What's your favourite kind of bike parking?
What’s your favourite kind of bike parking?
As bike parking options have expanded around the city, most cyclists have surely taken note that some designs are pretty convenient and some are quite frustrating. Cycle Toronto recently set out to determine what kind of bike parking riders find easiest to use, which they find the most secure, and which simply look the best. Almost 100 cyclists took part in our survey, with most providing commentary that would imply it’s a topic they’re quite passionate about.
Not surprisingly, the indoor bicycle storage room received the highest score, receiving an 8.4 out of 10. Understandably, given the city’s high bike theft rate, commenters noted that the ultimate safest place for their bike is behind the locked door of their apartment.
The highest scoring outdoor parking was the trusty Ring and Post, the namesake of our monthly newsletter, which scored an impressive 7.3. The humble icon was also rated as the easiest to use bike parking, and by many, the most aesthetically pleasing.
Several examples of sturdily built parking were rewarded with 6’s, such as the rectangular and rounded “staple” designs and the parking spot bike bays. Comments indicated that this type of parking rarely gets overcrowded due to the generous spacing.
Certainly the most polarizing design, with scores across the rating scale from 1 - 10, is this compact design often deployed by the City of Toronto:
Some racks, designed for the sole purpose of storing bicycles, have the dubious distinction of being outdone in our survey by things with completely different functionality like fences and sign poles. One particular vintage rack, found in schoolyards across the country, carries the uniquely shameful honour of barely scoring higher than a gas line.
Finally, the most evidently hated bike parking design in all of Toronto is the dreaded, minimalist, rectangular nightmare of Yorkville, which was rated an abysmal 1.4 out of 10.
And as is often the case, the most insightful assessment of the matter at hand was found in the comments, courtesy of an anonymous survey taker:
That’s all for our first edition of Just For Fun. If you had fun reading, sign up to our monthly newsletter, The Ring & Post, and be the first to read the next edition.
