Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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05/29/2007: "How About "Accommodate a Bike at Work" Week?"
It was Bike to Work Week, so may I say something inflammatory? Perhaps even derogatory? They can take their tepid attempt at do-gooding and cram it up their...bureaucracy. (How was that?)What are we doing, by asking folks to bike commute one week each year, is proving to them how tough it is to do. It is not just battling traffic that is tough. It's stabling one's trusty steed at their destination.
It's an Automobile Infrastructure. A diamond-lane, turning-lane, parking-lane nation in a double-yellow, tow-away, 616-bike-lengths-a-minute (35mph) world. We are just clinging to the parking meters...literally.
But, given that Amsterdam has just announced their upcoming 10,000-bicycle parking structure at the central train station, it is a little hard for me to feel okay about using a parking meter to lock up my bike. It's even harder to justify locking my bike to a rack designed half a century ago, before there were quick releases or the need to secure the frame, and not just the wheel. In 21st century America, the damned things don't work.
What we need is a Bicycling Infrastructure. An outside-the-velodrome world where bike riding is the sensible choice and a good fit. We can do it--if we start with one good bike rack....
Gather 'round, friends, let me tell you about Accommodate a Bike at Work Week!....
