They only have handicap parking because they were forced to by law. They only have wheelchair ramps because they were forced to by law. They only have accessibility features because they were forced to by law. See where I'm going with this?
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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Shit, they have a fuckload more parking than they need because it is mandated by law. Remove car parking minimums and set up bike parking minimums instead.
Then you get voted out by car people who shriek that you hate cars and are trying to create a hostile environment for drivers by having a single bike rack somewhere out of the way.
See where I’m going with this?
For sure.
Unfortunately, I spoke with local council members about this, and they said they can't force a company to add bike parking. There are no laws that require them to do so, even though I would STRONGLY argue that it falls into the same accessibility category as wheelchair/pregnant/handicap parking accommodations.
I think you'd be laughed out of the room, if you tried to use disability law to force bicycle accommodations, and the people with disabilities would probably be angry with you. But there's no reason whatsoever that they can't make a new law or bylaw, mandating bicycle stuff.
Well, I also represent the disabled community, so they'd probably be told they were bigots for laughing. LOL
But in seriousness, accessibility had a broad scope.
It's not always about accommodating someone in a wheelchair.
Accessibility could mean offering more than one language, offering different forms of access (i.e. digital, print, audio, etc.), and in the case of shopping, giving people the ability so safely access your store by bike.
Not having a place for bike parking makes a business inaccessible to a great number of people. So while it would be nice if there are laws forcing this to happen, it still makes no sense why a company wouldn't voluntarily want to do it. They are losing business for no good reason.
Businesses do the bare minimum unless they have to do more. It's always been this way. They might make more accommodating voluntarily, but they won't and never have done that. They need to be compelled to do the right thing.
But it's to their benefit, too!
I mean, your council member can always pass a bylaw requiring bike parking, same way there are often parking minimums.
They won't. I may circle this back to our active transportation committee to see what they think.
I guarantee business owners would be up in arms. 🙄
If there is no bike parking, then just take the bike into the shop with you. If it's a small shop where you can keep your eye on it, leave it near the entrance. If it's a large shop, roll it around with you — it's not much different from a wheelchair. If the management complains, tell them they're being illogical and take your business elsewhere.
I've been forced to do this a few time, and did it all the time when I was riding my e-scooter more.
In one case, I apologized to the cashier as I approach the checkout, and she said something along the lines of, "it's better to bring your bike in the store! I had my catalytic converter stolen from my truck parked in front of the store while I was working."
Jeeesus!
Ironically there is a very large trek franchise store near me, No bike rack. lol.
I guess they want you to leave with a bike, not arrive.
Lol. Which I'm sure is the majority of their business. I just wanted to cycle down and grab a bell for my wife's bike...and not all bike stores have space for you to bring your bike in while you shop.
Actually, I've come across quite a few bike shops that don't have bike racks! Bizarre!
It's generally accepted practice that you can bring your bike into any bike shop. There is therefore no need to lock up your bike to a rack. In fact, people who have the fanciest bikes probably don't even own a bike lock.
Right, I get it. But the place I bought my bike was a narrow store front with 3 rows of bikes back to front of store and a single path in. There was no way anyone is parking A single bike, only could bring in a bike and walk it through to repair bay. And during winter rides nobody wants my snow and salt dripping bike on their showroom floor
While I'm all for this, I think the main issue with plazas is that a majority aren't in bike friendly areas, at least the ones I can think of. I mean if by plaza you also include strip malls, those aren't usually in areas with good pedestrian sidewalks or safe cycle lanes. Even in nicer, pedestrian plazas that aren't in a city centre, those still tend to encourage customers to arrive by car before walking around the path. There needs to be substantial improvements before these plazas can really encourage cycling. Bike racks alone won't be enough.
Though purchasing bike racks at the very least or as a start would be a step in the right direction.
I can only speak for my region, which consists of eight municipalities totaling around 700,000 people, but most plazas and strip malls are quite accessible by bike, especially newer ones, which have bike infrastructure leading up to them.
Regardless, for such a small investment in a bike rack, even one customer on a bike per week will make it worth while.
I, myself, live downtown Toronto so bike infrastructure is plenty (though of course can always be better). That said, the further from downtown the less hospitable it can be biking with large roads and less road law enforcement that has some priority for biking. Then there's the suburb towns that are only now considering really bike infrastructure and areas outside the GTA that are nowhere near building it. I agree it wouldn't hurt anyone to have bike racks around as a start, but it shouldn't be the only starting point if we want people to really use them.
Yeah, the few times that I've biked to Toronto, I'm amazed by how many people are riding and how robust (not perfect, though) the bike infrastructure is.
I will say that newer development here (Durham Region) often have cycling infrastructure baked in. So multiuse paths, bike parking at bus stops, bike lanes, etc. are more and more common.
Cycling these days is always a tradeoff. I don't mind not riding in protected lanes, if my destination has bike parking; and my entire ride could be on cycling infrastructure right until I get to my destination, then nothing. There needs to be consistency and continuity for anything to work right.
Yeah, for real. I don't bike, but it's definitely weird that stores don't cater to bicyclists.
Where's this?
I'm seeing this all over Ontario, Canada.
I'm asking in case we're mapping the same area. 😄