Bike Parking

[dbb]

Here is a link to the DC Bike Parking regulations. It may or may not help you.

http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Traffic+Management/Parking/Bicycle+Parking+Regulations

For newer buildings, the regs say (among other things)

“2119.2 The number of bicycle parking spaces provided shall be at least equal to five percent (5%) of the number of automobile parking spaces required under §2101.1.”

[DaveK]

Do you have a freight elevator? Can you access it from the garage? What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him…

[vtben]

@CPTJohnC 32507 wrote:

This morning when I arrived at work, I was greeted in the lobby by one of the bldg manager folks, who informed me that henceforth, I would not be able to take my bike in through the lobby because they had put a bike rack in the garage (which previously had none).

I never understood this. Are they afraid you’re going to dirty their floors?

[FFX_Hinterlands]

@benbhsu 32518 wrote:

I never understood this. Are they afraid you’re going to dirty their floors?

I was told in our NYC office that I can’t even taked a folding bike through the lobby. The freight elevator was also not available after 6pm. I wonder if they allow a giant oversized blue IKEA bag shaped like a folded bike in the lobby?

[Greenbelt]

@FFX_Hinterlands 32519 wrote:

I was told in our NYC office that I can’t even taked a folding bike through the lobby. The freight elevator was also not available after 6pm. I wonder if they allow a giant oversized blue IKEA bag shaped like a folded bike in the lobby?

Do they allow wheelchairs? Or UPS handtrucks?

[5555624]

@benbhsu 32518 wrote:

I never understood this. Are they afraid you’re going to dirty their floors?

A few years back, the building where I live issued a letter saying we could not take bikes through the lobby because they were scratching up the floors. Yes, I pointed out that my tires were softer than those on the FedEx/UPS/USPS hand trucks and my bike was lighter than the motorized scooters/wheelchairs, but I was told that bikes were the ones scratching the floors. (It was summer, so no studded tires.) At the time, we had some anti-bike folks living here and I figured they were behind it.

My suspicions were confirmed when one of them — a resident, not management — said something to me when I carried my bike through the lobby. As I pointed out, my tires can’t scratch the floor if they don’t touch it.

The floor has been replaced and it seems, as of a few months ago, that we can once again roll bikes through the lobby.

[5555624]

@Greenbelt 32521 wrote:

Do they allow wheelchairs? Or UPS handtrucks?

See my other reply. When I brought this up, was when I realized that it was a small bunch of anti-bike folks. Luckily, most of them have moved in the last couple of years. There’s now even a bike rack out back.

[vvill]

Similar thing happened to me about 12 months ago. I was told I couldn’t bring my bike up and the rack is a wheel bender. I’ve seen others bring bikes on the elevators from time to time though, so I think I could get away with it every now and then if I wanted to.

The garage parking attendant actually stopped me this morning to ask me about my lights because he wanted to get some for his kids’ bikes. I pointed him to bikeglow.com

[CPTJohnC]

So this morning was the first time I actually had an opportunity to use the new rack and surprise, surprise, all was not cupcakes and butterflies.

The rack itself is actually pretty okay; good design, clearly intended to allow relatively damage free bike parking. By design it seems as though it would easily support 6-8 bikes with minimal conflict between them, etc…

However something I had not noticed when I first checked it out visually: The placement is colossally bad! It is way too far to the rear of the space, making it possible only to park bikes towards the front, and it is almost pushed to the wall on the right hand side (as you face it) meaning one side is inaccessible. This severely limits the locking options. Fortunately I was the first one there, so I got my choice of parking, but if 4 other people choose to use it, it will be pretty much full up.

Worse: The promise to re-program my fob to permit me to access the elevators from the garage had (unsurprisingly) not been fulfilled, so I had to call the security guard to be let in (or walk up through the garage, which seems unsafe and patently ridiculous). Note: It’s over 6 hours later, and my fob still won’t activate the garage-to-elevator door. Grrr…

Trust me when I say I know things could be a LOT worse, but I had been so pleased with my ‘bike friendly’ workplace. Unfortunately, my employer has little or no influence, as we are a relatively small tenant, and we’re actually a sub tenant through a different organization, reducing our influence even further. We’re also considered ‘temporary’ (I was sent to this satellite office as a ‘short term, temporary solution to a space crunch’ — 20 months ago).

