HOW TO BREAK A THING
The following is just the sort of thing I see that stops me in my tracks almost every day. Today I was walking past a large corporate office building. Their bike parking (a pair of arched metal tubes bolted to the concrete) immediately caught my eye. This designated parking struck me as odd on four different fronts. It was simultaneously:
• as far away from the doors as possible while still being on the property
• nowhere near the large covered area, under which the doors were centred, that protects a three-hundred square foot vacant slab of concrete from the weather
• partially disabled by being placed too close to the wall – with the long side of one arch just inches from the building AND, on the short side, immediately adjacent a large protruding iron pillar
• labelled as being designated for "courier-only"
None of these elements, contributing to the near-total failure of this bike parking, were necessary. There was ample space for the bike parking fixture to be placed much closer to the door (the only place someone locking their bike here could conceivably go). There was also an abundance of vacant space to park bikes, if only there were fixtures to support this, under or even near the sheltered area, but still leaving a lot of room for anything needing to pass through their doors. The placing of the parking fixture too close to the building was entirely ridiculous, given that there appeared to be nothing requiring their being located there (like some form of shelter, say); so ridiculous in fact that this location and orientation meant that half of one fixture was disabled. Having done all of the above and then to produce a sign dictating the bike parking be solely for bike couriers is nothing short of laughable. Firstly, if parking was a problem they wouldn't have eliminated 25% of their parking by such foolish placement. Secondly, I never see anyone parking here, courier or otherwise, and it's unlikely anyone would abuse their parking as the building is so large and the only business near, meaning that the only folks ever likely to park there would be those using this building: their customers and service providers. Thirdly, by definition couriers come and go quickly so it's unlikely there would be many all at once, even in a very large building occupied by many businesses, which this is not. Fourth, too many bikes is not a problem, and it's less so when there are many square metres of vacant space for many more bike racks should they be required.
I am quite serious when I say that only if it had been placed on the roof would this bike parking “solution” be less problematic. Just try to recreate this scenario, but for a car. Let's say you have a restaurant and you've provided parking for delivery vehicles at the back of your building. You have an entire city block worth of space and a large section of that, about thirty percent, is covered by a large awning centered over the delivery doors. Rather than providing one or two spaces near the door, sheltering workers and product from the weather, you provide four stalls at the farthest end of the alley, and one of them has a fire hydrant smack in the middle of it. This scenario would seem odd, wouldn't it?
If they care so little about how such a simple and painfully obvious thing is intended to operate – and the owners and operators still went to the time and expense of buying, installing, painting, and adding signage to it – can you even imagine this company's products, their human resources, their customer service, or their management? I mean, they're a major infrastructure corporation and yet this is a perfect example of the "who gives a fuck" style of management and business. And this is who runs the world.
Is there any doubt that a society that cares (at all) about bike parking (or door handles or accessibility ramps...) is one committed to bigger problems? And is there any doubt that caring is a simple, painless, and costless endeavour? In terms of bike parking, say, all it requires is:
A) imagining human beings might use it
B) considering how those humans would use it
C) and pondering what the experience of using it would be like for said humans
Such a society is one on its way to ameliorating discrimination, hunger, homelessness, and poverty... and all you have to do is give a (tiny, insignificant) fuck.
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