Secure Bike Parking

Very Reasonable Demands
BACK to Bike Parking >” height=”50″ src=”/files/uploads/images/graphics/dkgreen-arrow-rt.gif” title=”>” width=”25″ /></td>
<td rowspan=The #2 reason people don’t ride their bikes in big cities is a lack of secure bicycle parking.   

The availability of bike parking can have a profound effect. Even the best lock and chain won’t help if there’s no place to park your bike, and we have a severe shortage of dedicated bike racks in New York City. It’s a gamble whether you can bring your bike indoors, and outdoors it isn’t always clear where it’s best (or legal) to park, so that can also be a gamble.

#2
Bike Parking: Good News
Bike Parking: Bad News

Policies and Possibilities in New York City

A strong chain with a good lock. Photo by Jym Dyer.    

A strong chain and a good lock,

but what do I lock my bike to?

New York City does have efforts to increase bike parking, indoors as well as outside, and there’s also an effort to combine bike parking with street tree protection. On the other hand, we have a really bad bike theft problem, compounded by city employees sawing through locks and seizing bicycles.

In other words, we’ve got good news and bad news.

Which do you want to read first?

(Can’t decide? 
 to read one at random.)

New York City’s bike parking facilities and policies should encourage people to go by bike. Right now, we don’t have that. TIME’S UP! has visited cities with good strategies, which could be implemented here. (And when they are, we’ll put them on the “Good News” page!)

Bikes parked in street, Berkeley California. Photo by Charles Siegel.
Bikes parked in street, Berkeley California. Photo by Heath Maddox.
Berkeley, California, made safe space in the street for bikes to park in (left, above).
Berkeley on a much larger scale: So many bikes are in use in Amsterdam (right) that they had to reclaim a block of streets just to park them.   Bike parking at a train station in Amsterdam. Photo by Jym Dyer.
Amsterdam again. These bike racks (right) have two tiers, which make it possible to stagger the bikes’ handlebars. This way, more bikes can fit in a given area.   Two-tiered parking in Amsterdam. Photo by Jym Dyer.
Bike racks at Powell's in Portland. Photo by Jym Dyer.   Bike racks are so numerous in Portland, Oregon, that some people make unusual, customized ones. This bookstore (right), which has more dedicated bike parking than most city blocks in NYC, has racks arranged like books on a shelf, each with the title of a book about bicycles.

Campaigns