
Curve Your Wheels: Architect-designed bike storage system - pchristensen
http://archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=3608
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chaosmachine
These don't seem very space efficient. In Ottawa, we have bike racks like
this: <http://i43.tinypic.com/verak2.jpg>

Believe it or not, you can easily lock 6 bikes to this.

Side note: I couldn't find a picture of this rack anywhere on Google image
search (I checked 10 pages for keywords "Ottawa bike rack"). On Bing image
search, it was the first result.

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JeremyChase
It isn't space efficient, but I think their business plan is based on
perception of efficiency. You can see that by the way they placed the arc over
the tree, which gives the illusion of having more sidewalk space.

What they haven't counted on is that people will lock their bikes to anything
they can, and in any way possible. People will end up locking directly to the
arc itself which will case insertion and removal of a bike on the arc to be
problematic. This is because the front wheel needs to ride in the groove of
the arc, and a lock will obstruct it.

I see this product as something that non-bike people in the city offices will
love because it gives the feeling that they are doing something to encourage
bike use. The reality is that these racks are far more expensive than a
standard inverted U, offer much less flexibility, and are less space
efficient.

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JeremyChase
I just realized another problem with this design. As any bike person will
know; many bike racks are littered with abandoned bikes that are just locked
up. For a traditional inverted U or bike rack this isn't a major problem
because it is usually possible to find a good way to still lock your bike up.
When an abandoned bike is left on one of these racks it will consume even more
room, and people will be forced to lock their bikes up in an even more
annoying way.

I really don't like this product. (yes, I am a semi-fanatical bike person)

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buugs
I think this is another one of those why architects are architects and
engineers are engineers, first it looks much much more expensive than a
traditional on ground bike rack which takes minimal installation and is much
more of an eyesore and looks as if it cannot accommodate very many bikes.

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kscaldef
It's a bit hard to tell from the image shown, but contrary to the claim in the
article, it doesn't look like it would be difficult at all to steal the front
wheel of the bike.

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JeremyChase
It would be, but it would also be easy to lock the front wheel to the arc
itself.

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kscaldef
if you're carrying around a second lock

