Inadequate/no bike parking@big public bldgs.

[Tri Girl]

This makes me quite cranky. It makes it hard to ride your bike places, sometimes. I won't ride my bike to my favorite shopping center because there is NO place to lock my bike (aside from the 4x4 foot ginourmous columns that I would have to have a 20 foot lock to get around).

I've requested at my local grocery store that they install a bike rack (I know 2 employees ride their bikes because I've seen them lock them at the shopping cart corral a few times). It would cost them less than a couple hundred bucks and would not only make customers happy (the 2 of us that bike anyway), but their employees, too.
I just lock it to the railing when exiting the store. It's kinda in the way, but if anyone ever says anything, I'll plead my case... yet again.

[Tuckervill]

What's wrong with parking in the parking lot?

I understand that the cart corral is dangerous for bikes with carts and cars being in close proximity, but I'm just sayin...

It may seem like blasphemy, but why would a cyclist think they have the right to park near the door?

Karen

[tulip]

It may seem like blasphemy, but why would a cyclist think they have the right to park near the door?

Karen

Because there's typically room there and it's typically covered from the rain, which is important when you're trying to stuff grocery bags in your panniers.

[shootingstar]

I understand that the cart corral is dangerous for bikes with carts and cars being in close proximity, but I'm just sayin...

It may seem like blasphemy, but why would a cyclist think they have the right to park near the door?

Karen

Perhaps I should have said safe bike parking..for the cyclist while locking up the bike. Have you tried locking a bike against a cart corral in this type of location? It's actually dangerous standing out there with cars turning or backing out to leave while dealing with bike panniers and groceries. The grocery clerks are also busy slamming a long row of shopping carts back into the corral. They're just doing their job.

Point of topic, is a more bike friendly place that accommodates cycling as a viable transportation, means designing public places that allow some customers (we are talking about customers) to park their bike.

Tri Girl, those huge Greek shopping mall columns are solid impossibilities for bike lock choke. Hope the grocery store acts on your suggestion.

[channlluv]

One of the things I noticed on Maui was the wide bike lanes with wonderfully smooth pavement, and there were life-sized, bike-shaped lockup frames all over the place. They were all over Waikiki, too, on the curb of every major city street that we walked down. I didn't note how far apart, but there was at least one on each city block. I shouldn't think it would take much to install something similar on every city block here on the mainland. They were attractive and sturdy and well-used.

Struck me as a bike-friendly place.

Roxy

[PamNY]

It may seem like blasphemy, but why would a cyclist think they have the right to park near the door? Karen

It's not a right; it's a sensible convenience for customers. I think the risk of bike theft would be slightly less if bikes are near the front door.

In the parking lot, the thief can simply cut the cable and pop the bike in a van.

[Irulan]

Point of topic, is a more bike friendly place that accommodates cycling as a viable transportation, means designing public places that allow some customers (we are talking about customers) to park their bike.

Duh, as we say!! If I don't see a reasonable place to lock up my bike, I walk it right into the store and ask if there is a place for it, or if I can put it by the customer service counter. My local Ace and Joanns are quite used to be bringing my bikes inside.

[TrekTheKaty]

Do you have a local or state bicycle organization? Here's what is going on here:

"[O]nce you get to where you're pedaling, there's hardly a rack for parking.

The St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation is about to chip away at the problem. The organization just received a $50,000 federal grant to install between 200 and 300 more bicycle racks in St. Louis and St. Louis County in the next year."

However, it hasn't reached my town yet. Brand new rec-plex has one bike rack and it is one of the "designer" racks that, technically isn't safe (we live a mile away).

[Reesha]

I was just thinking "I hope they install bike parking at Culinaria downtown!"

Man, I'll be able to ride my bike to the grocery store! Woo! But only if there's a place I can lock my bike.

[Tuckervill]

It's really not any more dangerous to deal with your groceries and your bike in the parking lot than it is for me to deal with my groceries and my infant and toddler getting into the car in the parking lot (I don't have little kids anymore, just an example). Everyone's in danger in the parking lot, or everyone is not, so let's put that aside.

I already said that the cart corral is not an appropriate place to lock a bike. I don't even like to park my car near it.

Covered bike parking? Again, in my car, I don't have the luxury of covered parking (although I did see a grocery in Scottsdale that had that). What about cyclists makes them more important as a customer that they would rate covered parking? Or to park near the door?

Putting a bike rack on the massive sidewalk in front of the Wal-Mart Supercenter wouldn't be much of an inconvenience for Wal-Mart. But it might as well be in the parking lot, next to the reserved spots, for all the convenience it would be for the cyclists.

Karen