Etiquette is necessary.
Penn bikers suffer from a mild dose of confusion, apathy, or both when it comes to parking (I suspect apathy). Observe Exhibit A:
Our bike racks provide two options for locking: racks alternate one large space with two wheel-width spaces for locking. The question is, which should we choose?
It’s a matter of efficiency.
The way things are, bikers haphazardly choose one configuration or the other. When this happens, as seen in the picture above, single bikes take up two spaces.
Of course, the consequences aren’t drastic. This is just the kind of thing one thinks of when one is ten minutes late to class and one has to park one’s bike farther away from the building. Or when one is looking for a spot beneath the coveted Van Pelt overhang when there’s a chance of rain.
The point is, please lock your bikes between the narrow slots. It keeps your bike nice and straight and out of your neighbors’ way, and it’s easier to lock as well.
With a happier, more orderly, more efficient biking society, we will be able to continue our inexorable progress into the golden future. That is all.
Tags: bikes
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November 2nd, 2007 at 12:20 am
I agree that the narrow slots are where it’s at, but you can’t just go to the next pair of slots–it doesn’t leave enough room for handlebars. Looking at exhibit A, if the offending bike had parked in the narrow slots to the left, the handlebars would have gotten in the way of the other bikes’, making unparking difficult. Also, you need enough space between bikes to get to the lock and to be in a position to lift it off the rack. That becomes more difficult as bicycles are placed closer together.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:55 am
Well ideally you can load bikes onto the rack from opposite sides, and then alternate each one. In Exhibit A, the bike in the middle could be reflected across the axis of the bike rack, and then shifted in the negative direction along the X-axis to the slot adjacent to the bike on the left.
On a related note, I would like to offer Exhibit B, which demonstrates the ideal method of packing bodies into a vehicle, namely, guy/girl/guy/girl:
Shoulders –>
\/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/
Hips –>
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:42 pm
ZSF, what vehicle are you driving where you can fit 13 people in one row?