Bicycle Parking

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Dave Feucht

So, another thing we discovered in Amsterdam were these particular types of bicycle racks, which were probably the most common type we saw there. In residential areas, these were on every street corner, and they were also common around shops and grocery stores.

Amsterdam 2010

Basically, you put your front wheel in the little scoop, and then lock your bike to the pipe next to it.

Here is why these are wonderful, and why Portland should start installing them en masse:

  • Putting your tire in the scoop holds your bike up for you, so you can load and unload your bike without having to hold it up or worry about it falling over.
  • The scoops are at varying heights, so the two bicycles next to each other don’t get all tangled up between handlebars and whatnot.
  • You can fit bikes a bit closer together than on the standard “staple” racks, without getting the bikes tangled up together.

We found these to be very convenient and practical, and would love to see some show up in Portland. Maybe Portland should start a pilot program to install bike parking in residential areas (so that residents don’t have to leave their bikes in their living rooms, and so visitors coming by bike would have a place to park), and can pilot these bike racks, to see how they work out? :) I, for one, would love one just outside our apartment :)

Any thoughts or questions?

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  • Anne

    How are they for lifting a heavier bike up into? The lower-level scoops might not be too bad, but I have a heck of a time wrangling my Oma anywhere but on level ground.

  • portlandize.com

    It's pretty easy, since you only have to lift the front wheel, and the higher ones (if I remember correctly), are maybe 2 feet off the ground or so. Since those types of bikes are usually back-heavy anyway, it's not too hard to tip the front wheel up a bit and just slide it into the scoop. At least, we found them pretty easy to use.

    The only negative I could think of right off-hand, is that mountain bike tires might not fit in the scoop thing.

  • Severin

    Interesting, I like that this force uniformity with the bike parking. It bugs me when bikes are fitted incorrectly on racks or space is wasted with bad positioned or simply just a lack of consistency with placement of bike racks around various cities. These kind of bike racks are also more accommodating towards growing number of cyclists. The inverted u rack parallel to road (common throughout LA) waste space, make it difficult to open adjacent car doors. If you're at all interested, my latest post is about cycling in Malmo Sweden, my hometown :)

  • portlandize.com

    Severin: yeah, that happens a lot here too, where people will park their bikes crooked or in such a way that then the space next to them is not usable, and it's silly, because it would have taken them about 30 seconds to do it right.

    The placement of racks here is getting better, but some are still placed in spots that make them almost unusable too, for instance, the wavy kind that you put your front wheel through, are sometimes placed so close to a wall that you can't actually put your bike in the rack unless it has small wheels.

    I didn't know you were from Malmo, we've been interested to go there at some point. I'll go check out your post. Thanks!

  • Ralph Aichinger

    These racks are damaging rims in the long run!

    And lifting a heavily loaded bike with a basket into them is very inconvenient. Just plain old "inverted U" shapes are the best, IMHO.