CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help

Bicycle rack wars

(12 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by kaputnik
  • Latest reply from gembo
  • This topic is not resolved
  • poll: Whose space is it anyway?
    My space : (5 votes)
    36 %
    Your space : (1 votes)
    7 %
    Abody's space : (8 votes)
    57 %

    14 votes

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  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    OK perhaps the title is a bit extreme, but it's a topic worthy of a bit of general debate.

    I noticed this morning 2 bikes that I've never noticed before, in/next to "my space" in the office bicycle racks. OK so it's not "my" space, and I'll get over that (or get in earlier and reclaim it) but it's the one I always use and leave my lock there overnight. I've no problem moving between spaces actually.

    But the problem was, these 2 upstarts had locked their helmets to their bikes, through the rack with their D locks. These are very low and tightly packed "wheelbender" racks and by doing this, they blocked the adjacent space from being used as their helmet was locked over it. It's very busy at this time of year now all the summer cyclists have emerged.

    I let it lie this morning (muttering my dissaproval to people who I knew were not the offenders) but it's unlikely that I'll be at the rack and the precise moment the miscreants are, to repremand them in person. So what's to be done?

    I'm not the sort to "accidentally" knock their bikes over, thus bending their wheels (I always lock mine alongside, rather than in the racks, as they are particularly stupid).

    A nice note on the bike? A poster on the wall? Let their tyres down? Put treacle on the padding of their helments?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    "A nice note on the bike? A poster on the wall? Let their tyres down? Put treacle on the padding of their helments?"

    Ooh it's got to you...

    Perhaps try finding out who the 'facilities manager' is and pointing out 'the problem' is partly due to inadequate racks/spacing/numbers and suggest that s/he carries out an urgent H&S review.

    Or something.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Perhaps try finding out who the 'facilities manager' is and pointing out 'the problem' is

    Oh been there, done that, sent emails and held meetings about it.

    "there's no budget... ...we don't have the staff"*

    * =(insert other brush-off phrases as applicable

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. steveo
    Member

    We have a similar problem. One girl parks her bike on the other side of the Sheffield stands from every one else at the section I use and the Triathlon lady can't fit her mums bike between the stand she uses and the bike on the wrong side so Triathlon lady steals my stand i have to scrabbling round for my lock on the other stand and put my bike in the now narrow space or move over to the next offices racks.

    The annoying thing is she's been riding for years surely she can see how annoying it is to have to force your bike in a narrow space why can she just conform (and buy a car... ;))

    The really annoying thing is no one would put up with car parking that was that dense.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. wingpig
    Member

    Post-It­­™ on the saddle.

    To make sure they read it, discreetly append a cheap/spare/bobbins lock so that they're forced to read the note to find out the location of the key or an additional Post-It™ with the cheaplock's combination.

    Whenever I get in earlier than normal and find a free normally-occupied more conveniently-sited rack (or one with superior CCTV coverage) that's festooned with left-at-work locks I always wonder if I'll be annoying someone who thinks it's their rack, though always make it easy for any locks to be retrieved.

    I definitely prefer people who leave a bit of slack in their locking-things so that bikes can be tilted and handlebars wiggled to thread an additional bike onto a rack.

    "...no one would put up with car parking that was that dense."

    Where the racks aren't jammed too tightly against a wall there are places where the increasing size of executive cars means there's very little space around the racks to manipulate a bicycle. Once a really badly-overshot car was within a couple of centimetres of pinning my bike to the stand. There are even a couple of car spaces to which the only access is across a couple of car spaces, but presumably the people who use these have arrangements, or they're used for company vehicles.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. crowriver
    Member

    At my workplace, there is an epidemic of 'long term' bike parking. That is, dozens of bikes sit in the same position on the Sheffield stands, apparently untouched, for weeks on end, nary even a glimpse of the road.

    My impression was that the secure bike sheds were for people travelling to work each day by bike, not for storing that n+1 beater bike that you just don't have room for in your shed/garage/stair/hall/utility room.

    Every summer, the estates dept. fixes notices to the bikes that have been 'parked' for months, warning of imminent removal due to abandonment. Usually at least 10 of such every year!

    Oh, and don't get me started on the fair weather cyclists' bikes which descend in huge numbers on the bike parking every Spring, then disappear come October...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. DaveC
    Member

    I have a simialr problem leaving my bike at my local train station. They have no stands, just nice large lockers. Lots of D locks left on the doors meaning only a few spare lockers. Scotrail, or who ever claim they visit every Weds to see which lockers are empty but remain locked but its a PITA arriving at the station to find all the lockers 'taken'. I then have to either cycle home and drive down or take my bike to work on the train, if there is space.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. steveo
    Member

    Go back after hours with a bottle jack and liberate those lockers!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    "Oh been there, done that, sent emails and held meetings about it."

    Try HR and explain that it's unduly stressing you and you might need to take a few days off work - OR give up cycling altogether and take even more days off work!

    Send for the Cycling Scotland 'Bike Friendly Employer' pack in someone else's name...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. Morningsider
    Member

    I think a little note stuck to their saddles pointing out that they are:

    a. taking up an extra parking space
    b. likely to damage thier helmets

    Think you have to cut any new cyclists a little slack as they may not be aware of the correct cycling etiquette (that also goes for they guy on the gleaming grey fixed that heaved past me on my left as I waited at the lights on Morningside Road who then proceeded to slowly puff up the hill in an erratic manner while making sounds like a wounded bison).

    I've always wondered why people feel the need to lock up their helmet? It is hardly a major hassle to carry it to your locker/desk.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. DaveC
    Member

    "Go back after hours with a bottle jack and liberate those lockers"

    Hmm perhaps not.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. gembo
    Member

    I have found that a note works. Tend to word process rather than post-it so that I can print another one off the next time. Not that the note doesn't work, just that there are always people new to locking up. We have an unseemly clutch at either end of the shed with people who have D-locks but I can go in the middle as I have a cable from The Bike Chain which is strong, light and takes a combination. It is a winner.

    This phenomenon is linked to the hogging of lockers e.g. at Edinburgh Park Station by people similar to those at crowriver's work who have abandoned their bikes.

    What is to be done? As Lenin asked in 1902? The cyclist will not become considerate of other cyclists merely by cycling.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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