All this talk about bike parking, makes me yawn. I am sick of it to the eyeballs, as I want a safe route first. I personally don't worry about bike parking. I find railings or a lamp post. Too much of that clutter about in any case.
So what about the quality of bike parking? It's easy, right? Nowt complicated, no big engineering job like building cycle routes would be. Here is a quick cycle parking impression at Newcastle's prestigious Haymarket.
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| Park your bike? Why not at Haymarket, Newcastle? |
On close inspection it's the bolts fault. It's the bolt's fault that it is made of that material and that it's too short. Or maybe the acid rain or air quality problems are more severe than previously thought?
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| Corroding bolts |
But there is some hope, as innovation can be spotted also.
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| Bike parking innovation No.1 - settled utility repair provides opportunity |
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| Bike parking innovation No.2 - parallel paving slabs provide opportunity (actually rather dangerous!!) |
At my local doctors surgery they installed bike parking. I rode down there last year and went to lock up and realised that it was
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b) when the bike is locked in place it blocks the fire doors/exit
c) the path leading to the main door is also blocked if you park your bike, stopping wheel chair access
and d) is a blinder - the stands were simply pushed into the mud! They were not concreted in at all! Ended up locking the bike to a small fence, in a more convenient angle for all, whilst I popped in for my prescription.