bike racks - useful vs. ridiculous
Municipalities installing bike racks - NYC and Ypsilanti. They've gone on a search for designs, trying to include some form of art, resulting in all manner of... well, I'll just call them contraptions. On the right, we have some of the finishers from the NYC competition.
Some sort of orange blog that surely is fun to look at, but if you aren't a usual locker-upper there, how do you know what is plop art and what is a bike rack? I'm going to start locking up to public art just for the heck of it.
And the chrome abomination... a pox on wheel-chenching bike racks. Something that you can only lock the front wheel up to - Shee-it. In New York? Yeah, right.
Speaking of cost - Ypsi went with a more conventional design "tree guard", but still - $300/piece for a bent tube and water-jet cut medallion doesn't sound right.
Alas, as a bike rack user, I'm giving my tip-of-the-hat to Detroit. Yes, Detroit. Down on the Riverwalk, they've got these fine, sensible, attractive, slanty stainless steel hoops. Fits bikes of all sizes, not painted so they can't rust, etc. etc. It's not rocket surgery.
It's not important that they be works of art. I mean seriously - no one cares what parking meters look like. Where's the uproar about parking meter aesthetics? We need to avoid the distraction of the touchy-feely and just make it useful. Spending city money should be on useful things, not projects that take these months and never really happen. The decision to go with this design was a while ago, but I've yet to see these installed. Heck, winter will come, Ypsi's perpetual budget distractions will prevent anything from happening, and next spring/summer, there won't be any improvement to bike parking dowtown Ypsi.
Heck, for my money, I'd go with the $99 hoop version just to get it done. Install 10-20 of them around town. If people want pretty ones, that can come after - start with the basic ones in the high-traffic areas, then if people want the fancy ones outside their storefront, then put a fancy one in and relocate the basic ones further from the center of downtown - people lock up there too...
3 comments:
$99 for a simple bent tube with a couple of flanges to bolt it to the ground, and galvanized for good measure - why am I not making money making those???
I dunno... why aren't you? ;)
I think there are the minor matters of raw materials, paint, transportation, etc. $100 is pretty fair, all things considered. I've seen the same thing for $300, which is pretty ridiculous.
I'm betting that one can't do it profitably (after overhead, equipment costs, and SG&A costs) for less.
I like the Detroit ones... they remind me of handrails for swimming pools. Maybe we can buy them in bulk and then do a guerrilla installation at my kids' school.
At the PAB meeting tonight, the plans for redoing parking lot, sidewalks, and drop off areas were unveiled. I asked "what about bike racks?" The principle responded: "Never thought of them."
Of course... why would kids who live in the neighborhood ever ride their bikes to school? But by all means, let's reorient the whole front of the school area so that parents can drive their kids four blocks to school...
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