OK I Suck, But Bad Bike Racks Suck Worse

I’m getting some (polite) crap from folks who want more rants and less silence. Fair enough. I’m from, New York, ya know, so just be careful what you ask for….

OK, today’s rant is about bike parking racks: most of them suck, and are a disservice to cyclists. What’s ironic is that some of the worst designs are the ones that bike shops carry. I suspect that is because the same things that make a rack easy (cheap) to ship also makes their design lousy. Obviously, nothing related to security should be bolt-together. I tell colleagues in the bike industry that they wouldn't ever put their name on a lousy department store “bike”, so why sell the Huffy-equivalent in bike racks? I’m dismayed that people in the bike industry often don’t know what makes a good bike rack. It makes me suspect that they don’t use bikes for transportation. Yeah, bikes are fun, but they are legit transportation too, and they/their riders deserve to have good, secure parking.


Maybe It’s For Job Security?
One of the most ubiquitous and crappy racks out there are the “wheel-bender” variants. Such racks hold bikes by their wheels, and should the bikes fall over (which they do because of poor design), the wheels get damaged. Also, they are usually very difficult to use high-security U-locks on them to protect both the wheels and frame. Maybe they help sell more replacement wheels? Personally, I’d rather sell replacements wheel because folks wore out their wheels from lots of use, not because they toasted their wheels in a crappy parking rack. If you see racks like that, be sure to put your bike parallel to it so that the whole bike frame is supported. Some folks might not understand and think you are a jerk, and that’s a shame, but your ride is important, so do it and never mind the haters.

Wheelbenders are so common, that they dominate results of a Google image search for “bicycle parking rack”.



Candy Coated Crap
Wow, how’s that phrase for rant-like? Well, unfortunately, lots of nice-looking racks actually are poorly designed. So-called “ribbon racks” are seen as attractive my designers or architects because of their aesthetic lines. Aesthetics are a secondary concern. Function is the main goal here. Ribbon racks are intended by manufacturers to be use in a perpendicular fashion, much like wheel-benders, and they do not support bikes properly either. If you need to use them, again, park parallel to them.

Think twice about gimmicky-looking racks. The “cutesification” of things usually results in a worse product, I think. No need to “suffer for fashion”. Decent, nice-looking racks do exist.

Better Mousetrap
So what makes a good rack? Well, it should support the whole bike and not just a wheel. Also, the rack should be tall enough to support the bike near the top of the frame, so bikes don’t tumble over it. I really like the simple “A-racks” or inverted-U-racks. They are low-profile and can be used individually in pubic areas, or, where space allows, can be installed in a gang. A group of angled ones help keep the bikes low-profile which can be helpful in certain installations. When connected by plates at the bottom of the hoops, the rack can be self-standing, though premanently fastening a rack to the ground is important for security.

Cha-Ching’s The Thing
One problem with racks like these is that they are expensive to ship. The alternative is to have them welded locally, which helps your local economy. Maybe ye local welding shop will help defray costs for making racks are donated to the community. They gotta eat too, though, so don’t be bummed if they can’t swing a deal.


So Close and Yet So Far – Or Not Far Enough?
Good design is only part of the issue, though. Good placement is another major factor. Time and again I see good racks installed poorly, such a Cora rack right up against a wall, cutting its capacity in half. Cora is one of those companies that “gets it” though and provides installation guidance that points out how placement affects access. That was cool of them.


Bike Parking Standards
More communities are requiring bike parking as part of their development codes. That’s great as long as they specify:

- good rack designs to be used/prohibit bad ones
- proper location (e.g. near building entry/exit and under adequate rain shelter)
- proper installation is made explicit (to maintain capacity)


But It’s Just a Bunch of Words
Standards are only useful though if they understood and enforced. Your community’s officials and planners might need education on how to maximize the rack's usability. Often, they don't bike and have no idea how their work affects end-usability. If they don’t get it or don’t buy in, don’t expect to get good results on the ground. Often bike racks are one of the last details to get installed in a development, and the installers might have no idea about cycling, the rest of the development project or the code requirements (if there even are any). I’m not saying bike racks are on-par with the seismic safety of a building in terms of importance in code, but it’s not rocket science either for goodness sakes.

The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals has a good resource on bike parking that can be helpful for educating people. You might even want to send this link to your local bike shop to help ensure they know what makes good parking (you’d be surprised): http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/pdf/bikepark.pdf.

OK, that's all (for now). I got a doozy of a rant in store for next time.... Thanks to the folks who bugged me to stop being a slacker.