Treespeed

So unfortunately I had to drive in to work today and oh my god do I feel trapped. Normally at lunch I can hop on my bike and jet to the gym or someplace for lunch without having to worry about parking or traffic. I find it funny where most people see their cars as freedom, especially in Los Angeles, I see it as a big boat anchor. Almost like I'm carrying it around with me instead of it carrying me.

I wonder if some of the anger at cyclists comes from motorist envy of our freedom?

Anyways, on the note of freedom and as a distraction from BL discussion what about bike facilities when we all arrive at our destination be it work, school, or retail establishments. I'm talking about racks, lockers, showers, etc. I always dream about rolling up to some shopping district and they would have lighted, covered bike parking, with lockers and maybe even some baby wipe dispensers. I'm thinking that stuff like this couldn't cost much more than the cost of paving a bunch of parking spots. Plus every bike using a setup like this frees up a parking spot.

We might not be able to agree on the BL issue or what caliber hangun to carry, but I bet we'd all like to see someplace nicer to lock up.

What is everyone else's experiences, positive, and nightmarish?

Helmet-Head

I keep my bike and extra clothes in my office.
Luckily, we have showers.
I'm happy.

caloso

Have you been to Chicago? They've got a sweet Bike Depot at Millenium Park, just like what you describe. I think Koffee may know about it.

Daily Commute

A little off point, but bike racks on busses are fantastic backup. Today, I broke a rear spoke with fully loaded panniers.* I just took my emergency bus fare out of my seatbag and took the bus the last 1-2 miles. I'll put my bike on the bus home, and work on the hubs tonight.

The most needed bike facilities at work are bike lockers. Cyclists currently are at the mercy of the whim of their employers/building maintenance people. One good thing I've heard about Portland, is that they have bike lockers you can rent for $10 per month. Is that true?

*Edit: I later found that a spoke had broken. The orginal post said that I had a problem with my hub, which, thankfully, was not correct.

genec

My last employer had these... the rent was proving you rode in at least 3 days a week. They were a pretty sweet setup. Nice thing was that there was a waiting list for the lockers... so that meant that folks wanted to ride.

patc

I'm self-employed, so the bike facilities at work are pretty damned good

In Ottawa all main bus routes have bike racks, and there is bike parking at all bus stations. We can walk a bike into the light-rail. A few transit stations have covered parking, and there are some covered parking spaces downtown. There is one downtown lot with security (summer only), and a pilot project at two bus stations to provide bike lockers. There are also bike racks everywhere, its unusual for me to need to get creative to find a place to lock up my bike.

If anyone is curious: https://apps101.ottawa.ca/travelwise/...ling_map_e.asp

SpokesInMyPoop

I've seen these lockers around the MAX stations, but I'm not sure what the cost is for renting them out. As for my workplace, we have a lil area to lock up our bikes in a partially sheltered area. I don't even worry about locking up my bike since the security people know me and my bike, and our gates are guarded.

When I worked in downtown Portland in the Fox Tower, they have a bike room which required card access. It was pretty suite

JohnBrooking

My office just relocated to a new building that is not even completely built out with cubicles, and construction to add a new wing is still going on on one side of us. It's interesting when the compactor starts going outside, and you're sitting in your chair vibrating, but I digress...

The good thing is, we have not one, but TWO shower rooms! I can't claim they're just for me, 'cause I'm the only bicycle commuter, but they're also thinking (maybe more) of people who want to jog or play some hoops over lunch.

The bad thing is, there is no bike rack, because the landscaping hasn't even been done yet and it's winter in Maine. So I've been locking it to the handicapped parking sign, it being about the only metal post sort of thing around far enough away from where the dozers are still moving about. But I have asked the facilities guy about it, he has promised to look into it, and he certainly sees my bike out front all the time, so I'm cautiously optimistic that it might happen sometime over the summer.

Shelter? Don't make me laugh.

Guest

Yeah, we have a bike station in Chicago. It sounds like a great thing for those with no options. I was all for it except I would NEVER leave my bike with that place. I saw how the racks were arranged, and I know they tell you that they take no responsibility for your bike if something happens to it (like they break it or some part of it in the process of storing it). That ain't cool by me. But if I needed a shower and stuff, I'd go for it. I'm lucky, though. Since I teach aerobics all over the city, there are a bunch of clubs I can quickly jump into and take a shower.

