bike parking

When your local transit authority installs bike racks that are less-than-ideal, that’s a good problem to have, but bad racks are a recurring issue at new CTA stations.

Today a neighborhood organization in the Jefferson Park neighborhood is highlighting the fact that public space used for storing cars can also be put to more productive uses.

Thanks to discussion of the issue on The Chainlink social networking site and coverage on Streetsblog, the CTA is promising to ensure that there’s no net loss of bike parking.

There are currently 32 bike spaces in a relatively secure indoor location. So far there are only concrete plans for 16 outdoor spots at the new station.

As a former bicycle parking planner for the Chicago Department of Transportation on sabbatical in northern Europe, I'm impressed by how much better the long- and short-term bike storage is here than what I'm used to in the states. Too often in the U.S., bike parking is an afterthought even though secure and convenient parking is essential for encouraging more people to use a bicycle for transportation. Nothing discourages a would-be cyclist like having a bike stolen.

Last year, Streetsblog reader Elizabeth Edwards alerted us that just about every sign pole, light post, fence and handrail by University of Chicago Medical Center sported stickers reading “Not a Bike Rack.” This passive-aggressive campaign to keep cycles out of the way of pedestrians was also illegal, since some of these poles were on the public right of way and Chicago’s municipal code specifies that it’s legal to lock bikes to sign posts on public sidewalks. Happily, a few days after I contacted the medical center about the issue, every single sticker was removed.

Millennium Park’s bike station opened in 2004, with indoor parking for 300 bikes, plus showers and lockers. When the city of Chicago released the Bike 2015 Plan two years later, it recommended establishing another bike station, and mentioned the Ogilvie Transportation Center in the West Loop as a possible location. Not long after that, there was some discussion of including the facility in the OTC’s new Chicago French Market, but that idea never materialized.

I spent about five years in the early 2000s coordinating bicycle rack installations for the Chicago Department of Transportation. One of the main takeaways from that very enjoyable job was that, when it comes to bike parking, form really does follow function. Although designers are constantly trying to reinvent the wheel by building a better bike rack, it's hard to beat the no-frills "inverted U" style CDOT has been putting in since the early Nineties.

Two weeks ago, Streetsblog Chicago reported that nearly every sign pole, light post, fence and handrail by University of Chicago Medical Center buildings on 59th Street, 58th Street, and Maryland Avenue sported stickers or placards reading “Not a Bike Rack.” Streetsblog reader and U. of C. employee Elizabeth Edwards had originally alerted us about the issue.