Bike Parking Site Planning
As you continue the location and site plan of your bicycle parking design, make sure to maintain your focus on providing the greatest convenience and utility for securing bicycles.
In this video, we’ll go into detail on this and much more for bike parking site planning.
Key Feature of Bike Parking Site Plan
Convenience needs to be the main element of your bike parking site plan. Accomplish this by making your bike parking area easily accessible and located no more than 50 feet from a primary entrance or intended destination.
If you place bike parking farther away or in out-of-the-way locations, cyclists will likely opt to use closer alternatives - like street furniture, trees or fencing instead of your area intended for bike parking.
The bike parking area should also be at least as close as the nearest car parking stall. Through convenience, the option of bike parking should be designed to be more desirable than car parking.
You’ll also want to consider the paths cyclists are most likely to travel in approaching your bike parking space. Bike parking should be easily accessible and near these paths of travel.
If it is too far off their travel path, the usage will be significantly reduced.
Visibility of Bike Parking Site
In addition to convenience, plan to make bike parking as visible as possible. Increasing the visibility of the bike parking space helps cyclist easily locate bike parking as they approach the destination.
Adding signage, installing racks with bright colors and, adding paint on the ground to indicate and mark the designated area for bike parking are all ways to raise the visibility of bike parking.
Now that your plan includes a convenient and recognizable area for cyclists to access, you’ll want to maximize the security for the bicycle that is provided by the environment.
Bicycle Security
The rack or racks you select will have the greatest influence on the overall security of your bike parking plan and will be discussed in-depth in an upcoming video.
But there are decisions on the placement of your bike parking that also impacts how secure it is.
Placing bike parking in an area with pedestrian traffic adds an additional element of security. This provides the area with passive surveillance and adds a level of theft deterrent.
When bike parking is set behind buildings, in alleyways or other out-of-sight locations, it gives thieves more opportunity to beat the security of the lock, rack or installation and steal the bike.
Bike parking should also be visible from the destination. This lets cyclists keep an eye on their bike and be more confident about its security. It also provides another level of passive surveillance from other people at the destination.
Bike Parking Spots
The next part of your planning should be to determine the number of bike parking spots you’ll need. Many cities, towns or other governmental organizations have minimum ordinances or other mandates. These are the best starting places to determine the number of bike parking spaces needed.
Library.municode.com is a great resource to begin your search.
You can usually find bike parking guidelines and other ordinances regarding: required bike parking capacity, placement and right-of-way - in a city’s public works or parks and recreation department.
Another great resource for guidelines and ordinances is bicycle advocacy organizations. These are communities of cyclists who live the bike lifestyle and have years of resourceful insights when it comes to bike parking. They usually have at the ready or can easily direct you to local bike parking resources too.
If there are no mandatory requirements to follow, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals have published bike parking recommendations worth following, broken down by facility type.
- For Hospitals and Health Care Facilities, plan on 1 bike parking space per 20-thousand square feet of floor area.
- K through 12 schools should plan for 1 space for every 20 students of planned capacity.
- Colleges and Universities should include 1 bike parking space for every 10 students.
- It is recommended that Businesses and Offices have 1 space for every 20-thousand square feet of floor area as well.
- For off-street parking lots and garages – include 1 bike parking space per spaces designated for automobiles.
For more urbanized or bike-active communities, plan for another half to full space per volume.
You can find a complete list of bike parking recommendations in the APBP Bike Parking guide found at the apbp.org website.
Bike Parking Surfaces
The next factor in your planning will be to review the installation surface. This will determine the type of bike racks you can use and the installation method.
Concrete
By far the best surface material for installing bike racks is going to be concrete.
This is the most secure option for installing a bike rack. It is also the least expensive.
An in-ground mount – where the rack is placed with the legs a designated distance below the surface level and concrete is then poured embedding and securing the legs – is the most secure mounting option
When there is existing concrete, a surface mount would work best in this situation. A surface mount involves securing the rack to the surface with wedge anchors and metal flanges on the rack.
When surface mounting, it is recommended that tamper-proof hardware be used. This will help restrict a thief’s ability to access the anchors and unmount the rack from the surface.
Asphalt
With asphalt surfaces there are two recommended installation methods.
The first is to do an in-ground mount by cutting holes in the asphalt for the legs. Then place the rack and pour concrete footings to secure the rack.
The second option would be to use racks on rails. The entire unit can be left freestanding or the rails can be anchored to the asphalt.
Racks should not be surface mounted to asphalt as the anchors are easily removed from this material.
Pavers and Bricks
For surfaces consisting of pavers or bricks, an in-ground mounting process should be used.
The bricks or pavers should be removed. Then dig holes or core drill to place the legs of the rack, install the rack and pour concrete footings.
Racks on rails are also an option for this surface material.
Natural Surfaces
Surface mounts should be avoided with bricks and pavers. These items are easily loosened, making it possible to remove the rack from the ground. A thief can then slide the lock off the rack and steal the bicycle.
When dealing with natural surfaces like grass or dirt and crushed rock, pouring concrete footings for an in-ground mount or concrete pad for a surface mount is the best option.
Racks on rails or freestanding racks would be the next best solution.
Having a carefully-considered plan for bike parking will serve as the foundation for creating great bike parking. In the next video we’ll look at layouts that will make your bike parking the most accessible and usable.
