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Here are some bike rack guidelines from Portland which work equally well here.
http://www.trans.ci.portland.or.us/Traffic_Management/Bicycle_Program/parkguide.htm

The following e-mail outlines points to consider before purchasing racks for bicycle parking in public spaces:

Subj: Bike rack performance, cost, and criteria
Date: 3/10/99 12:48:01 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: johnc@bicyclesolutions.com (John Ciccarelli)

Thom Mayer wrote:

>>When [John] was at Stanford he researched bike racks and wound up designing
>>the [Creative Pipe LR-series] racks used at Stanford. Now that he is
>>working as a consultant he, among other things, recommends and sells bike
>>racks.

All true, so when considering my remarks please remember that I'm now a vendor as well as a bike (parking) advocate and rack designer. I'll make this clear whenever I comment on bike rack and storage topics.

Ellen Fletcher wrote:

>>[The LR racks are] not too good for narrow sidewalks where inverted "U" racks
>>placed parallel to the curb are more appropriate. Otherwise [they're] great.

It's hard to beat a single inverted-U in that specific context: a commercial sidewalk without sufficient width to park bikes crosswise or diagonally. A single U parks 2 bikes using minimal surface area though it requires open space around to get bikes in and out, and it supports the bikes upright fairly well though it doesn't constrain front wheels from flopping over if the user locks only the bike's top tube. I especially like the Santa Cruz variant with a crossbar about 9" below the U's top bar; locking through the resulting closed loop defeats the trick where the thief unbolts one leg of the U and slips off the bike's lock at sidewalk level.

U's work less well in multi-U assemblies because bikes on adjacent U's interfere; it's easy to get 1 bike on each U but more troublesome to get the 2nd bike in and out. The interference depends strongly on inter-U spacing, and is especially an issue in "1-sided" sites (against walls and hedges, where bikes can't load from both sides). Stanford's older "toast racks" have 4 U's on 36" spacing, and we rated their capacity as 2 bikes per U in 2-sided sites but only 1 bike per U in 1-sided sites. The "toast rack" was the most recent rack Stanford had installed in quantity before I arrived, and its adjacent-U bike interference and awkwardness in 1-sided sites were two factors that eventually led me to the LR design. At first we specified toast racks in 2-sided sites and LRs in 1-sided sites, then Creative Pipe began producing the 2-sided LR model (there's also a 1-sided-diagonal model.)

Regarding rack costs:
In my opinion, "Installed cost per bike actually parked and correctly locked in the desired site type" is the real price of a rack. To explain, here are some questions for bike rack purchasers and advocates to consider. The first 2 are "show stoppers"; I'd reject any rack that fails them.

1. Secure U-locking without lifting: Does the rack enable U-locking of the bike's frame and at least one wheel, without lifting the bike's front wheel over part of the rack? If the bike has fenders or baskets, is secure U-locking still possible without lifting? If not, most users will U-lock only the front wheel and thieves can steal the rest of the bike (they bring a spare wheel, or swap bike bodies with the junker they ride up on). "Wheelbenders" (a.k.a. "combs" and "dishracks") only enable frame-locking without lifting at their ends unless you lock the bike crosswise against the rack. A few low-to-the-ground designs don't enable it at all. A rack that doesn't let users secure their bike is not "economical" regardless of price.

2. Vulnerability: Can the locking element of the rack be easily cut or disassembled by thieves using readily available non-power tools? Bike theft deterrence is an arms race, and many designs haven't kept up. Some racks bolt together but installers don't bother to epoxy, tack-weld, or smash the bolt threads to prevent disassembly. Some use rod stock that can be snipped with large bolt cutters. And round tubing below a certain diameter is vulnerable to plumbers' pipe cutters. Users who locked as securely as possible but still lost their bike due to a rack's flaws are among the most outraged "customers" you'll ever hear from.

3. Intuitiveness: When untrained users lock their bikes in the way that's obvious to them, will they have correctly locked the frame and wheel? Conversely, if there's a way the rack enables secure (frame and wheel) locking, will most users figure it out in 10 seconds without printed instructions? If not, then the cost-per-bike may be low but the cost-per-securely-parked-bike is high.

4. Spacing (actual bikes parked): Is the spacing between adjacent bike positions sufficient for today's bikes (mountain-style bikes with 24" to 26" handlebar widths? Many older rack designs are unchanged from the pre-mountain-bike days when everyone rode drop-handlebar "English Racers" (16" to 18" handlebar width). Too-narrow spacing tangle handlebars and frustrate users; often every other space remains empty, doubling the effective cost-per-bike.

5. Site type (and the rack shape's suitability for it): In what type of site will the rack be used? Some racks (e.g. multi-U) which perform fairly well when bikes can load from both sides park half as many bikes in 1-sided sites, doubling the actual cost-per-bike.

6. Misparking: How many ways can a bike be correctly or incorrectly locked to the rack (example: bikes locked crossways on wave racks)? Will bikes locked in these ways obstruct aisles unless extra width is allocated? For example, U racks have several "correct" locking positions, and designers must calculate aisle widths with all possible bike positions in mind. For multiple-column rack layouts as found at schools, this means somewhat lower bike capacity in a constrained area.

