While walking in West Newton on our way to Mango Thai Cuisine (my daughter loves their summer rolls) I came across the bike rack pictured here. While I really appreciate the sentiment, it would be nice if the bike rack was actually usable.
For those of you who don’t bike at all, let me explain. A bike should touch a rack in two spots on the frame, so you should be able to pull your bike alongside of this rack and lock it up. It’ll then hold up the bike while also keeping it safe. That’s just not possible here. This is kind of like putting in a parking space with walls on 3 sides that is just big enough for a small car. Sure, it’s a spot, but it’s not usable.
A block down the road is a pair of identical racks installed correctly, giving space for four bikes in the same footprint (my picture of those is lousy).
I’m not asking that everyone ride a bike, but can we at least make it possible for those of us who choose to bike to have a place to lock up? Other places aren’t much better. Check out the rack at the Walgreens at Newton Four Corners, or the placement of bike racks at either of our local Whole Foods locations.
A few months back I was at a building that dropped an old-style rack designed for your front tire (which doesn’t provide any safety) behind a dumpster along a highway. When I said something to the building manager, he said “well, no one uses it anyway.”
Of course they don’t!
Have you provided this bit of constructive feedback to the proprietor of the establishment? No doubt that they would be grateful for the assistance in widening their customer base to include bikers who are passing them by for the lack of a two-points-of-contact means of securing their bikes.
Unfortunately, they were closed when I went by and I haven’t been over in that direction since. I do plan to stop in. It’s also why I didn’t identify them in the post.
However, I have asked various places about their bike racks and usually, I’m met with a blank stare or another excuse (like the building manager I mentioned). So while I do plan to say something, my previous experience suggests that it won’t lead to any kind of real change.
There is a city regulation mandating a certain number ( I can’t remember same ), of bicycle racks for a certain number cars in a parking lot.
Whole Foods in 4 corners is well below the required number and frequently the racks are full to over flowing.
It would be an interesting study to review those numbers elsewhere, including our city hall and main library.
Despite the advocacy of certain V14 writers it’s evident that the rest of the city views bicycle access as just above the rights of coyotes. I’m now a committed bicyclist (thank you Dr. James Philips, NEBH) but I understand that the overwhelming majority of Newtonites are not and we should be patient about them receiving the glorious message anytime soon. It’ll be a slow process in a part of the world where most bikers won’t go near a bike for almost half of the year.
At this stage, I am thankful for ANY bike rack and promise not to whine when it doesn’t allow two spot contact.
I’m only an occasional bike rider but the way I see it, each cyclist on the road represents one less car keeping me from my destination or parking space. The safer and easier we make it for bikes the better.
@terry let’s put this in a wider perspective. Beyond not having two points of contact, there is also little room between the rack and the wall to lock a bike. Plus, it’s very close to the landscaping on either side, so it’s rendered unusable. Could you, if you do contortions, manage to lock to this? Yes, sorta. Is it better than the places where I pull up and find nothing but an old fence (which has scratched my frames and ruined my grips)? Yes.
Keep in mind, there was a lot of complaining on this blog and elsewhere when people learned that the size of the parking spaces in post-construction Austin parking lot will be narrower. They’re still usable, still within regulations, but narrower. Why is that kind of frustration OK, but complaining about an unusable bike spot is “whining”?
Also, this is a bit outdated, but this is a map of bike parking around the city with decent descriptions of each location: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1jhwXvSMWxqZZqgqCWfxSTeewgKU&hl=en&ll=42.32478585056826%2C-71.20842200000004&z=12
I would suspect this is mostly a case of inexperience by the installer. However, their needs to be a way to provide education so that the next one is better, and this one gets fixed.
No one benefits from a poor install. Beyond not serving its intended purpose, it costs just as much as a correctly installed rack, and takes just as much time to install. It doesn’t help the public good nor the business’.
The city can help here by providing guidance if not ordinance. See Cambridge’s bicycle bike guide, which is one stop shopping for bike parking regulations and installation guidelines (including “don’ts” was well as “do’s”):
https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/CDD/Transportation/Bike/Bicycle_Parking_Guide_20130926.pdf
Newton’s upcoming “Complete Streets” guide may be a place to assemble many examples of this kind of guidance in one place.
Btw Chuck,
What’s your take on amazon hq2 for greater Boston area, n2 innovation even possible with taller towers?
Mike Halle- Thanks for that document from Cambridge. It’s terrific and one that Newton should adopt/co-opt!
Thanks Mike! Cambridge has done some great work in regards to Transportation Demand Management and accommodating different forms of transit.
@bugek, that’s probably a much larger post, though I did speak with WBUR on this (http://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2017/09/07/amazon-second-headquarters-boston). As it stands, the N-Squared area just doesn’t have the capacity to meet Amazon’s needs. Not only would we need to build huge towers, which would be a large undertaking in a number of different directions, but we also don’t have the established transportation infrastructure that they requested as a key part of the RFP.
I have deeper thoughts about the need for a regional rapid-transit plan that brings together Waltham, Watertown, Newton, Needham, Dedham and West Roxbury.
By the way, if you look at page 9 of the Cambridge document linked above, you will find that Cambridge deems as unacceptable most of the racks listed in this thread (those at Whole Foods, Walgreens and at the library).
Also, from page 8 in discussing what constitutes an acceptable rack is this bullet:
“Support for an upright bicycle by its frame horizontally in two (2) or more places.”
Here’s the Boston bike parking installation guidelines, which our Transportation Director Nicole Freedman started in her previous life:
https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/document-file-08-2016/rack_installation_guidelines.pdf
Improvements are coming….
@Blueprintbill: That’s kind of astonishing. For all the time we spend permitting in this city, and the time spent arguing about how many parking spots are required at any particular development, the bike racks routinely don’t meet the requirements? We should do something about that…
All this commentary is great, but to actually get it to the person who knows bikes, please forward all of the initial and follow-up information to our City Transportation Director Nicole Freedman (a former Olympian biker). She is extremely responsive.
[email protected]
Sorry but I don’t see the problem with the rack – and I bike A LOT and have for decades. I think any time a retail store installs a bike rack they should be given some credit. Its major awkwardness is that you can only get one bike on easily because it’s so close to the wall. (If it were a few feet further out, you could get one bike on each side.) Or if it were oriented the other way. But it’s a start.
You want to lock the bike by the rear triangle and include the back wheel. In urban areas people will take off the front wheel and lock it with the the back wheel and rear triangle. (In Newton where people aren’t so afraid of bikes and components being stolen, I may or may not do that, depending on where I am, how long I”ll be away from my bike. etc.) This rack allow that.
The Newton Bicycle/Pedestrian TaskForce also has a bike rack map of Newton and if you click on the individual icons, you might just get a photo of the rack:
http://www.newtonbikeped.org/home/bike-rack-map
Many more racks have been installed by the City and by individual retailers since this map was last updated, which is a good thing.
Probably the bike rack installation guideline could be given to each business that gets a certificate of occupancy, just so they have it.