Southern California - Irvine Company Contact?

With $4 a gallon gas and summer weather, there's been a lot more bikes parked at work, to the point where the racks are overflowing. My employer will have to work with the Irvine Company to get more racks installed. I don't think their typical rack design and placement serves the needs of most commuters and would like to work with them to improve that. Does anyone have any contacts with the Irvine Company? Please feel free to respond via PM.

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Your employer has the phone number of their property management contact. That's the place to start. (and where whoever else you reach at the Irvine Company will send you.)

With $4 a gallon gas and summer weather, there's been a lot more bikes parked at work, to the point where the racks are overflowing. My employer will have to work with the Irvine Company to get more racks installed. I don't think their typical rack design and placement serves the needs of most commuters and would like to work with them to improve that. Does anyone have any contacts with the Irvine Company? Please feel free to respond via PM.

Dealing with Irvine Company... Good luck. I am just hoping they don't re-evaluate image that bike racks portray and take them entirely away.

Your employer has the phone number of their property management contact. That's the place to start. (and where whoever else you reach at the Irvine Company will send you.)
Yes, the facilities manager at my employer will make the contact with their property management contact in order to address the particular situation at my workplace. What I am hoping to do is to find the folks in the Irvine Company who are the custodians of the standard rack design that they seem to clone for all their properties. That way I hope to make sure future installations in other new locations (and other retrofits in existing locations) may also be more suitable as a result. That's not guaranteed to happen if I'm only addressing the specific situation at my workplace.

More specifically, you need to talk to the asset manager. (think of it as the level above the property manager - this is why the property manager has their phone number.) Unfortunately, all of them probably have (to them) more important things to do than worry about bike racks. If you were to find a solution and bring it to them (a ready-made product), that would help. Even better if it's cheaper than what they're doing.

Brian, try 949.720.2000

Bike racks are a very standard item that they purchase from a rep that has a contract with the city. You'd have more luck having the Irvine Co buy everyone in the city a new Colnago than having the manufacture, three steps away, design a completely new bike rack for you. The standard racks that look like a wave form or the one with two tubes on each side of the from wheel, are what you're going to get.

Concentrate on trying to get additional racks and don't waste your time coming up with a new design...it will NEVER happen.

Bike racks are a very standard item that they purchase from a rep that has a contract with the city. You'd have more luck having the Irvine Co buy everyone in the city a new Colnago than having the manufacture, three steps away, design a completely new bike rack for you. The standard racks that look like a wave form or the one with two tubes on each side of the from wheel, are what you're going to get.
I'm not asking for a new design, just a different standard design. There's lot of other designs that are standard items, for example:
http://www.apbp.org/pdfsanddocs/Resources/Bicycle%20Parking%20Guidelines.pdf

There may be indeed a contract for the wave racks, but contracts eventually run out and get rebid. If they don't get any input from the users, then they certainly won't change a thing.

Note that even if they don't change the design from their standard wave racks, I would still like to see if they can improve rack placement - take a look at the attached photo for what I mean.

Concentrate on trying to get additional racks and don't waste your time coming up with a new design...it will NEVER happen.
I may have to settle for that for this particular instance of parking at my workplace, but my hope is that at least future installations elsewhere can benefit. But it will certainly never happen if I just sit back and don't try - although I plan to keep in mind that this could be a time sink if I'm not careful.

I'm not asking for a new design, just a different standard design. There's lot of other designs that are standard items, for example:
http://www.apbp.org/pdfsanddocs/Resources/Bicycle%20Parking%20Guidelines.pdf

There may be indeed a contract for the wave racks, but contracts eventually run out and get rebid. If they don't get any input from the users, then they certainly won't change a thing.

Note that even if they don't change the design from their standard wave racks, I would still like to see if they can improve rack placement - take a look at the attached photo for what I mean.


I may have to settle for that for this particular instance of parking at my workplace, but my hope is that at least future installations elsewhere can benefit. But it will certainly never happen if I just sit back and don't try - although I plan to keep in mind that this could be a time sink if I'm not careful.

