Inverted U's needed

At one bike to work day a few years ago I remember DDOT had a survey form that it asked participants to fill out. One of the questions asked where bicycle parking was needed. I remember thinking that it would be easy enough to walk or ride around town and find places where numerous bicycles were locked to street signs and parking meters. Those were places where bicycle parking is needed. I saw one such place recently and took a photo (outside of the World Bank). Also here's a similar photo on RPUS

The next photo is from the Mall during the Darfur rally. I've also suggested that the Park Service needs massive amounts of moveable, temporary bike parking that it can locate and relocate for rallies, functions, Screen on the Green etc...The valet parking for the Cherry Blossum Festival was nice, but can't be sustained all summer. Perhaps providing adequate parking could be required of permit seekers.

This Berlin site shows some innovative parking structures that use advertising, on street bike parking and "Bike Huts."

In other parking news, I can't wait for metro parking to improve. I parked my bike at Grosvenor today - what a mess (Especially compared to something like this). It was hard to find space and several of the metro racks were broken.

Comments

[Chris]

I believe people who work at the World Bank get to park their bikes in a covered inside location, behind security (I'm lucky enough to have that where I work too -- although some of my fellow employees apparently think it's actually permanent bike storage for them, as the poor things never make it off the bike rack!). In any case, I thought of this because if they didn't provide inside bike parking, imagine how chaotic this picture would look! Oy!
Hey, no report on your Ohiopyle/Confluence ride? I need to get up there - when I did that portion of the Pitt-DC ride a few years back, it was a little rainy (though it made for a nice stop in Confluence).

[Contrarian]

I almost never have problems parking my bike in DC -- although I find nothing wrong with using a parking meter or a street sign. DC law is also very favorable to cyclists, giving us the right to lock to any post on the sidewalk, and against any building that borders a sidewalk!

Problem areas? M Street in Georgetown, which for some reason has nothing but lampposts. The only bike rack in the neighborhood is at the Shops At Georgetown, but it's positioned too close to a brick wall to actually use. It's also a wheel-bender design.

At the Wilson Building, DC's city hall, security won't let you park in front of the building, but they do have bike racks in the rear.

[Chris T.]

The site on cycling in Berlin is very informative and it's great that it's available in English. Did anyone else notice that in all of the pictures of people riding bikes no one is wearing a helmet. Is this commonplace in Europe?

[washcycle]

The Ohiopyle to Confluence ride was good despite the weather. I got rained on for about 3 of the last 6 miles on my way back to Ohiopyle. The trail section there is great - scenic and easy to ride. If it'd been hotter I'd have stopped in Confluence for ice cream.

[iconoclasst]

The Berlin racks are nice, but c'mon, would we really want to fund them with commercial advertisement? That's the visual equivalent of car exhaust. Seems like tax monies normally wasted elsewhere could be put to this use instead.

The Penn Station concept is cool, but those "multi-u" racks are a functional nightmare! Still haven't figure out how to rack the bike in/on one of those. Gotta be a better multi-bike design out there somewhere...

[Tom F.]

I'll report that I think Capitol Hill is pretty decent, at least on the House side. Employees get free inside spaces, amazingly enough they get to enter through security just like other vehicles . Wheel bender racks were replaced with U racks about five years ago.

Just outside the House office buildings U racks are near almost all the entrances, though they are relatively discrete. Plenty of room, too, probably because these were likely placed with bike messengers in mind, but they are no longer allowed to make inside deliveries.

[gwadzilla]

I think City Bikes will install racks on sidewalks where commercial businesses request them
for free if I remember correctly

[gwadzilla]

I have always thought it would be good business for various businesses to embrance the bicycle consumer
but
it is yet to happen