Let’s see if I can get pictures to show up:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1766[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]1767[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]1768[/ATTACH]

[FFX_Hinterlands]

There should be a “bike parking installation guidelines” document that you can show them. Arlington has a good one, but DC probably does as well. It would show the proper installation of these racks. Find the facilities person and hand it to them.

There’s nothing more annoying that incorrectly installed bike parking.

[eminva]

If you get it figured out, let me know — my building doesn’t even have a garage, so the cyclists here park in the building next door. The rack (wheel bender style) is shoved up against some boiler equipment located in the garage — so on top of limiting the available space, I’m worried that if some HVAC emergency happens in that building, the building engineers will have to shove the rack out of the way without regard to what is attached to it. I could see a couple of ways the situation could be improved without sacrificing a single Extremely Valuable Automobile Parking Space, but am afraid to bring it up since I’m sort of a squatter there. I’ve resolved the issue by being friendly to the parking attendant in the hopes he will alert me if I need to get my bike out of there in a hurry.

Liz

[CPTJohnC]

@eminva 32694 wrote:

If you get it figured out, let me know — my building doesn’t even have a garage, so the cyclists here park in the building next door. Liz

This is why I hesitate to even complain — I know things are so much worse in so many places, and I’m seriously afraid of raising too much stink lest they do something really horrible, like unbolt the rack to move it, and not re-secure it. Or decide that I need to pay a monthly fee to park (I’m not sure whether that’s prohibited under the DC Law…)

Oh, and based on your ‘location’ it seems likely we’ve crossed paths at one time or another — I’m also a Vienna area to DC commuter.

BTW: I didn’t realize my bldg had a garage until this happened, as the access is through the building next door — the single garage entrance serves 3 or 4 different ‘buildings’ based on addresses. Have you confirmed that the parking garage is not a shared structure?

I presume there are spaces in the garage that are unusable to cars, but that would be appropriate for bike parking? Are there bikey-folks who DO work in the correct bldg who could offer the suggestion(s) on your behalf?

[FFX_Hinterlands]

@CPTJohnC 32706 wrote:

I presume there are spaces in the garage that are unusable to cars, but that would be appropriate for bike parking? Are there bikey-folks who DO work in the correct bldg who could offer the suggestion(s) on your behalf?

At my office (granted, suburban Northern VA) I scouted some locations and called a meeting of all bike commuters and a person from facilities to walk around and look at the current parking and spots for new parking. They ended up adding a few new racks in unused spaces and even took out a car parking space to install three inverted U racks. Inverted U racks are cheap and they can always add more in places where they’re needed.

[eminva]

@CPTJohnC 32706 wrote:

BTW: I didn’t realize my bldg had a garage until this happened, as the access is through the building next door — the single garage entrance serves 3 or 4 different ‘buildings’ based on addresses. Have you confirmed that the parking garage is not a shared structure?

This is a good question — there is no parking garage directly under our building, but the senior officials of my employer park (their cars) in the same garage where I park my bike. I assume the company rents the spaces, so maybe we have some sort of relationship with them.

@CPTJohnC 32706 wrote:

I presume there are spaces in the garage that are unusable to cars, but that would be appropriate for bike parking? Are there bikey-folks who DO work in the correct bldg who could offer the suggestion(s) on your behalf?

It’s kind of difficult to say because you see familiar bikes on the racks, but don’t often run into the cyclists. I have seen one woman on occasion who I think works in the building — I will ask her next time I see her, or even leave a note on the bike. Most of the cyclists parking there work for my company, though.

Liz

[dbb]

DC has bike parking requirements although you may find yourself having to push the issue

http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Traffic+Management/Parking/Bicycle+Parking+Regulations

For new buildings (well sort of new), the requirement is “2119.2 The number of bicycle parking spaces provided shall be at least equal to five percent (5%) of the number of automobile parking spaces required under §2101.1.”

For buildings that are not new, the reg states “2119.9 For a building or structure existing on March 1, 1985, one percent (1%) of the amount of required parking spaces may be converted to bicycle parking spaces of appropriate size.”

[Author]

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