondering away. One way to keep a seatpost from wondering, is to replace the binder QR with a good quality allen head bolt, it's unlikely that most people who would steal a saddle, carry the correct tools with them.... Of course, if you have your tools in an under seat bag, then, well, that's different.

Bike (parking) racks have their issues.  Too many bikes crowded in
one of those and you get interlocked handlebars, shifters knocked
out of whack, etc.  If the rack is installed too closely to a building
such that bikes go parallel to the building wall and you park in the
space closest to the building, and then a bunch of other riders park
their bikes in the same rack, you can end up cut off from your bike.

Bicycle parking requirements need to be part of the training for architects and properly planners, so that a rack is placed properly, and not just wherever the maintenance guy feels it's out of the way.

A bicycle needs a space ~.75m x ~1.5m ( 30" x 60" ) which means that the closest a rack parallel to a building wall, should be to a building is 3m (10') so that you have both bike space, and lane space to get parked. So realistically parking for 10 bikes requires a space 3.75m x 6m most car parking spaces are 2.75m x 5.5m double that for lane space. So a car realistically needs almost twice as much space as 10 bikes.

Perhaps this should be part of city minimum parking requirements, that where a bike rack is installed, it must provide a space of .75m x 3m (or 2'6" x 10' ) per bicycle. As I said before, it's not unreasonable to require that for every 100 car spaces, that 5 of those be disabled parking, and that parking also be provided for 10 bicycles. Of course as bicycles get more popular (say gas at $10/Gallon ), then of course, the number of bike parking spaces required could be increased.

W
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Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Four Cyclists Killed in Wales
    ... more bike parking is a reasonable suggestion but I can ... >> see no reason why it, "must, like the disabled parking, be as close to ... If there isn't a rack nearby but there /is/ a parking meter or a ...
    (rec.bicycles.misc)
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