Bike Lockers

[bobco85]

@DrP 136751 wrote:

I use the freight elevator in my building with my bicycle. I figure it is harder for them to complain about me. I agree with your reasons to not park in the bike parking provided in the building (I am in Crystal City), which I had confirmed when a coworker had her deraileur bent one time down there. I just don’t trust really long term lock-up – the hour I am at the gym is about as long as I am willing to do (and their bike parking is horrible – but that would be a thread unto itself).

It might be worth asking the building why they forbid the bicycles in the office. If your office is okay with it, there should be a way to do it – your office pays them rent, so they might want to accomodate. There is likely a freight elevator that perhaps they would allow cyclists to use (ours is technically open to all – when the line for it is full of equipment, then I take the regular elevators, but that is rare).

I forgot to mention: there is a freight elevator in the building that I would try to use whenever possible, but a few weeks ago they changed the call buttons so a special key is now required to call the freight elevator. Come to think of it, that change was probably foreshadowing for this situation (i.e., cyclists can no longer use freight elevator leading to taking the regular elevators and sharing space which not everyone “appreciates” leading to complaints leading to a crackdown on an otherwise harmless piece of transportation).

[Rockford10]

Commercial leases usually contain restrictions on bikes in buildings now. I suspect most read the lease quickly when the lease and then never go back to it during the term (at least not when they have a bike riding employee that now wants to store their bike in the unused office space). My office is moving and the new lease is very clear there is no bike parking in the office space. Womp. We also can’t sleep or eat in the office, nor can I display my commemorative bourbon. Regardless, the bourbon is staying, but the bike will be somewhere in the garage. Damn lawyers.

[Steve O]

@Rockford10 136762 wrote:

We also can’t sleep …in the office

So much for taking conference calls anymore.

[Steve O]

Wait a minute. The Ballston mall parking garage is owned by Arlington County. Seems to me this Silver-wish-we-were-Gold LAB community ought to be providing world-class bike parking in their own garage. Tim linked to the bike parking recommendations at the start of this thread. Wouldn’t it be nice if the county itself actually followed those recommendations. Or went above and beyond?

Hey Tim, Henry, Erin. Can you talk to your colleagues who work at the county and are responsible for this garage and find out what they are doing to help? They should be on our team, right?

[Steve O]

I bet that if you could find a bike locker somewhere and sneak it into the garage, you could put it in a corner space or out-of the way area and stencil “Property of BikeArlington” on the side, and it would remain there undisturbed forever.

[Tim Kelley]

@Steve O 136766 wrote:

Wait a minute. The Ballston mall parking garage is owned by Arlington County. Seems to me this Silver-wish-we-were-Gold LAB community ought to be providing world-class bike parking in their own garage. Tim linked to the bike parking recommendations at the start of this thread. Wouldn’t it be nice if the county itself actually followed those recommendations. Or went above and beyond?

Hey Tim, Henry, Erin. Can you talk to your colleagues who work at the county and are responsible for this garage and find out what they are doing to help? They should be on our team, right?

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. FRANKLIN DELANO.

This changes everything! Sounds like a job for THE DAVIDS!

(I’ll let them know)

[Tim Kelley]

My gut reaction is that it’s an enforcement issue…despite the garage website stating “The garage is patrolled by Ballston Common Mall security 24 hours a day.”

http://transportation.arlingtonva.us/locations/ballston-public-parking-garage/

[Rockford10]

@Steve O 136765 wrote:

So much for taking conference calls anymore.

They still haven’t outlawed Candy Crush.

[chris_s]

My preliminary research indicates that the big tall office building above the mall itself predates Arlington County’s bike parking requirements and therefore does not have employee bike storage, but that the office space above the old Hecht’s was built later enough that is should have some. Unfortunately the plans for that development are not available online anywhere that I can find, so I can’t tell you WHERE it would be, but that’s a parking garage worth exploring (I believe that’d be the one under the Chipotle).

[Starduster]

@Tim Kelley 136771 wrote:

My gut reaction is that it’s an enforcement issue…despite the garage website stating “The garage is patrolled by Ballston Common Mall security 24 hours a day.”

Enforcement issue? Sounds more like a “Will to enforce” issue, or lack thereof.

[huskerdont]

@Rockford10 136762 wrote:

.We also can’t sleep or eat in the office.

When people make ridiculous rules, they make rulebreakers.

It has nothing to do with me yet it still kinda p*sses me off. I guess it’s the complete lack of consideration that there are actual people working there 8+ hours a day every day.

[Tim Kelley]

@Starduster 136799 wrote:

@Tim Kelley 136771 wrote:

My gut reaction is that it’s an enforcement issue…despite the garage website stating “The garage is patrolled by Ballston Common Mall security 24 hours a day.”

Enforcement issue? Sounds more like a “Will to enforce” issue, or lack thereof.

http://elc.byu.edu/elc/student/idioms/idioms/images/hit_nail_on_head.jpg

[Tim Kelley]

GB, Bobco and anyone else who used this garage and wants to see better bike parking when they do the redesign, please contact David Patton at the County: dpatton at arlingtonva dot us. He’s documented the need for better bike parking here and would like to hear your experiences.

[Tim Kelley]

FYI–there has been some movement on this. Let’s just say that the people who need to be looking into this are now looking into this.

[Author]

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