Guest post: “No bike parking” signs that don’t provide an alternative

Over at Talking Transport, Chris Morahan has been musing on a topic that annoys me too…

Something that irritates me far more than it should, is when people put up signs that say “no bike parking” but don’t tell people what they are expected to do instead.

My local dairy has this sign on the window:

But there is nowhere else where you can put your bike; no bike parks, not even a handy pole or tree nearby. As a result everyone just leans their bikes on the glass anyway. This is despite there being plenty of space for some bike racks- it has a surplus of  on-site car parking and lots of on-street car parking too.

There’s a real estate agent on Moorhouse Ave with these signs displayed all through their on-site car parking area:

To their credit, they have at least made a token effort by providing some quite styley bike racks. The only problem is that these are sandwiched between their driveway and a garden so are essentially unusable – your bike is either in the garden or in the driveway.

Then there’s Christchurch hospital, with these signs stuck on fences around the site.

Christchurch hospital does have some bicycle parking, the problem is that it is far too little for the several thousand people who bike there everyday. Every time I’ve gone to use them they’ve been full.

So then you look to a nearby fence or pole, only to find these all taken as well, even the quite dangerous ones.

It’s unclear what you’re supposed to at that point. Bike home and come back in the car? It’s obvious that the hospital could improve access very cheaply by installing a few more bike parks. Again there’s plenty of space if they were just willing to remove a small number of car parks. Riccarton Avenue and Oxford Terrace are both lined with on-street parking, which could easily accommodate a few of these units (designed to fit in a carpark).

If people are clearly biking to a place in greater numbers than the bike parking provided, it’d be nice if we could put some bike parking in rather than just signs saying that people on bikes aren’t welcome. That seems to me the quickest way to push people back into their cars again, with all the societal costs that incurs -which are far greater than the cost of a few bike racks.

Have you come across places that ban bike parking with no alternatives?

5 thoughts on “Guest post: “No bike parking” signs that don’t provide an alternative”

  1. clearly many places in chch are falling behind in providing adequate bike parking. I am impressed uni is getting ahead by adding so many more bike racks this year. And then there are some old bike racks that do not work for todays fatter tire city and electric bikes. Last week a friend’s bike spokes were broken when her bike toppled to the side in a rack designed just to hold the bottom of the front wheel. I hear in Japan you get a fine if your bike is parked not in a bike rack.

  2. Maybe some time put into lobbying the property owner for more accessible bike parking – or let them know why you will not shop with them. Agree the hospital is poorly served – maybe taking away a car parking space with a pop-up replacement or again lobby the DHB.

  3. I’m guessing the problem at the real estate co. site could have been in response to damage to some cars parked there. I found it impossible to find a space nor anything to attach a bike to prior. Kudos for the two stands installed, they have tried albeit feebly. The no parking signs appear over the top but aren’t that much different to standard no parking signs for everyone else. The hospital is another story. If only the DHB didn’t have millions of other problems to contend with atm.

    1. The DHB do have a lot of challenges, but to me that makes it even more baffling. Providing more bike parking is by far the cheapest and easiest way to improve access for a lot of people – why not just get that one out the way quickly before they try and nut out the harder ones like public transport and car access?

  4. Is it time for CDHB to install some double level bike rakes? Twice the bikes in the same area. They seem to be the norm in any photo of bike parking facilities over in the Netherlands. The last time I had need to visit the hospital I was impressed with the number of bikes parked there. There is a major lack of carparking and enabling more people to lock their bikes securely would take at least some pressure off providing carparks.

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