I just wanna lock my bike

Millions for parking lots, but not one cent for bike racks! Or: Making Al Gore Cry

Twice in recent days I’ve been in a perfect position to do what I almost never do while riding my bike
– stop and enjoy a cup of coffee and something to eat. And twice in recent days I’ve been reminded why I almost never do that, and why even doing local errands on my bike is a travail: there’s nowhere to lock up. One was at a well-known and loved local coffee shop, tucked up against a large college campus, where you would expect that students would frequently bike. I stopped by after a ride in the neighborhood and thought how nice it would be to dispel the spring cold with a cup of coffee before riding the last little bit and putting the bike up – but there was NO place to lock up. Not even a bad place, like a bench, which I hate to lock to because it makes it hard for people to sit. Just nowhere. So I had to go back to my truck, put up the bike, and then drive back to the coffee shop. Then back to where I needed to be. Very inconvenient.

Same thing happened again Friday, in one of those storybook New England towns with a lovely town center, gorgeous shops I could never afford to buy anything from, a deplorable dearth of open coffee shops in early April, and some very tempting pizza. I was cold and a bit surprised by the hills (the Berkshires are hilly; who knew?) and was for once happy to stop for sustenance. But there was nothing to lock my bike to: not a light pole, certainly not a bike rack. There was a bench, but locking to it would have put my bike square in the walkway and I don’t like to do that. So again, it was off to my truck and back again, making Al Gore cry for the senseless waste all the way.

When I was growing up it seemed that many more people actually rode their bikes and did things with them. In fact, looking through my high school yearbook the other day, I noticed a number of shots that were posed by the bike racks. And what was parked at those bike racks? Bikes. Kids rode their bikes to school. After a couple of years of pleading, I finally got a bike rack installed at my daughter’s high school. Today when I try to do errands, I find one impediment after another, and things are not getting better. Going to the drugstore or the bank on my bike is just a pain, when it shouldn’t be. And even a place that you would think would be welcoming, like Stewart’s, isn’t – of the hundreds of Stewart’s I’ve visited by car and by bike, there’s not a single one that I’ve encountered that has a bike rack. I used to make a point to stop and get an extra drink or ice cream and stretch my legs, but I don’t anymore.

CDTA, our local transportation authority, has done a lot to promote biking in the area (or, in transportation jargon, “intermodal transportation”). They’ve added bike racks to every bus in the region – something I always forget when I’ve got a broken spoke, but which could come in handy. They’ve also been giving away bike racks every year, and have put up a very handy map of where those bike racks have been installed.