Bicycle Parking - Good and Bad Practices from Around the World

By James Mackay, P.E.

Of all the facility improvements needed for bicycling, quality bicycle parking should be viewed as the "low-hanging fruit", an easy-to-achieve result with maximal impact.

While increasing efforts are being made in the U.S. to encourage bicycle usage, these efforts must be complemented by secure bicycle parking at destinations.1 Even intrepid cyclists are intimidated from riding due to the absence of quality bicycle parking. Cyclists oftentimes will lock their bicycles to anything handy at their destination, including inappropriate fixtures such as pedestrian handrails, sapling trees and fire hydrants, which can create user conflicts and safety concerns.

In order to fulfill contemporary needs, parking racks should: 

 

*    Support the bike frame at two locations

*    Support the use of both cable or "U-type" locks

*    Allow for locking the bike frame and at least one wheel

*    Not merely support the bike by one wheel

*    Not require that the bike have a kickstand

*    Not conflict with water bottle cages

 

In Denver, we have resolved all of these needs via "Inverted U" type bike  racks. Our bike parking ordinance was passed unanimously by City Council and requires bike parking to equal 5% of the car parking. This  zoning regulation is for non-residential site developments wherever fifteen or more off-street car parking spaces are required (including Planned Unit Development sites - "P.U.D.s").2 Therefore, site developers must specify "Inverted U" bike racks on their site plans - just like landscaping and handicapped parking stall requirements. Bicycle parking lockers count towards the zoning requirement as well.

Recognizing that bicyclists are very finicky about where their bikes are parked, our zoning rules and regulations reference the need to provide the  racks "...ideally within fifty feet (16m) of the front door where bicyclists would naturally transition to pedestrian mode." The rules and regs. further specify the need to locate these racks at "...high visibility locations where pedestrians walk by that are easily monitored from within the building."

These requirements for the type, location, and visibility of the racks are essential. Without them, we would probably continue to see more of the notorious "wheelbender" type racks provided at the back of the site behind the garbage dumpsters (allowing ruffians to work uninterrupted at  stealing, or even just vandalizing, the bicycles.) While these "wheelbender" type racks are known abominations, they are continually specified by site developers who are oblivious to the legitimate needs of contemporary bicyclists with quick-release hubs and "U type" locks.3 Additionally, urban designers who do not bicycle have been known to specify an inferior rack in order to make some kind of "design statement."4

The City has also provided support for bike parking in a number of other ways. The City of Denver provides bike parking racks at public locations such as libraries, recreation centers, and on city sidewalks in commercial and mixed-use districts. Both city funds and ISTEA enhancement funds have been used for these public location racks.  (Tip: to expedite the expenditure of ISTEA funds, use other funding to install racks on sites designated as parks.  This will bypass environmental clearances needed to spend federal transportation funds on designated park lands.)

City of Denver employees are provided with free bicycle parking lockers. Approximately seventy employees enjoy this service, including employees who share lockers by using them on different days, or even on different shifts.  These lockers have worked out well, with a minimum history of maintenance. 

At our "Denver Bike Month!" events, the public is provided free, valet bike parking staffed by scouts and other non-profit groups.5 A bike corral is set up with snow fencing and temporary bike racks. These temporary racks are made cost and are easily set up and transported (two pieces of 2" x 4" lumber nailed together in the shape of an X with a hole bored through the intersection for the 1 1/2” diameter metal pipe to be run through.) Volunteers staff the site and escort the bike owner to the rack (where half of a twin-ticket is taped to the bike, with the bike owner retaining the other half of the ticket to claim the bike later). This service has a history of working out well for events such as "Bike to the Zoo Day" where over eight hundred bicyclists can enjoy the event, confident that their bicycle and belongings are secure. 

This year we also provided a downtown "Bike Parking Depot" during the entire week of our annual "Bike to Work Day." A large tent with the temporary racks, staffed by city employee volunteers, supported by  sponsors, and made available to bike commuters at no-charge was set up at one of our transit district terminals. Ideally, this can be made into a permanent service. Operating subsidies, including transit district revenues, are being solicited.

