Photo clean out

If there’s one thing I like to do more than crab about ambiguous street signs and poorly designed streets it’s bike parking! More specifically, the lack of bike parking. But that’s not what I’m writing about today. Instead, I’m cleaning out my photo bag with a few choice shots of parked bikes that I found in recent travels.

First a local one, spotted at the Providence train station:

Okay, so it’s just a cruiser. A fairly humble form of bicycle transportation, but it’s not a bad idea to park a cheap bike at the train station if you are going to leave it all day. But wait, what’s that in the back there… ENHANCE!

Pegs! On a cruiser! Are they for pulling mad stuntz? Or possibly portaging passengers? Maybe the passenger could drip some lube on that chain or something.

I was in New York in January and even though it was cold, there was still a good amount of cycling going on.

I finally saw first hand, the legendary “hipster high lock”

Unfortunately, even locked that high, this bike was not immune to being hit by a plow (or possibly a UPS truck) which seems to have destroyed its front wheel.

Around the corner, I found a collection of bakfiets and trikes parked outside of a small shop, then I hit the jackpot when this guy rolled up:

I’m really not sure how useful a faring is on the streets of New York. Can you really feel the aerodynamic benefits in stop-and-go traffic? Along with hitting the jackpot with spotting a recumbent with a faring, this is the rare beardless recumbent pilot. He had to make up for his lack of beard by wearing a balaclava.

I found a few creative bikes as well.

This bike is really the total package: There’s a noseless saddle (not unlike what I ride); front basket “secured” with bungee cords; duct-tape-based top tube pad; an extra-long quill stem extender leading to a WTF cockpit (I’m guessing it’s up that high to give the rider an upright posture, but how does he grab the brakes?); and a giant rubbermaid tub bungee corded to the rack (which seems to be shimmed with insulation or something). It’s a fantastic example of urban bicycle design. You can expect beloved cycles to release their version next year for $3,500. They’ll call it “Parry” and the copy will go something like this:

Parry knows the city like no other.

The alleys, the distinct village of each block, which super will let you rummage through the recycling for bottle and can deposits.

He knows no schedule, and knows no bounds.

Parry (a bum bike)

In going through my old photos, I found this gem from Westminster Street:

I was kind of impressed to see that someone had shoveled all the way to the bike hitching post until I realized it was more likely that the shoveling was to get access to the trash can.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I like to complain about many things: poorly designed bike parking, rude (or dangerous) motorists, potholes, people who don’t shovel their sidewalks, I could go on and I will. Lately, I’ve seen a few examples of something that just angers me on such a different level.

Cars parking on the sidewalk. Benefit Street in this case. Even parking for “just a minute” there is no excuse for parking on a sidewalk. Unless, of course, you’re a RIPTA supervisor:

Then, evidently, you can park wherever the hell you like.