I do understand your concerns, but the people who sell and layout the placement of "bike racks" could care less about just how effective they are. The salesperson wants to sell them, the designer wants to move on to the next job and the installer just wants to get the job done. The people that are in a position of poser could care less about bike racks and the only thing that will make them care about them is money...there own money and nothing else. There are advocates out there for just about everything, and the ones that can effect the money get what's needed; trash cans, park benches, play structures all have advocates.

There is no big money behind bike parking...sorry, that's just the way it is.

[edit] I forgot to add, space it one of the biggest issues. No one wants to see bikes parked in front of there brand new (or old) building and land costs money, even the little space that's needed for bike parking costs a fortune. Bike parking will always be the redheaded step child.

Yes, I understand that the reality is largely as you describe. Wave racks are the cheapest, least "unsightly", and take little space (especially when you install them like in the photo!). So when the architects do their design, they look up in their manual that says they need "X" number of bike parking spaces for "Y" number of people in the building, look somewhere else to find that their standard for bike parking is the wave rack, throw one of those in, and then they're done.

But who knows, maybe in this process I'll find the right person in the organization that might care about what works for cyclists and may consider thinking out of the box and paying a little more for better racks with an extremely small incremental cost adder compared to all other construction and maintenance costs for the property. Or maybe (probably?) I won't. But with $4 a gallon gas and more bike commuters, there's no better time than now to try.

Yes, I understand that the reality is largely as you describe. Wave racks are the cheapest, least "unsightly", and take little space (especially when you install them like in the photo!). So when the architects do their design, they look up in their manual that says they need "X" number of bike parking spaces for "Y" number of people in the building, look somewhere else to find that their standard for bike parking is the wave rack, throw one of those in, and then they're done.

But who knows, maybe in this process I'll find the right person in the organization that might care about what works for cyclists and may consider thinking out of the box and paying a little more for better racks with an extremely small incremental cost adder compared to all other construction and maintenance costs for the property. Or maybe (probably?) I won't. But with $4 a gallon gas and more bike commuters, there's no better time than now to try.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to not try, but it is an uphill battle. I designed playgrounds for 6 years and was never asked to show where the bike racks would be placed...not once out of thousands of designs. And here's the bad part, even as a fellow bike rider, I would have done the same as all the others...throw them in and not take a second look. It sucks, but I'm guilty of the same thing as everyone else. Bike racks just don't rate, but I'm pulling for you.:)

Thanks for the heads up - don't worry, I'm not getting any false hopes - I've been involved in bicycling advocacy long enough to know what it feels like to bang my head against the wall, and when/if I reach that point where there's no forward momentum, I'll pull the plug and spend my time on things that have a better benefit/time ratio - like getting my folding bike back in shape so I can put my bike in the office rather than leaving it outside. :)

And here's the bad part, even as a fellow bike rider, I would have done the same as all the others...throw them in and not take a second look. It sucks, but I'm guilty of the same thing as everyone else.
But I'd like to think if one of your clients had brought up some concerns about the racks, being a cyclist you would probably be more sympathetic and go more out of your way to change things. Finding someone that that in the organization would be my hope.

I work at an Irvine co property and the best way is through the property manager, I will contact ours through our facilities manager to place a couple of more. Design in my opinion is less important than working to have the Irvine co help promote a green response to gas prices. I have addressed our work force and tried to encourage those who live less than 5 miles away to commute by bike(bus transport is minimal) beyond five miles it takes more of a cyclist to take the plunge but obviously those without an office to store the bike need a safe place to lock the bikes

But I'd like to think if one of your clients had brought up some concerns about the racks, being a cyclist you would probably be more sympathetic and go more out of your way to change things. Finding someone that that in the organization would be my hope.

Absolutely I would have, but unfortunately like I said, no one ever asked me...probably because they know I'd get up on my soap box and they would have gotten an ear full of something they weren't interested in.

Thanks for banging you head against that wall for the rest of us!