Anyway, here's the link. I'm sure they have state and city funding and stuff: https://www.chicagobikestation.com/services.htm

Koffee

FotoTomas

I have it made in my case. I commute to work, 4 miles one way and then ride my bike during my tour of duty. Being a bike cop has advantages!

Daily Commute

At my job, there are only a few bike commuters. Some keep their bikes in their offices. I have found a closet for mine. I don't know if this would be allowed if too many people bike commuted, so SHHHHHH, don't tell anyone how great it is.

sbromwich

I've generally had a positive experience. I started commuting into work last summer when I got fed up with the buses here having the heating on in summer, and I've commuted every day apart from December/January when I had a knee injury. I park my bike in the server room at work, which has 3 air conditioners, one of which is a dehumidifier. The dehumidifier means that my bike is completely dried for me in about half an hour, along with all my clothing. This is a good thing, as in winter the air is really dry, and in order to cool the room well there needs to be some moisture in the air anyway. I've put down some newspaper to catch any dirt/oil/gunk that drips off the bike, too.

I've had no problems at all from the management; they're actually seriously considering how difficult it would be to hook up a large scale bike powered dynamo generator to the UPS for our web hosting facility in case of complete power failure! My co-workers have all been positive, and one of them is considering joining me cycling into work when summer arrives - in that case I have blessing from the management to expense a two bike on-wall bike rack for the server room.

There is a bike rack available in the car park attached to the building which is right next to the manned exit gates. It's in the corner and completely exposed to the elements, though, so I prefer to bring my bike indoors.

There's no shower facilities, but there's a back room I can wipe off and get changed in. For various reasons some of the heat from the server room gets dumped in there, so I get changed in a nice warm dry room, which is really quite pleasant in winter!

sbhikes

As long as I've worked at the office there have been lockers and showers. The lockers are a little hard to use because my bikes never quite fit without a struggle.

We recently completed a $50 million construction project to the office (or some huge figure like that.) But instead of more lockers they put in those big W-shaped posts. They're exposed to the rain, so if it rains during the day I get a wet butt home unless I remember to bring bags. The other day I snuck my bike inside and hid it in a conference room. I don't think the big honcho would like people bringing bikes inside. I'd still be using the lockers if it wasn't like a quarter mile from the lockers to my desk.

I've never used the showers because it freaks me out a little bit to take a shower where co-workers might see me. I like to keep my public and private life separated if I can.

We also have a gym staffed with personal trainers and everything. The other day, one of the trainers gave a talk. When I walked in she said, "did you go to the gym today?" I laughed and said, "I don't do gyms. I bike to work."

Tom808

I just park my bike in my office. Bikes are not allowed in the building lobby or elevator, but I struck a deal with security to allow me to move it up the parking elevator from the basement. Our office has a back door which opens to the parking structure. All in all, it is a great setup.

Since I don�t park in the building I gave up my parking privileges. This can be quite pricy in downtown Honolulu. My president was appreciative enough to allow me to expense a taxi if it is raining too hard to ride my bike to work. Only happened once in the last 2 years.

Simplebiker

I have a pretty good setup at work. I rent a bike locker that is in the garage for $50/yr. Free bike racks are available outside in front of the building if one desires. We are nearing the end of a construction project here also. So I've been without the agency fitness center that I had at the old building, so I just used signed up at a commercial gym that was near my office for showering. I've been using their facilities for about a year. But I just got the email last week that our own fitness center is about to open at the new buildings and they are now even offering a "shower" membership for joggers and bikers. I thought that was cool, although I will probably keep the regular membership because I want to do some weights. Regular membership only costs me about $23 a month.

caloso

I'm very lucky.

My agency's main building has showers and lockers in the basement. When I'm in a training phase, I turn my 4 mile commute into a 25 mile detour. What I'll do is each Sunday night I'll iron all my shirts for the week plus sox and underwear and drive them to the office. Rotate some dress pants, ties, and shoes, and you look decently professional.

