Anti-bike folks like few things more than an "I told you so!" moment.
An example is when some piece of bicycle "infrastructure" is built and cyclists don't use it because it's useless or unsafe. Last month, I wrote about a bike lane in Chicago that raised motorists' ire because nobody was pedaling on it. Like too many other lanes, it begins and ends in seemingly random places--what I call a bike lane from "nowhere to nowhere" and riding it is less safe, especially when entering, exiting or making turns, than riding in traffic.
Something similar could be said for bicycle parking "facilities." Usually, they are racks of some sort or another by a curb or building. During the past few years, some workmanlike but useful racks have been installed on New York City sidewalks. They don't allow for more than a bike or two at a time (five or six, perhaps, in the bike shelters), but they do the job.
They are better than too many other bike parking facilities I've seen. An old workplace of mine had an old-school grid rack on its grounds. It was removed because only one person was using it. (Guess who?) Granted, fewer people were cycling to work in those days. But I had to wonder whether some thought about riding their bikes to our workplace but were deterred by the pitiful parking provision.
Well, even today, there are racks as bad, or even worse, the one at my old job.
It's been a while since I've heard "Up Against The Wall!" I hope not to hear it again. But I just might, if I ever have to park my bike in Melbourne, Australia:
Of course, the Aussies have an excuse: The Brits sent their prisoners there. But, it seems, their former colonizers still know a thing or two about confinement:
Maybe this Macclesfield contraption is an example of that dry British humor we don't get on this side of the pond.
Speaking of dry, this rack in Atlanta looks more suited to making toast than parking bikes:
If nobody uses those racks, will they be removed? Or will they be kept just so cyclists won't use them--and give drivers one more reason to be pissed off.
