I'm not bothered by the brightly colored bikes lining our sidewalks. And when I see one that has fallen down? I pick it up.
Source: Krista Nightengale.
For a bike share program to succeed, they need to be everywhere. Just like taxis are everywhere in New York City. Who would ever take a taxi somewhere if they couldn't count on a taxi being there when they wanted to return?
Besides, today bikes are not everywhere. Cars are everywhere. When you see bike parking on every street and in front of every store, required by city code, and paid for by the taxpayers and/or storeowners, then you'll know bikes are everywhere.
Bikes fall over. The world has been in need of a Thomas Edison to improve bicycle kickstands since forever, but it is what it is. In the meantime, the rule for bicycles should be the same as the rule for open doors. If you see someone has accidentally left a door open, close it. And if you see a fallen bicycle, pick it up. It's waiting there for you. Be thankful someone left it.
1 comment:
I'm happy to see the nascent bike share programs in the city. Like you, I too will pick up a bike that has fallen over. I wish, truly wish, we would see bike racks in the U.S. like those so common in the Scandinavian countries. They look like nothing so much as a series of hoops next to one another - very intuitive in how they are to be used to hold a bike - something many of the funky stands for locking up your bike in the U.S. are not. But no, instead we get bike racks that look like some piece of piping and neither kids nor adults really know - am I supposed to put the bike straddling the piping? Then what holds it up? Am I supposed to put it parallel to the piping? So the rack only holds 2 bicycles. And so it goes. But at last there are bikes in the Metroplex that are available for anyone to use. Being that this is a hydrocarbon mecca, are the bikes a sign of the coming apocalypse?
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