Although we don't have bike lockers yet (I've been asking for years now), we do have pretty secure racks. The one I use is in a locked cage 10 feet from the CHP office. If it rains, I'll lock it to the rack in the covered garage.

babaluey

Reading some of these posts makes me realize how lucky I am. Our agency provides free bicycle lockers, shower rooms with lockers and even a clothes dryer, AND they pay employees a dollar for every "alternative commute" trip (bike, walk, jog, bus, carpool). That's two dollars a day. Sweet!

I've never used it, but Seattle has one of these: https://www.bikestation.org/. Sounds pretty good.

ks1g

Pretty decent situation - bike rack in a controlled-access parking garage, locker room with showers, and I store shoes, towel and toiletries in my 'cube to reduce the amount of stuff I have to carry. And I can take a bike rail-to-trail for most of the commute. There are a number of bike commuters, and there were a few more bikes in the rack today on account of the 65-70 degree weather we had this afternoon (but it is back to rain and winter tommorrow). Metrobus and some of the city/county systems have bike racks, Fairfax Connector doesn't. No experience with using the bus racks. There are bike lockers at some transit and park/ride lots, but I understand it's hit or miss if you can find someone who knows the deal on rentals.

jagged

My employer has a horrible bike rack; one so bad, I have to post about it, to see if anyone else has experienced something like this.

The rack is a series of upside-down arches, all of them about six inches high at their tallest point, arranged parallel to each other, and so close to each other that all you can do is roll a tire in there. Because they are so low to the ground, all you can do with a U-lock is secure a tire to them. Not a frame; for that, you'll have to bring your own Kryptocable.

I have made it my mission to find out what company manufactures and sell these things, and who, exactly, designed them. No one who actually rides could have ever designed (or decided to purchase) a rack like this. I think they are in league with bike thieves, or maybe with OPEC.

Dchiefransom

Shower cap with a bungee or velcro straps to hold it in place while parked.

�����

This is on Duke University's east campus. It use to have a sign on it that read, "Bike Corral".
It was probably stolen or vandalized, like the bikes that come here to die.
Now I wonder why so few Duke students cycle?

Most people just lock their bikes to handrails and lamp posts.
All the racks on campus are the 'wheelbender' types.

jimhens714

HP is pretty good about supporting alternative commutes. They'll even go as far as providing electric outlets for pure electric vehicles. I've worked at and visited other HP sites too and they all seem to support alternative commutes including bicycling.

We've got bike lockers and racks but most commuters just leave their bikes in their cubicles (as I do). The racks are usually underneath some sort of roof overhang since we've got facilities bicycles all over the place. We've also got lockers for clothing and shower facilities too. I even keep a spare floor pump, extra shoes, and extra charger for the headlights in my cube just in case.

bostontrevor

Jagged, those racks designed to hold a child's bike. A full size adult bike is too tall and prone to tipping. When they do, the fulcrum is on the wheel and they'll bend the crap out of it.

Even when used for kids' bikes, they're not intended for actually locking the bike. They're just wheel stands.

Treespeed

The administration probably uses this poor facility as an excuse not to develop any other bike facilities. Saying something along the lines of, "Well we built this bike corral and nobody uses it." There always seems to be a demand for cyclists to maintain their own racks and such, which I'm more than happy to do. Yet you never see a rally of motorists volunteering to maintain a parking garage.

gmacrider

We have a bunch of bike racks in the underground parking of our office tower. You need a pass card to get in and there are security cameras all over - specifically to prevent bike theft. This is free for employees.

So I park the War Pony there and go to our Fitness Centre (same building) where I have a shower, a steam, a shave, and iron my work clothes if they need it. I pay $25 / month for a membership and the company pays the other half. I also work out there during the day.

I have a big coat rack stand thing in a corner of my office where I hang my bike gear up during the day. It's not very noticable and my gear dries out nicely. I have some air freshner in case of biker sweat road mud stink. It hasn't been a problem.

At the end of the day I change in my office, which is tricky now because we have new glass walls. Then I hop back on the War Pony.

It's all very convenient.