/John

Bicycle Solutions: "Bright Ideas for Bicycle Transportation"
2065 Yale Street, Palo Alto, CA 94306-1423
650-494-9140 voice, -9142 fax
johnc@bicyclesolutions.com, http://www.bicyclesolutions.com
Effective Cycling Instructor #453

Bicycle Cages and Lockers - Considerations

Date: 9/1/01 4:09:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: johnc@bicyclesolutions.com (John Ciccarelli)

>What would be the cost per space for "secure bike parking"?

Here are several storage options, each with some idea of costs. (Disclaimer: I sell and install bike racks and lockers, and now also design and manufacture high-density bicycle storage fixtures.)

Cost of secure bike storage depends on:

* the type of secure storage
* the cost of the land or space that storage occupies
* the cost of space for the other uses (if any) that it displaces
* whether a roof must be constructed

There are basically 2 types of unattended bike storage. Where user groups are mutually secure, as with employees of one company, "shared-secure" bike storage is an option (see #1 and #2 below). Where users are not mutually-secure, individual bike storage must be used.

1. Bike "cages" (shared-secure)

San Jose State University's downtown campus has several outdoor commuter bike cages featuring tall spiked ornamental-iron fences and video monitoring but without weather protection. Access is via a proximity key fob that activates a computer-controlled gate latch. I don't have cost information. UC Berkeley and the Berkeley City Hall have 3 similar outdoor cages.

Adobe Systems' headquarters at 345 Park Avenue in San Jose has 2 chain-link bike cages in the ground-level car parking deck of its Tower One building, with total capacity between 50 and 100 bikes (just a guess). Each has outdoor-type (e.g. wave) bike racks inside, and a card reader. Cost to secure one door or gate ranges from around $1,000 (OSI "OmniLock", a self contained 5-year-battery powered unit needing no data or power wiring), to around $2,500 for adding a card or "prox" channel, to about $5,000 if the card access system's interface slots are maxed out and you have to add an expansion cabinet. Figure $50/bike to $100/bike for the racks, plus the cost of the enclosure ($10K buys a *big* cage installed by a fencing contractor), plus the door security (see above), plus some locksmith time and general labor. One of the Adobe Tower One cages displaced a single car parking space; the other is in a corner where no cars could park anyway.

The City of Santa Cruz just completed a 90-bike commuter bike cage (only 48 rack spaces currently installed) with proximity-card (or proximity key-fob) access in its car parking garage at Soquel Avenue and Front Street; the grand opening is in about 10 days. The enclosure is subdivided into 3 sub-cages whose fencing and gates are ornamental iron. The storage fixtures are my new Bicycle Solutions "Series A" 2-level locking racks (like the ones at Dutch train stations, but better). Total budget was about $30K including enclosure, security hardware and racks, but only 48 bike positions of racks are currently installed compared to an eventual capacity of 90-100 bikes. When racks are added to fully populate the enclosures, the cost will total around $40K, or $400 per bike space. Space cost was zero in terms of displaced car parking (the footprint would fit 4 cars but there's no way to get them in and out). The city's Parking Office expects to recoup some capital and operating costs by renting bike cage spaces to companies that have offices within a block or two and have many bike commuters.

2. "Bike in building" (shared-secure, unless in a lockable office)

If you can park your bike in your office or cubicle, the only "cost" is getting your company or building manager to approve it. Providing a simple bike hook or folding wall-mounted rack (see http://www.racorinc.com for several models) adds maybe $25/bike.

Putting a multiple-bike stand or rack in a common area inside a building also costs next to nothing. Adobe Systems provided secure employee bike storage on the ground level of the employee-entrance stairwells of its 2 story buildings when the company was located in Mountain View. Space cost: zero, rack cost: $25/position, labor: not much, maintenance: zero.

"Bikes in closet" is another option made more cost-effective by 2-level racks. For example, my new A10 bike storage unit is only 88" wide but stores and secures 10 bikes (5 per level). An 8' high x 8' wide x 6' deep employee bike closet would have the same capacity five 2-bike conventional bike lockers, at substantially lower cost and required area.

3. Conventional bike storage lockers (individual-secure)

For high quality units that don't become hard to maintain in a few years (example: sagging doors that won't latch), figure $600 / bike minimum, plus tax, freight (which is substantial), and installation (also substantial unless the lockers arrive preassembled). The $600 figure is for conventional 2-bike, 2-door box-type lockers (one 2-bike locker costs about $1,200). There are also wedge shaped 1-bike lockers that wrap neatly around corners or make circular or fraction-of-circle arrays; these cost more per bike.

One local example of preassembled high-quality lockers are the Creative Pipe CS2-P polyethylene units located in the parking lots behind the buildings that face lower Castro Street in downtown Mountain View.

Bike locker "footprint" (part of their "space cost") includes aisle space needed to open their doors and get bikes in and out. 2-level bike lockers are available.

John Ciccarelli
Bicycle Solutions, www.bicyclesolutions.com
Palo Alto

P.S. I have images of most of the installations described above.

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