Right down the road there's a really lovely example of bike racks being integrated into a campus's built environment, with landscaping and sculpture. Next time you walk by, take a closer look at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Note that from inside their Grossman Gallery, one must be able to see the parked bicycles. The iron sculpture of circles (presumably "wheels") helps create a physical and visual barrier between the street and the bike parking.
Also note how the paving stones lead one onto their (albeit small) campus, and clearly include the rack area as part of campus. Along with the sculpture, there is some shrubbery that helps delineate the bike parking from street, and also, thereby, helps protect the bike area from "outsiders."
This design is worthy of emulation! Nicely done.
I'm not a designer, only an appreciator, otherwise I'd try to propose something for this:
Although there is also the easy route, which Berkelee School of Music took.
Posted: April 9, 2008 9:03 pm by Kimberly Brookes | 0 comments
Tags: Berkelee School of Music, Bicycles, bike racks, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, sculpture, Simmons College
I saw a new bike rack over near Palace Road. That, along with the nicer weather, rekindled my interest in having bike racks installed in front of Lefavour, where bicyclists clearly want to park. I wonder if the City of Boston, given Mayor Menino's interest in making Boston a "world class biking city", would give Simmons a hand by letting the college place bike racks on the city property in front of Lefavour?
This would seem to go hand-in-hand with Green Simmons and the desire to decrease reliance on cars and the air pollution they create.
Here's a poorly sewn together image of photos I took today in front of Lefavour, which is actually very similar to pictures I've taken all winter, and two places where a bunch of bike racks could happily go. The little red lines and arrows show 5 bikes (plus the red scooter) parked. In addition, there's actually one directly across the street by the bus shelter.
Why not put the racks where people want to park? Such racks would serve Lefavour folk. The racks by the Science Center are usually full in good weather, and could continue to serve Science Center cyclist traffic.
Posted: April 3, 2008 4:03 pm by Kimberly Brookes | 0 comments
Tags: Bicycles, bike racks, Lefavour, Simmons College
As I watch people more courageous than I am riding down the streets of the Boston area in the cold, I keep thinking about Simmons and how love it would be if there were more numerous higher quality bike racks, and perhaps even a bicycle commuting support program.
Bowdoin College apparently had some sort of design competition, or a class project, about shelters for bike racks. The racks themselves shown aren't good ones, but the shelters are all interesting. Brunswick is a very bike friendly place.
I think that having bike racks in front of the MCB would be really cool. It could take advantage of some unused space, and give the clear impression that this is a school, to which many people commute.
And the same goes for the front of Lefavour, where people clearly also want to park their bikes.
Please note: none of these bikes are mine! I make a huge effort to always use a bike rack, if a space at one is available to which my fendered bike can be appropriately locked. On the traditional toothpick sort of rack, that means I have to park on one of the ends.
Posted: February 5, 2008 12:13 pm by Kimberly Brookes | 0 comments
Tags: Bicycles, bike racks
I keep pulling this information out of my email box, so thought I should just post it here, in case others find it useful.
I asked MassBike for some advice about types of bike racks and bike parking in general, and they pointed me to this.
I'm sure it doesn't make sense for Simmons to have 1,350 bike parking spots, which is what the number of students + employees / 4 would indicate. But that gives an indication that the scale of parking currently available on campus is well below what it ought to be in order to accommodate people who might like to ride, and to start a program to encourage more people to ride. The other metric is 1 bike rack per 15 automobile spaces.
The site advises that bike parking should be distributed, and within 50' of entrances, but out of the way of pedestrian traffic. It points out that there has to be adequate room around the rack, and has some pictures of a good type of rack and how much space is needed around it.
There is a link to a document from Watertown that has pictures on page 5 of poorly designed parking, including the dish rack (north of Palace Road) and ribbon rack (south of Palace Road).
The Watertown document shows recommended racks on page 7. I'm happy to see the post-and-ring rack listed there--Cambridge has a number of these that I like using.
On this page there's a list of vendors and pricing.
And then there are the various photos I've taken of bike racks around the world.
Posted: November 26, 2007 9:57 am by Kimberly Brookes | 0 comments
Tags: bike racks
I spend a lot of time wishing there were more bike racks in Boston, and occasionally taking picture of the woe-be-gone bicycles here.
This morning I found a bike on the Fenway that a skeptic might call "covered bike parking." Note seat cover, and the excellent bike rack to which the bike is attached.
For more of the bike rack photos I've taken, see my Flickr bike rack set
Posted: November 6, 2007 9:47 am by Kimberly Brookes | 1 comment
Tags: Bicycles, bike racks
