Our short video below provides an overview of the first cyclist created comprehensive bike parking census and analysis that we know of. The census was created by a single cyclist using a phone and BikeRackMap.com.
We are sharing our analysis and findings with the City of Las Vegas to discuss major improvement opportunities for active transportation.
Bike parking issues are invisible until cyclists reveal them using their phone and www.BikeRackMap.com. We encourage every cyclist to create a local bike parking census to share excellent locations with cyclists considering riding in your area, and improvement opportunities with your local transportation planners.
Let us know your thoughts and comments below the video, and share this announcement with everyone who cares about bike parking.
Great video, source for cyclists, and tool for advocates!! This has been a huge benefit to our community and we look for racks now when we travel too! Thank you!
This is an excellent resource for the bike parking situation in Las Vegas, as well as the types of racks that are terrible to excellent, as well as how the census works. Thanks so much for putting this together!
Very nice indeed! The photos really show how bad the parking is, especially when they are installed too close to a wall. It reminds me of the bike racks that we worked so hard to get for our high school, only to find they were mounted too close to the wall. We asked they be moved but that never happened. The map is also very useful.
I often worry about where to park when I know I will be in a building for a while, especially in a more urban environment. Consequently, this kind of information is extremely useful. Alameda County has always provided car parking info at their facilities but are now required to add public transit info. I asked them to add bike parking info, given their supposed concern about the Climate Crisis but they have done nothing.
BikeRackMap.com’s focus on improving infrastructure for Active Transportation is right on, so this was an excellent way to introduce the Bike Rack Map video. The ability to safely – and securely – park your bike when used for basic transportation is as critically important, as it is overlooked, by municipal planners.
After a friend in Northern California started using this tool, I decided that I’d enter a single bike rack outside my local grocery store, just to give it a try. This grocery store bike rack is so dysfunctional, bent-up and disfigured that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to flame it online. By chance, the next rack I found across the street is half torn apart, with the surviving portion protected by a massive black widow spider web. I couldn’t pass that one up, either.
Now, I’m hooked. I’ve discovered and rated 47 different bike racks and I feel like I’m just getting started. In the process, I’ve learned that I have more opportunities than I’d ever imagined to use my bike for active transportation in my local community. And, the process of finding and rating bike racks hasn’t just been fun, it’s becoming its own form of advocacy.
I’ve learned that many of the existing racks are so poorly designed and maintained that I need to have some serious conversations with my local City Engineer about design standards and maintenance. Using the bike rack standards from the City of Sacramento as a benchmark, I’ll dig into the relevant building codes and standards for my own community. Then, I’ll contact city engineering staff and county transportation planners to advocate for improved infrastructure to securely park bikes.
For the last 35 years, the thought of being able to confidently ride a bicycle to my local grocery store has been little more than a dream. It’s time for a change.
Great job!
Have you also considered looking at K-12 school Bike parking? The E-bike boom has filled Bike Racks at Middle and High Schools to overflow in Carlsbad, CA where I live. Yet the grocery stores where I shop have nothing but car parking. That includes a Von’s, Sprouts, and Trader Joe’s. There seems to be more potential here to reduce car trips by safely accommodating safe and secure bike parking at schools than at grocery stores
Thanks Pete!
We invite everyone who cares about bike parking to use their phone and add locations. We appreciate your thoughts about school bike parking so join us and add every location you see.
Exposing the unusable state of current infrastructure is critical. Policy makers have an ever receding horizon of mode shift as a goal, but have done nothing to meaningfully make cycling safer and more convenient. This is important work for demonstrating the conditions that those who attempt to cycle are forced to contend with. Great work!
When I started adding rack locations using my phone, it was an eye opener! One quickly becomes aware of a town’s or business’s approach to providing parking for bikes, some good, some misguided. It’s a fun, interesting , useful and, yes, sometimes frustrating exercise!