Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Aloha cycling racks


This bike-shaped bike rack is installed all over downtown Honalulu. I really like it, for a variety of reasons. Its look suggests its purpose. It easily supported four bikes (one on each side of the front and rear of the bike stand). It took up very little pedestrian room, as evidenced from the "end on" shot. It was located close to the curb, with minimal concern for motorists.

These were bolted to the concrete sidewalk, but I never saw any crooked or damaged, so sturdiness of its mounting didn't seem a major problem.

When coming around a corner driving a car or on the bus and suddenly seeing a bike on the curb, there is a momentary leap of the heart, rise of tension... awareness of cyclists and cycling. Thus the rack reminds motorists to be aware of cyclists even when there are no cyclists present.

I would be interested in seeing the racks painted with white or flourescent paint, so they glowed on the streets at night (Honalulu has long nights, like winter in Ottawa, but their nights begin at 7pm year round).

In contrast, I came across this poor rack yesterday. My first thought was it had been mangled by a snow plow. But the regularity of the bent pipes tells me this was designed in by some artist-type. It was not readily apparent how to approach the rack with a bike, and I felt wary of it. Not a good advertisement for cycling.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting! I didn't see any racks like that in Maui, but we could certainly borrow that idea.

    I'd suggest painting them reflective yellow, as yellow has a longer wave-length and thus can be seen from further away.

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  2. Much sturdier attachments have been used for bike racks in Ottawa and gotten mangled (including some of the new ones on Bank Street), but the lack of snow (and snowplows) in Hawaii I think is the main reason it remains intact. Click on my name for more examples of Bike Rack Blunders.

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  3. On the point about the visual reminder of bikes, the effect might be the opposite of that intended. When a driver sees many images daily of non-moving bikes that can be safely ignored, they may end up developing a habit of ignoring that shape.

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