In Europe, I have seen astonishing numbers of bicycles parked at Dutch and Swiss train stations. European bicycles used for transportation are much different from the suspension mountain bikes with Q/R hubs that we commonly see in the U.S. Since many European bikes are road bikes with steel wheels, kickstands and built-in locks which immobilize the rear wheel, their cyclists are oftentimes content to merely use the kickstand and lock the rear wheel.  Bike racks oftentimes only hold the front wheel, including the provision of slots recessed in the sidewalk. This type of parking requires that the bicycles are equipped with a kickstand. Sometimes these bike racks are provided in covered pavilions. 

Recent bike parking developments in Switzerland include the development of a computerized, self-service bike garage, allowing a bike and belongings to be parked in an individual container inside of a two-story tall structure. After placing the bike in a container, the storage unit locks securely and moves the containerized bicycle internally to an available storage space. The computerized controls sort and retrieve the bikes when the owners enter their personalized code. The Australians are using magnetic swipe card keys on some of their bike parking lockers, allowing "first-come/first-served" operations at bike parking lockers system wide in the Melbourne transit system.  This maximizes the convenience and usage of these bike lockers (as opposed to assigning each locker at each location to only one person.)

Indoor, valet bike parking facilities at train stations are very common in Europe as well. These operations are quite popular, and oftentimes feature  bike repairs and rentals. Bikes are commonly allowed to be carried directly onto trains and  stored on the same passenger car as the owner so that you can access your belongings during the ride (without reservations, boxes, baggage procedures or extra fees.) Special hooks and tire-width channels suspend and hold the bicycle securely en-route.6 Some Swiss streetcars allow bikes aboard and transport them above special fold-up seats (which allow for full passenger capacity when no bikes are present.)

Bicycle parking - truly the low-hanging fruit of bicycle facilities! 

The single most important step you can take is to enact a bike parking ordinance which specifies "Inverted-U" bike racks in your town. I hope to see the "Inverted-U" rack become a commodity, with favorable unit prices for all of us!

 

James Mackay, P.E., is the Denver Bicycle Planner. Previously, he was the Bicycle Facilities Engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. He has served on the boards of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, Illinois Prairie Path, and started North Carolina Rail Trails and the Illinois State Chapter of the Rails to Trails Conservancy. James is a member of the Colorado Bicycling Advisory Board, the Bicycle Technical Committee of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the American Society for Testing and Materials Bicycle Helmet Committee, and the American Society of Civil Engineers Human-Powered Transportation Committee.

 

^[1] In Denver, reported bicycle thefts exceed $1 million annually, with an average replacement cost of over $510 each.  While a voluntary bicycle registration program exists within the city, this program is under-utilized.   Many of the bicycles recovered by the Police department are eventually sold at public auction.  There is no provision to register bicycles at the state or national level.  In Switzerland, bicycles are registered at the national level.

² Our ordinance even has an 'incentive clause" allowing developers to reduce the number of car parking spaces required by providing additional bicycle parking which allows one car parking space to be deleted when six additional bike parking spaces are provided. This incentive clause has a history of use - particularly on re-developments where it would be impossible to meet current car parking requirements (up to a maximum reduction of 5% of the car parking.)

³ I would like to see a national-level moratorium on the production and installation of these "wheelbender" type racks.  Sadly, manufacturers continue to sell wheelbender racks, as well as other racks that create illusions of capacity.

⁴   In Los Angeles, bicycle parking racks which successfully blend both security and public art have been provided - I particularly liked the "highwheeler" style racks which provide all of the function and security of the conventional  "Inverted-U" rack, with the style and grace of the old-fashioned highwheeler bicycle form.

⁵ Volunteers staffing the site have reported that they receive more income for their non-profit organizations by not charging a "buck a bike" - revenues from tips for a free service typically exceed $1 per bike!

⁶                   Similar services are being provided in the U.S. on Amtrak on some of its newer rolling stock.

 

You can reach me by phone at (303) 640-BIKE (640-2453) or by email: Mackayjd@ci.denver.co.us