I hate when that happens! I found a similar situation with the same bike at my supermarket on repeated visits.

I left a note on the bikes (I carry a notepad and pen in my backpack) and posted about it on bikeforums which also led to some suggestions to "HTFU" as the kids say.

I feel your pain. Poor bike rack parking etiquette just reminds me how thoughtless some people can be.

Agree that that thing is sub-optimal, but wondering what is the best public bike rack design? I see some around here, seem more artsy than functional.

scott s.
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One of my favorite things about riding all winter is a good four months with my own personal bike rack pretty much everywhere I go!

I like the Saris racks that I see around town. The Wave and Bike Dock are both pretty user friendly. Not cheap, though.

One advantage of that arrangement is that you could lift one bike up, twist it to align with the normal orientation of the rack (you'd bend the top tube, but hey, you didn't park the bike like an ass) to make space. Then lock your bike up properly.

Seriously, slide the bike on the right to the left a bit, It will overlap the other bike, but shouldn't harm anything. Then lock your bike up on the right.

Or, by a half-dozen of cheap U locks off ebay and add them to the two bikes lock complement. They'd be very secure!

That rack has been interesting over the years. The current situation is mildly annoying (unchanged today), but for about a year a couple years ago the Zagster bikeshare maintenance crew commandeered it. They had about 6-8 bikes in and around it at any given time, and sometimes there was room for me but inevitably my machine would get knocked aside or over, got tired of fixing the scrapes and gave up on it. Then they expanded, and must have moved operations to a proper place. They would not even bother to lock them up, and I would take them on quick joy rides in the basement.

My 20" tires on my campus commuter will not fit the slats, so I park on the outside of the edges, seat post on the rack to keep the paint nice. I could move one of the bikes inward and still park, but when they would depart they would need to shove me aside. The one on the left is completely inoperable, flat tires many broken parts, and yet it moves around every once in while! It was just parked free for a time in the corner, then at another rack, and now there. Weird...

With how close that rack is to the wall, can they even park "properly" on that side of the rack?

Don't you have all of the other side to yourself?

No they cannot, on that side they are doing it the only way they can. For most slats if a rider tried to park in the usual way the front tire would have to shove their bikes back.

Yes I suppose I could join them in this orientation in the front!