Originally Posted by Wiswell
Have any of you advocating getting bike parking facilities at your employer and won? How did you go about it?
No thread drift, this is an excellent question.
First off, the building owners and managers. They provide all those spaces to park motor vehicles, that's costing them something like $20K per space if it's in a parking garage, less but still expensive if it's surface parking; bike racks are both inexpensive and space-efficient. One car space can hold eight to ten bikes. Keep bugging them, and when they break, make sure you get an acceptable facility and not some substandard wheel-bender rack. Go for covered parking and/or lockers if possible.
Second, the local municipality. They almost certainly have building code requirements for the minimum number of motor vehicle parking spaces that need to be provided. They may or may not have similar code requirements for minimum short and long term bike parking spaces. If they don't, lobby for code changes. If they do, but your building doesn't comply, pressure the municipality to do enforcement.
Third, your employer. If they provide free or subsidized parking for those employees who drive, they should damn well reciprocate for those that don't. Especially if you work for a government organization or in a government building. They, of all employers, should know the value of One Less Car on the road, since they are responsible for building and maintaining the roads, and should be fully aware of congestion, maintenance, policing and other management issues.
Whatever the outcome, make sure the bike parking eventually provided meets some sort of standard and it's not just a crappy rack in an unsecure location that is installed as an afterthought.
If you and other commuting cyclists are reasonable in your demands for safe and secure bike parking, and you keep the pressure on, I can almost guarantee that you will eventually get what you are asking for. If the process seems too slow, don't get frustrated, keep at it. If it's really going at a snail's pace, enlist someone supportive from the local media to help you publicize the issue...
Good Luck!
Here's a good resource document for bike parking standards from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute:
http://www.vtpi.org/bikerack.pdf