From the article:
Safe, secure, convenient bike parking is an underappreciated yet key factor in encouraging people to ride bikes. Bike Rack Map, a new website created by advocates, wants to map, rate, and review bike parking everywhere – with your help.
The Bike Rack Map website allows riders to map locations of bike parking and rate its quality. Is it obstructed? Is it easy to access? Is it wimpy? Is it secured? Is it hidden away so no one can keep an eye on it? Is there enough room for a bike with baskets, or fat tires, or fenders? Can pedestrians get around it?
Too many times, an establishment provides a rack that is difficult to lock to, or installed too close to a wall, or inadequately attached to the ground (always test a rack before you lock your precious bike to it, in case its bolts are loose and easily removed!). Bike Rack Map has a rating system whereby users can give a rack between one and five stars - five stars are of course reserved for only the most wonderful, safe, secure, easy, and protected bike parking.
The goal of the project is to create a global map of bike racks with photos, ratings, and comments so that bike riders know what is available, or not, in a location - and to gather data that can be used to advocate for better bike parking. A local analysis can show where bike parking exists and where it is needed.
Read the whole article here.
Let us know your thoughts and comments below, and share this post with everyone who cares about bike parking.
Wow, very cool that Streetsblog picked this up. We sort of get used to inferior bike parking but BikeRackMap sort of woke me up to how bad parking often is. I think about it more as I add bike racks and ratings. I will keep it going.
Recently I rode to a rural regional park where I tied up to a handicap sign post because I could not find anything else. On the return of my hike, I was shocked to find an actual bike rack, totally hidden from view from the parking lot. Just as surprising, there were 4 other bikes parked against the same 2 sign posts. Unfortunately, I was not able to rate either since my phone had no connection–bummer. I need to ask the park to relocate or add new rack.
Hi Bruce,
You can take the photo and add and rate the location later using your phone or your computer.