While bicycling in Belgium and the Netherlands, I photographed some bike parking racks that differed from designs I've seen in the USA. Since these densely populated countries have pursued policies that have resulted in better bicycling infrastructure, I think they may have a few ideas worth importing.
Most interesting was the university area rack I saw in Amsterdam which alternates the front wheel placement in the rack, one at ground level, the next about 35 -40 cm above the ground, and so on. This allows closely packing the bikes because the handlebars of adjacent bicycles are not at the same height where they would otherwise interfere with each other. A Belgian rack caught my eye for its minimalism. It consisted of a single vertical metal pole bent over at the top to horizontal. The end of this horizontal portion was U-shaped to capture thte seat tube. A ring was welded at the bend for a cable or U-lock to secure the bike. Since I don't think we can attach or embed photographs, I have a photograph of each bike parking rack on Google Picassa: Amsterdam rack: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FHAWtp9VPM3UH9T99jAeolriZ2SnukJQEa-v2fLHl7I?feat=directlink Belgian rack: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ftA4eF0CZlp2acmmUE6LFVriZ2SnukJQEa-v2fLHl7I?feat=directlink Jim On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 8:28 PM, Robbie Webber <[email protected]> wrote: > Sorry, hit send before I was done. > A decent rack will have the following properties: > * Supports the bike frame in two places, so that the bike can be leaned > against the rack. NO FENCE RACKS, that only support the wheel. These can > bend the wheel if the bike is jostled. Also fence racks don't allow: > * Accommodates a U-lock, and allows the bike frame and wheel to be locked to > the rack. > * Bike parking spaces are a minimum of 2 feet in width, six feet in length, > with a five foot access aisle (what would be a drive aisle in a parking > lot.) Racks should be placed no closer than 2 feet from a vertical surface, > so that the front wheel doesn't hit the wall/planter/curb when you park at > the rack... _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
