Bike Parking Disconnect


I spent some fun time this afternoon at the Pedal Nation bike show at the Convention Center.

I had noted some tweets yesterday about overflowing bike parking outside, even though event parking had been added. Here’s what I found today, outside the front door and inside the parking structure where bike parking is also provided:

IMG_0168

Out Front

IMG_0167

Inside (to be fair, another nearby set of staples had 3 bikes, perhaps 25% of its capacity)

This is not a new issue, BikePortland has covered it before.

I realize that I’m an outlier – since I attend many Metro meetings at the Convention Center and have a motivation to learn where the parking is that a casual event goer might now. But the I find the inside parking very convenient, and of course it’s out the elements.

Is this just a question of the Convention Center needing to provide some way-finding, or is there a psychology of bike parking that users always want to be near the front door?

,

17 responses to “Bike Parking Disconnect”

  1. I would say it’s a mixture. Part of it is being accustomed to having parking be available close to the front door at almost all one’s destinations.

    But a lot of it is not knowing if bike parking is provided by the building, and if so, where it is. What if you go in the parking garage and there’s not a rack to be found? Granted, it’s not the end of the world, but it can be frustrating.

  2. Should I be surprised that we might have a bike parking problem at a bike show in Portland? Does the car show have parking problems? Should we expand auto parking because people can’t take the first spot they find at the Portland Auto Show?

  3. Everyone tries to park as close to the front door as possible, regardless of mode. The convention center already has hundreds of auto spots. If the issue is the need for temporary bike parking, I think a solution might be removing some auto spots. Each auto spot yields about 10-15 spots for bikes.

  4. You can’t fit everyone next to the front door; the way to overcome that is to put the bike racks where they are visible on the way to the front door. My own rule of thumb for bike parking layout is, in order: 1) visible, 2) covered, 3) enclosed. As in your case, I think most people are willing to follow signs for covered or secure bike parking. If you need a map to find it, it’s too far.

  5. Colin,

    That’s an interesting perspective, but at the convention center it clearly wouldn’t work for autos. Does bike parking need to be more visible than auto parking is?

  6. The psychology is that all parkers want to be by the front door. I suspect that most cyclists barely consider the fact that there is bicycle parking in the auto lot; and I hardly imagine that there is a “bike lane” to get to the bike parking, nor a pedestrian-only walkway to get back to the event after you lock your bike up.

  7. I don’t remember what the convention center garage entrance looks like, but usually there’s a giant blue circle P to help cars find their way in. There’s also the question of where the racks will be in a garage. At my workplace, for example, they’re at the bottom (P2) which means that you have to ride up three steep ramps to get out.

  8. I don’t think it’s such an either/or equation, and I’m definitely not always looking to be near the front door.

    At lots of big venues it’s an advantage to be away from the main entrance just to avoid the crowd. Not to say bike racks should be hidden away by the loading dock, but walking a bit isn’t an issue for someone who just biked there.

    My preference us for the racks to be plentiful, obvious, easily accessible from likely cycling routes, and not an afterthought crowded in with car parking, landscaping, or dumpsters.

    Shelter is nice, but this is Portland. Bikes get wet. I’m more concerned with security than weather.

    Bike parking doesn’t need anything special, just common sense and thoughtful planning.

  9. A giant P on a sign is understood to refer to (automobile) parking. A giant H means a hospital.

    Should there be a uniform logo for bicycle parking, distinct from auto parking?

  10. I don’t think it’s such an either/or equation, and I’m definitely not always looking to be near the front door.

    At lots of big venues it’s an advantage to be away from the main entrance just to avoid the crowd. Not to say bike racks should be hidden away by the loading dock, but walking a bit isn’t an issue for someone who just biked there.

    My preference us for the racks to be plentiful, obvious, easily accessible from likely cycling routes, and not an afterthought crowded in with car parking, landscaping, or dumpsters.

    Shelter is nice, but this is Portland. Bikes get wet. I’m more concerned with security than weather.

    Bike parking doesn’t need anything special, just common sense and thoughtful planning.

  11. Parking can be anywhere, just let people know it exists!

    Many parking garages don’t have bike parking or if they do it’s the lame wave racks like the convention center has, which result in your bike falling over and knocking over everyone else’s bike. Still way better than nothing.

    It looks like the convention center could have put like 8 staples for 16 bikes rather than one wave rack without even affecting the car parking.

    Wall racks where you hang the front tire on a hook are also very space efficient.

    At least they weren’t cutting locks and impounding bikes like they did at the last bike show!

  12. (sorry if I’m overloading the system with duplicate comments, Chris — I’m not getting a confirmation that my comment has been received)

    I agree with the commenters who have shared that the aesthetic choice of sticking some bike parking in a dark, auto-dominated parking garage just does not scale to the person arriving on a bike. It’s great they are covered spots, but often parking in garages feels (1) less secure than a more visible location on the sidewalk (2) less safe to entry and egress via bike because of auto-centric design of facility (3) this is where all the drivers park and where any potential congestion will back up in– why would a cyclist want to be stuck in that mess?

    Ideally, OCC would have valet bike parking for bike-heavy events and keep them secured in a storage room somewhere.. lots of signs directing folks to make it to the ‘free bike valet’ entry. Roll out the red carpet for people arriving on bicycle and transit, they’re doing us all a favor!

  13. Chris

    I do think bike parking needs to be more visible than auto parking. I don’t think the same “circle the block” psychology works for biking like it does for driving. Once you find the entrance on your bike, you start looking in all directions for parking. It’s almost like the psychology changes from “bike-scale” to “pedestrian-scale” at that moment: out-of-direction travel and distance become magnified. In a car your movements are much more constrained by traffic flow, so driving psychology rules until you’re parked. Simply put, once you find the front door on your bike (hard enough at OCC) you don’t want to go looking for somewhere to lock up.

    Interesting, thought-provoking post and comments.

    Colin

  14. Colin,

    I think your points are well-taken. So if OCC wants cyclists to use the garage parking, what kind of wayfinding would it take to get cyclists there, overcoming the barriers/psychology you’ve described? Or is it a lost cause?

  15. Chris,

    I’d suggest pavement markings – from the approaching routes (NE Llyod, NE Holladay) you could leave a trail of crumbs similar to the older bike boulevard markings but modified for bike parking.

    Colin

  16. I won’t park my car in a garage and I wouldn’t park my bike in one either. To me it is just asking for theft. There isn’t enough visibility/passerby traffic to prevent people from going after parts of a bike that is parked in an out of the way corner of a parking garage.

Leave a Reply to David Haines Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *