Bicycle Parking

New York cyclists know that corporate office buildings are often not the friendliest places for bike commuters. Lynette Chang, a.k.a. "The Gal From Down Under," has been recording her attempts to enter Manhattan office towers with her folding bike. In this video she dresses up nicely, folds her bike neatly and tries to visit the PricewaterhouseCoopers building in Midtown. She is rebuffed by a meathead building manager who insists, "you don't ride a bike to a corporate office building" and, leave it outside, since "nobody steals bikes."

Abby King of Transportation Alternatives spotted another one of those fancy new bike shelters that are popping up in select locations throughout the city. This one is next to the Barnes & Noble in Union Square.

In December, Streetsblog reported on the lack of bicycle parking in the new New York Times Building, despite promises to bike-commuting staff that there would be space inside. We talked to several Times employees who said that after initially being allowed to bring their bikes in, they were suddenly denied entry.

2008 quickly bring good news for commuters in Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens. Eric Chang of Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee snapped these photos of the new covered bike shelter that was just installed at the Vernon Blvd /Jackson Avenue station on the 7 line in Long Island City.  The third photo is from Fort Greene where Gil Ronen (pictured) along with T.A. and Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill were instrumental in bringing over 70 new CityRacks to the historic Brooklyn neighborhood.

Alan Durning, executive director of the Seattle-based Sightline Institute has been doing some great writing on Livable Streets and sustainable transport issues over the last year. If you haven't run across his work, he is writing a pair of ongoing series that I think will be of particular interest to Streetsblog readers.

While the NYPD, Parks Department, MTA, unnamed authorities and, of course, bike thieves, busily clip locks and cart off New Yorkers' bicycles in great number, the Department of Transportation is making sure that not only do bike commuters have a classy spot to park outdoors, but their tushies won't get wet when it rains. Next month, cyclists will be happy to see the first of many new public bike-parking shelters popping up near transit hubs throughout the city. Word has it there was a bit of flexibility built in to the Cemusa bus shelter contract and DOT decided to get a bit creative and try this out. New York Magazine reports:

Speaking of bike parking, 10,000 new bike parking spaces have been installed in 400 London schools since the 2004 launch of the Mayor's School Cycle Parking Programme, Transport for London announced yesterday. This year alone TfL will spend £1.2 million on school bike parking (that's $2.5 million and rising). Many of the new bike parking facilities are indoors or otherwise protected from weather and often include lockers. Jenny Jones, Mayor Ken Livingstone's Green Transport Advisor, said:

Wallace Murray and Jason Nu are two graduate students in Hunter College’s geography department.  They have teamed up with New York City Department of City Planning’s Transportation Division to create a bike parking survey. They write: