Commuting to work, the store, or even the beach by bike you will inevitably face the moment where you and your bike need to part ways for some substantially amount of time. If you live in the city this can be especially difficult, inside somewhere you know that this could be the last time you see your bike. Even as you lock bike to something which seems sturdy, you know that lock can be broken if someone wants to bad enough. I for one am lucky though, I can bring my bike right into my office and park it in complete safety next to the office beach cruiser. bike hugger. had an interesting post today about commuting and what to do with your bike while at work. In London they are trying to find ways to alleviate the problem and construct bike stations.
A chain of cycle "stations" - each with secure bike parking as well as shower and changing facilities - could appear across London.
At the same time bike snob. was posting about how
"A popular local non-cycling publication called The New York Times is reporting that the 34th Street Partnership is attempting to create a bike parking lot in midtown Manhattan, "
A Bike Garage in AmsterdamThis inevitably brought up many questions about the price, theft, and possibility of membership. I do however have what I think to be a pretty good theoretical system going in my head. By this I mean it relies on the existence of a well constructed city bike garage, a reasonably competent staff, a simple but reliable computer system. So here it goes.
1. You construct a bike garage with only one possible point of exit and entry
2. You have a full time gate attendant
3. Upon entry to the garage you either- press a button for a ticket, which triggers the built in camera system to take several digital photos of you and your bike.
or you swipe your member card which keeps on file your personal info, photo ID and images and descriptions of all the bikes you own.
4. Enter the garage lock your bike to one of the abundant spots
5. Upon leaving you either- give the attendant your card, he or she feeds it into the computer. The Computer then tells your length of stay and loads the images taken earlier of your arrival, so your attendant knows you are leaving with your bike.
or you give your member card triggering the same process.
6. Ride away and enjoy the rest of your day
So theres my idea, its pretty simple I hope someone builds it and its catches on.
And so to keep with the theme of todays post here some cool, to very crazy bike rack images I have come across.
2 comments:
...mr k...that is one of the few applications of the "big brother" form of technology that i could honestly agree with...
...other than the news that a cyclist has died or been hurt on their bike, i can't imagine a sicker feeling than to know your bike (or a friend's) has been stolen...
...it's a shame to think that as cyclists, we need to go to such extremes to protect our investments, but it's a reality...
...& yes, 'investment' only defines the monetary value of something that becomes a part of our identity, & dare i say, soul...
good point though.. I hadn't even thought about the big brother element, everything would of coarse be on a closed system, and the image cache would be emptied daily...
but at the same time I'm pretty sure I could think of a couple bike companies that would probably pay top dollar for that information as a form of "market research"
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