While it has been frustrating for me to sit on the professional sidelines of bicycle and pedestrian planning, my recent job foray as a professional driver has given me the ability to see and observe a great deal of the real-world transportation environment of northeastern New Jersey. Recently I had to get the vehicle washed that I was driving at the Super Car Wash of Elizabeth on Rt 1 & 9 just south of the Bayway Circle. Super Car Wash employes an army of men to do the detail work of sweeping the inside of the car and drying it off everywhere when it comes out of the mechanized washed. Nearly all of these hardworking men are from Spanish speaking America.
Well, to my surprise Super Car Wash provided a bike rack for its employees and from the look of the rack in the photos, it would seem that a large number of its employees get there by bike. While the rack is of the less than idea "wheel bender" variety, it seems to work rather well here as the employees can keep an eye on their wheels.
Hats off to Super Car Wash for providing bike parking for its employees.
While maybe not quite a "Bicycle Friendly Business" in the eyes of the
League of American Bicyclists, Super Car Wash provides a good basic
model for other businesses who have a employees that rely on a bike to get to work. Is providing bike parking really all that hard, particularly when so many of an employer's workers use a bike to get to the job?
Unfortunately this holiday season someone very dear to me is in Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Being that the hospital is an easy bike ride from my house and the weather relatively warm, I figured why not ride!
A view of the main building and entrance to RWJUH.
Note the nice Sharrow painted on Somerset Street by
the City of New Brunswick.
However when I got to the front door and the ER there isn't a bike rack in sight. There is one about a block away over by the Cancer Institute of New Jersey but it is still far from ideal.
Hey! Is that bike parking I see near the front door of the Cancer Institute?
Oh... Wheelbenders! Moving along...
So with those wheelbender racks not quite cutting the security threshold and being in front of the wrong building anyway, I decided to park my bike to a stainless steel railing near the front door of the main building but a little out of the way of the main entrance. Still, since this was not an official bike parking spot I felt uncomfortable about leaving it there. Not that I felt it was unsafe location but because I felt security itself might try to remove it.
Finally a parking spot! Note the mailbox in this photo and its location in the first photo for an idea where I parked.
So what's the deal RWJUH? Your the flagship hospital of New Jersey and we all know you do a great job promoting preventative medicine. So why make it hard for people to choose an active means of getting to your hospital, whether a guest or an employee, by not providing quality bike parking that's easy to find?
I know. You're busy doing one hundred and one other things. That's okay. We understand but we are here to help. SERIOUSLY! If you read this blog post just let us know with a reply in the comments. I'm a professional regarding all things bike and pedestrian and would be glad to quickly show you the finer points of bike parking at such a large institution over lunch. Looking around you have quite a few places to stick a few bike racks. It's not rocket science. Just send us message!
We are 13 years into the 21st Century, so it is hard to believe that a bicycle rack that has been outdated and essentially useless since the 1970's is still such a popular choice. Unfortunately, when people who know very little to nothing about the end-user needs of cyclists are charged with providing for cyclists, thing like "wheelbender racks" are what cyclists get. The rack shown below is all too common in New Jersey. It is very inexpensive and that is clearly what drives the decision to buy them.
That that particular rack can be disassembled with regular tools, is even more disconcerting.
Frank Warnock, a leading bicycle advocate in neighboring Delaware, took a look at the problem with wheelbender style bicycle racks in the below post from his independent blog DELAWARE BIKES. Take a look at his video and his analysis. Spot on!
I just got off the phone with LAB on Friday asking what - if anything -
is being done to obsolete Grid, Toaster, Schoolyard, Wheelbender, etc.
bike parking systems. The answer is nothing really. The League has, in
the past, encouraged manufacturers to refrain from selling this worse
than useless design, but suppliers are driven by profits, not what's in
the best interest of bicycling.
What's needed is an industry-wide handshake ... an agreement to phase
this thing out. It's an advocate's worst nightmare when, finally, bike
parking is achieved in a key retail or public location, only to find
they went with something that might as well negate the effort.
Unfortunately, to really get it right, we have the added responsibility
to educate the buyer about what works and what doesn't.
Above and below: Bikes in Newark parked anywhere but in the rack!
All it takes is for your bike to fall over, or someone to knock it over.
Since the wheel is trapped between the vertical rods, and is the only
thing holding the bike upright, it can be easily damaged or bent beyond
repair. It is also difficult to lock a bike properly, through the frame,
not just the wheel.
This report was prepared as a graduation requirement for a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning at the Bloustein School at Rutgers University. It was written to help make the adequate service provided by NJ TRANSIT even better. Many of the ideas and observations in the report could easily be applied to other transit services.
This report is the sole product of the author with Prof. John Pucher providing editorial guidance.
Download the report (pdf. 2.71 megs. 47 pages) here.
So how much did this cost? At most $100,000 - Maybe?
With the average cost of a parking space in a structure going for $40,000 this type of project would be pocket change!
A couple of years ago I proposed a bikestation type facility in my hometown of New Brunswick in an empty storefront directly across from the train station (something like the Bikestation in Seattle pictured below). The store front has been empty for over 4 years. The bike parking currently at the station is a mob scene! Nearly 100 bikes parked to every available rack and a waiting list of many years for the 12 bike lockers.
The local TMA, Keep Middlesex Moving, to their credit loved my idea and tried to move it along. Unfortunately the powers that be beyond the TMA just don't seem to get it. Instead of using this empty storefront directly across from the station for secure bike parking on at least a trial basis, it was proposed that a primitive bike room would be provided in a building that won't be built for another 4 years. This building by the way will have a parking deck for over 400 cars!! (400 x $40,000 = $16,000,000!!)
In the meantime the storefront remains empty. The owner of the build with the empty storefront? The New Brunswick Parking Authority!
