Things seem to be better for Bike Commuters

This morning, Jeff brought this to my attention.

The summary is:

The power that be has decided to tackle the great bugaboo in NYC cycling accessibility, which is secure parking for your ride.

I really do think that the more secure parking areas there are, the more bike commuters there will be. It's a simple correlation. I bet there are more people riding bikes in NYC parks for fun on a summers day than there are commuters on any day of the week. Take all their bikes and you'd have a beautiful sight like the one above, taken in Japan.

Of course, in Japan bicycles and parked bicycles are so ubiquitous that they're running out of parking spaces and have to come up with novel parking garages like this one:





I wasn't sure there would be enough parking for all the joyriders turned crusty commuters.

With that question in mind, I decided to examine the issue mathematically. Taking the great 2768591 square foot icon of New York, the Empire State Building, and dividing it by the requisite 7500 square feet of space per bike rack means that the Empire State Building would have to open 369 bike parking spaces on 34th street and 5th. Which would be wonderful, because my optometrist is around there.

The only fear I have is that we'd be concentrating our bikes in a sheltered space allowing bike thieves all the time in the world to steal my possessions. Maybe - hopefully - they'll require a security guard.

Now, the story was originally broken by the Post as is mentioned in the NY1 video. For the sake of journalistic integrity, I checked out the article and was shocked, SHOCKED, to discover the following comment from a fellow reader:

Metamorph wrote:
4 more years of this whiny lunatic? Real estate values are crashing, and this gasbag wants to impose ridiculous requirements like this on builders? Bloomberg is an out of touch busybody with an overbearing sense of "nobles oblige."

Well, I agree! It's about time that Bloomberg, ultra wealthy noble that he is, ought to oblige us with a place to park our no-cost transportation. 'Nobles Oblige' indeed, ya douchebag.

Well, regardless of the parking situation, I'll keep riding - until I can have this guy's commute.

Much love, and promising more posts, more frequently now that I'm unemployed.

-Harry