Carbon Trace

Not long ago I did a survey of bicycle parking in downtown Springfield. I’ve been pleased to see that the city is adding racks — wave racks and U racks. I’ve even spotted a few of the hitching-post variety, also called lollipops. I also made disparaging comments about what we in the U.S. “cycling culture” (gotta put quotes around that) call wheel-benders. Much discussion ensued. And that prompted Marc at Amsterdamize and David at A View From the Cycle Path to publish commentary and photos on their blogs about bicycle parking in the Netherlands.

The first most striking thing about these two posts for an American is the number of bicycles. Wow.

Take a good look the rack above from Marc’s post. At first glance it looks like a wheel-bender to American eyes. Notice, however, that compared to what we call a wheel-bender this one has an upright hitching post for securing the bicycle frame.

Now, what’s up with lifting the front wheel in the air? I’m no engineer. And I trust Marc and David when they tell me these racks are functional and safe. The point here, I think, is that placing the bicycle up high, along with securing the frame to a hitching post, makes it difficult to knock over the bicycle. The picture above is the fancy version. Marc says the regular version of this rack type (also pictured on his blog) has been in use for “decades.”

[Correction: In the comments, Marc says the high-low staggering accommodates the handle bars of closely-parked bicycles. Like I said, I'm no engineer ]

Take a good look at all the photos in the two posts. Then ask yourself: What about us?

From David Hembrow:

We’ve many types of cycle parking here, and the most popular racks are those which support the bike by the front wheel. The problems with the inverted U shape “Sheffield” type racks is that they don’t stop the bike from falling over, they don’t allow bikes to be parked very densely (which is important when there are a lot of bikes) and they get in the way of one side of the bike. For people trying to pack large panniers on both sides with shopping they don’t work very well while racks which support the front wheel do.

I’m not talking about “wheel benders,” but racks which support a greater part of the radius of the wheel and actually work. When they also have a loop through which you can put a cable then the frame can be secured as well. Not that many people bother here.

You can find out more about these racks from VelopA Citystyle.

My hearty thanks to Marc and David!

UPDATE: Thanks to commenter GentleStove for pointing me to this picture of a wheel-bender.

Technorati Tags: bicycle commuting, bicycle culture, bicycle infrastructure, cycling