I was in the town of Delft, in the Netherlands, a while ago and saw these ingenious pieces of bike infrastructure. I was told while I was in the Netherlands that a lot of Dutch houses lack any easy place to store bikes (they are often narrow and attached on both sides), and thus many have to be parked on the street permanently. These plastic bubbles seems like a clever solution to keeping bikes that are parked on the street weatherproof and secure (it’s hard to see at this image size, but there is a lock where the handle is).
The only issue is that in this particular location they don’t leave a lot of room for pedestrians to get by, but they could be made smaller to allow more room and still be able to park 2-3 bikes.
14 comments
This sounds like an uncharacteristically elaborate and space-wasting solution. Yes, bike storage can be difficult in houses, but that’s mostly only in large cities and if bikes have to be left exposed, people are generally content with the traditional plastic bag over the seat. Schools and train stations have extensive covered bike racks, apartment buildings often have bike storage in basements, etc.
indeed, it is a HUGE issue that these plastic bubbles take up an enormous amount of space that would otherwise be used by pedestrians. I think this is ridiculous… and feels to me as though bikes are merely adopting the ‘I own the road’ attitude that has been conflated with car ownership. I own a car, a bike and walk – and I think the goal is SHARING the roads, the walkways, the trails and sidewalks. Just because you ride a bike, and therefore contribute less carbon, doesn’t mean you should be able to park your bike in oversized plastic breadboxes on sidewalks.
To be fair, this is good bike infrastructure if removed from the sidewalk or in a place with wide sidewalk space. This is from the Netherlands where both bikes and pedestrians have ample amount of space. This wouldn’t work in Toronto’s narrow sidewalk space, but could work if placed on a plaza or where there is boulevard parking for vehicles (something the City is trying to remove).
But still, i’m not convinced that bike parking needs to be this complicated or high tech. what exactly does the bike need protecting from…… not sure, maybe I just don’t understand whether is it against the elements or thieves?
aka – how to make rob ford’s head explode.
I don’t know whether sidewalks in the Netherlands are necessarily more ample than here – it really depends where you are – but here’s a scene from a neighbourhood near the centre of Delft, where there’s a mix of traditional bike racks and the new ‘bike drums’:
http://bit.ly/fM8VGk
The latter appear to be placed where the sidewalk is wider, which in turn is a function of having a one-way street.
These look good to me.
I think there’s a legitimate problem with this infrastructure sitting on sidewalks but these structures could easily be moved onto the street, similar to where cars are allowed to park.
Giving up one car parking spot on any given street would allow for safe, weather-proof space for a number of bikes.
Yes, let’s share the roads!
It’s like a garage, for your (and your neighbor’s, and your other neighbor’s) bike!
Looks great, very friendly and useful. For all those concerned about pedestrian space, one parked car takes up as much space as two or three of these bubbles. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
There are many forms of secure bike lockers out there. These are funky at first glance, but would be unmaintainable graffiti-covered space suckers. More compact lockers like these (http://www.dero.com/products/bike_lockers/bike_lockers_300.html) placed in parking garages, plazas, transit nodes etc. are the better solution — however, legislation will be required to make developers and building owners actually install them.
If you have the space, it makes sense. Rain, snow, and salt can ruin a bike. Theft is always and issue. I’m guessing that next to no one ever leaves a good bike locked up on the street every night.
Not everyone wants to ride a rusty Canadian Tire special their whole life.
In Toronto, the average sidewalk couldn’t hold what’s seen in this photo. But there’s often a lot of space beside commercial/mixed use buildings along arterials at intersections with side streets that’s empty or used for parking, patios, phone booths, etc. Streets like Spadina have also car parking spaces that can be converted. Other places in the city have parks, squares, plazas, and green spaces like those of a tower-in-the-park apartment building.
I followed the Sarah Goodyear story link in today’s World Wide Wednesday about the pedestrian collision avoidance technology in the new 2012 Volvo S60 T5 AWD sedan.
What does it have to do with bike parking? In her article Sarah has a link to a video of a heavily disguised S60 “mule” testbed being driving around Copenhagen, Denmark by a couple Volvo employees.
The YouTube video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZBxFso2hj4&feature=player_embedded
I was fascinated, not so much by the car’s pedestrian avoidance technology but the street scene—check out Copenhagen’s streets: the very limited road car capacity and all the pedestrians and plethora of incidental bike parking in the background of almost every scene!
As Matthew said in an earlier comment, he’s not sure if bike parking has to be so complicated or high-tech as the Delft bubbles, and the Volvo video is a glorious example of bare bones but plentiful and convenient bike parking.
It’s what Toronto could be if there was the awareness & political will to encourage active transportation. Bike parking is all about easily accessible spots to lock your bike to, close to your destination, where the quantity of basic bike parking spots trumps more elaborate but limited number bike parking structures (eg. 30 or so bike lockers behind Toronto City Hall).
It reminds me of traveling as a student an hour outside Tokyo on their “GO” train to a bedroom community that had a one-square block “parking lot” for 10,000 vehicles—bicycles packed together like sardines—not a car in sight!
A couple images similar to what I saw are here (Google Japanese Train station bike parking):
http://donandkim.net/images/Travel/Japan_Bicycle%20Parking.jpg
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/kalsi_kaur/1/1227263340/img_1987.jpg/tpod.html
The next time you’re at a TTC subway or GO train station see if the bike parking spots can be counted on one or two hands and think how many more riders the TTC/GO would encourage to take transit if their bike parking resembled those of Japanese train stations.
I have spent time travelling and living in the Netherlands. From my experience I observed that the number one trasportation priority is bikes. This is followed by pedestrians, trams, and lastly cars. Following this logic, it is obvious why they would put bicylce parking where they do. Look at how land is used in North America: we prioritize cars, and build entire buildings just to park them in, to protect them from weather and thieves.
In Holland, bicycle riding, ownership, parking, lifestyle, and general use, is very organized. It is a right, and it is protected under the law. I’m not saying its right or wrong, or better or worse, but I think it’s admirable. Looking at the housing infrastructure, I think it’s key that municipalities have determined an aligned way for individuals to park their bikes.
Antony: “For all those concerned about pedestrian space, one parked car takes up as much space as two or three of these bubbles.”
Good point – isn’t this what was essentially just done outside Spacing’s old office? A
“bumpout” of the sidewalk equal to the width of one parked car midway between intersections would do nicely and could be combined with other stuff like newspaper/trouserclip/moisturiser dispensers to defray costs rather than put advertising on it which would mean it would be for Astral to design a piece of crap and install it wrong (see garbage bins).
I can think of a few wide sidewalks downtown where these would fit, but if you look at the places they’re typically installed in NL (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=fietstrommel&gbv=2), it’s usually out of the way of pedestrians, in public squares, at bus stops, etc.
Here’s another example from Delft (just up the street from where my dad grew up) where a single parking space has been converted: http://bit.ly/fW6Wfm
Explore the neighbourhood if you have a few moments – some interesting solutions in terms of road sharing, pedestrian space and traffic management.