I had occasion a couple of weeks back to visit Westfield Mall in Riccarton to do a few errands. It was a nice sunny day and, knowing how fun trying to drive and park at shopping malls can be, I took my bike over there (it’s great that the South Express cycleway is only a block away!). Once there, it’s still a bit of a challenge finding a bike park, but eventually I found three tucked in underneath the covered car parking area…
They might be under cover and relatively convenient to the mall entrance, but there are certainly a few issues with bike parking at Westfield (and indeed, many other malls too):
- As you can see, there are only three bike parks here. I think there might have been a few more in the next undercover parking area, but they weren’t obvious.
- The “lollipop” loop styles are not exactly best practice for fixing your bike to them.
On approaching the mall from any direction there are no signs directing people to where the bike parking might be located.- Even the mall website’s page for parking information is completely absent of any information about where to park your bike.
It certainly feels like shopping mall operators still think everyone comes to visit them by car. “But how could you possibly carry things on your bike?” Well, I was just there for a haircut, followed by grabbing a bottle of wine, a couple of books, and a DVD – all easily carried in my pannier bag.
It’s not a complete bike parking wasteland – there are some more bike parks and a bike repair station outside on the north side facing Riccarton Rd (again, not obvious from the street though). But it certainly does feel like many mall operators could up their game to making it easier and more obvious for people to ride to these destinations.
Have you encountered bike parking challenges at shopping malls?
The bike repair station, when I checked a while back, had a non-functional pump. But it’s possible it’s been fixed in the interim.
The best bike parking at Westfield is on the ground level, on the south side towards the west, near the exit from Pak’nSave.
I meant to complain to Westfield a while back about those lollipop bike racks near Maxwell/Matipo St. They’re too close to the wall to easily use both sides, and when I did squeeze my (gravel or road) bike in between the wall and the rack, I struggled to lock it. I must get on to that.
I had the same issue of trying to find bike racks and shouldn’t have to walk the length of the mall from the only “good” bike rack to get the the shop(s) I’m accessing.