Awesome Japanese Bike Parking

Thanks David for sending this in:

I could see this working pretty well, but damn thats a lot of money for some bike parking.  One of the benefits of bike infrastructure is that it is usually much (much) less expensive.  But if you were to achieve enough riders, and needed to put all them bikes someplace this style of system might become feasible here at some point.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

New Bike Parking Regulations In The Works For Cambridge

The peoples republic is making some tweaks to their bike laws, in order to facilitate better (bike) parking and take out the guess work.

Since bicycling has doubled in Cambridge in the past decade, the CDD proposes that bicycle parking requirements must be applied to “the construction of new buildings or establishments of a new open-air use on a lot,” according to the Bicycle Parking Zoning Proposal modified January 2013.

The department also suggests that if short-term bicycle parking “cannot be reasonably provided on the lot, a property owner may satisfy the requirements for short-term bicycle parking by providing funds for the installation of bicycle parking on public land.”
The proposal further states that parking should accommodate a variety of bicycle sizes and styles.(via)

Awesome! Getting this sort of thing into the building code make sure that cycling will take deep roots and be a powerful transportation and recreation option. It took northern European countries 30+ years of this sort of baby stepping to get where they are now. And while people seem to complain about every step, we are going in the right direction.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

New Bike Corral On Brattle!

One of these corral’s can hold 5-10 times more customers worth of parking than can one car parking spot. Each one attracts local customers (who tend to buy more, and become more loyal customers), and each one helps calm traffic on the street (by removing parking), which often attracts more foot traffic (also increased customers). Its a win win for everyone. I hope to see these things all over.

JT sent this in, thanks JT!

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

Bike Parking Fail

A reader sent in this fine example of how NOT to draw bicycle business to your ice cream shop. Lets just say that a certain ice cream shop in Brighton seems to have a problem with people on bikes spending money at their store…I seem to recall at least once in my ice cream eating journeys having to move one of these ugly little planters (one doesn’t even have a tree in for Pete’s sake) so I could park my bike up to the very nice bike racks…

The funny thing is, it looks like two people are still using the racks, and they look like kids bikes, the kind of kids that will spend money at an ice cream shop, perhaps if the planters were moves two or more kids could also park there and also spend money at the ice cream shop. Business owners in this town will fight tooth and nail to keep on street parking near their shops in the hopes of drawing in business, but often forget about the wallets that pedal in instead of drive.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

On Street Bike Parking!

If you have ever had the misfortune of getting me on the topic of on street parking (a little of my venom came out when I heard that a parking spot sold for $300,000), you will have also heard me say long and loudly that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see some on street bicycle parking. That is take out a parking spot and put in bike parking. Well looks like Newton has gone and done just that!

Newton is out ahead of Boston and other communities for once on biking: we had the first on-street bike parking we know of in the area, last Saturday, June 13. The event was seeded by four members of Bike Newton, who rolled up to JP Licks Ice Cream shop in Newton Centre, found an empty parking space, parked our bikes and paid the meter. Other bikers, single and families, joined the space; the number of bikes grew to more than a dozen, at which point the adjacent spot opened up and we took that one too. This photo shows a couple of interesting things: bikes parked in pedestrian spaces, indicating lack of bike parking; some bikers riding on the sidewalk, rather than street, presumably because they felt safer on the sidewalk; and the remarkable indifference of bystanders, who treated this as if it were the most natural thing in the world to have in a metered parking spot.

Now if only we could have these for real, with real parking racks. Personally I think they should be free to encourage more people biking. Now all we need is a couple brave business owners to go to the city and request that one of their spots be removed for bike parking. If they do this they will be able to fit ten-twenty customers parked in that one space, instead of just one. If you own a cafe, with one street parking in front, having those spots be turned into bike parking, would not only give your cafe patrons a better view, but would allow many more people to visit your cafe (more bike in same spot as one car). There are several business types that would benefit from this setup, but I think food places would be the most obvious choice.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet