Page 6 - Bicycle Parking Racks

A bike parking rack map created by the city of Bosto

There's nothing more frustrating than planning a bike trip in a city for a day, finding some great locations to stop and then not finding a bike parking rack to secure your bike.

There's a solution for this - a bike map.

More and more American cities and towns are working hard to become more bicycle friendly. They are creating bike lanes, adding a bike parking rack to more locations and educating their citizens on everything from how to ride safely to how to lock their bikes correctly.

One very smart strategy is to create a bike map for a city or town. This gives bicyclists a clear path to a bike friendly day or commute.

For politicians and public officials, adopting a more bike friendly stance is smart. According to Statista, in the spring of 2014 there were 67.33 million Americans who reported they rode their bicycle in the past 12 months. That's nearly a quarter of the population - almost one out of four people.

That trend continues

How to correctly lock a bike to a bike rack - Source: Los Angeles Police Departmen

Providing an adequate number of bike parking racks in the right location is just one way that site managers can help prevent bike thefts and curb the growing trend in stolen bicycles across the country.

Bicycle theft is not a petty crime anymore. Today's bicycles can average from $300 to $400 in price and run as high as $5,000. That's a major temptation for crooks.

One major obstacle is that bicycle theft is generally not considered a top priority for most overworked police departments. For this and other reasons, many people don't even bother to report a theft when their bike is stolen.

But the numbers are adding up. According to FBI statistics, their data indicates that 250,000 bicycles are reported stolen every year.

However, experts suggest the number of bike thefts is actually FIVE times that amount. That would mean more than 1 MILLION bicycles are ripped off every year. That is a significant crime wave.

Commercial bike rack with bicycle rider desig

It's not often a person stands up and questions the mega-corporation known as Walmart. But when it comes to a commercial bike rack, that's just what one Jupiter, Fla. person did at a recent town meeting.

Walmart is expanding their store in this southeastern Florida town from 128,000 square feet to 165,000 square feet and spending about $12 million to make the change.

Except, there was a perception somebody may have forgotten the bicycle parking racks. At least, that's what Polly Daugherty feared after she reportedly spoke to a few employees at the store who apparently told her they didn't think a bike rack would be added.

So Polly showed up at the town meeting and wanted to know why. After all she said, Jupiter is a "green town."

There is a happy ending to this story. Protests weren't required. Or a petition drive. Town planners quickly assured her that a commercial bike rack is required and in fact, a certificate of occupancy would not have

David Byrne with custom bike rac

I have admired David Byrne for as long as I can remember.

I was stuck by his unique and creative musical talents as a teenager. I was a child (teenager) of the eighties and there was no one on the musical scene like David Byrne and the Talking Heads. As I grew older, I lost track of Byrne and so many other great musicians, until he emerged as host of a Sunday evening PBS music program which was terrific. Over time I discovered we shared a passion for cycling as a form of transportation and a "vehicle" for exploration.  As fate would have it, we both see the bike rack as an opportunity for artistic expression that in a subtle way makes bicycle commuting a little more fun and cool.  Of all the products we design and sell at The Park Catalog, custom bike racks are by far my favorite and I was inspired by David Byrne's New York City custom bike rack design contest to challenge our designers and myself to conceive of even more creative designs that inspire