I welcome any solutions to secure bicycle parking. I hope these entrepreneurs would consider having multiple locations throughout the city, as it would considerably facilitate using one’s bike to commute and run errands.

My only concern about this type of business venture is that bicyclists are not that different from car-drivers: they want convenient parking directly in front of their destination! How far will a bicyclist be willing to walk from their parking spot to reach their destination? Don’t forget that bicyclists currently may have more varied parking options than cars do. They want security, but they also want convenience! The question is how much will they be willing to pay for each these things and which is more “valuable”. Presumably that is the kind of information they are hoping to get from this survey.

In China, many spaces become ad-hoc (or formal) bicycle parking lots. Sometimes there is even someone there who watches over things, for a fee of course. Here is a picture of one such parking area near a university: http://flickr.com/photos/zvileve/241260873/ and here is a ‘pay lot’ (note that there are more scooters parked there) http://flickr.com/photos/zvileve/321829196/

I consider bicycling as a completely “normal” mode of transportation. No assumptions that bicyclists are more or less active than anyone else. I don’t live in the NYC area, nor have I ever bicycled there so I cannot really say how I would relate to the various transportation options in that city.

I live in Montreal and I bike around almost everywhere I go for as long as the weather permits – often with children and other things on the bike. At home and at work my bike is always inside and I have no need to lock it. For other places, unless I really do not know where I’m going, I will look for parking on the same block as my destination. If I had ridden a few miles across the bridge from Brooklyn, I am fairly certain that I would ride that additional distance to find some *convenient* parking!

Now if there was no on-street parking available at all, that is another story. In Montreal the parking meters make very convenient bike parking stands and the city has finally recognized that this is a legitimate use of them, plus there are other more formal bicycle parking spots, with more being added continuously. But Montreal also has hundreds of thousands of bicyclists (literally) and finding a parking space can be difficult at times.

Actually, admitting that a bike parking and shower facility might be used by homeless people is pretty much a guarantee that it will never be built. I definitely think it should be advertised as a facility for multiple constituencies: runners, bikers, rollerbladers, etc. But you can be sure that opposition to these facilities will be largely based on the idea that they will be a magnet for homeless people looking for a free or cheap place to clean up.

Not to be harsh, but that’s the political and social reality. Think of the opposition some communities have to pay toilets or even park benches! It may not be fair and it may not be just, but it is what happens.

I think that’s a great point, Cap’n. I’m all for any argument that could lead to more bike facilities!