Peter Flax

Yeah if I had a slightly smaller U lock (10 inches is common) I would have been screwed.

NANCY MACE: What is a woman? Have you learned that lesson?

WALZ: I'm the governor of Minnesota. I'm not here to be a prop for your obsession.

It's horrible but I still see some front-wheel only racks here

I am fucking BEGGING the folks who design bike racks and the folks who manage facilities that buy bike racks to stop making/selling/buying racks that can't satisfy this primary requirement. Feel free to install little sculptures wherever you want but for God's sake give riders bike racks that work.

I will wrap this up. This is not complex. Bike racks are like water fountains, urinals, coffee cups, staircases, and corkscrews. They are objects that have one primary function that defines their usefulness. A bike rack's ONLY job is to give riders a safe and convenient way to secure their property.

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Again, for the non-riders who might be reading this and wondering why I'm going to such lengths to lock both my wheels, here's a bike I saw at the coworking office.

The wave at Trader Joe's isn't ideal but it isn't dogshit.

Slightly worse than Trader Joe's because of the walls.

Again, just for non-riders who lack context and think I'm being melodramatic, after I left the mall I stopped at a Trader Joe's and an office and look how easy it was to lock my bike with removing only the front wheel—and I still had space to lock my helmet. This is how most racks are and should be.

Doesn't look so artful now, does it?

In the end, this is the ONLY way I could lock my bike securely. I had to remove both wheels, turn the frame upside down, and play jenga to secure everything. This is not only annoying as shit, it's an unreasonable ask for casual riders and it won't work with beefier wheels or frames. It's horrible!

I will spare you the agony of the next 10 minutes of fruitless puzzling to find a way to secure my frame and both wheels. Typically I remove my front wheel and feed the U-lock through the seat stay and rear wheel and then lock the rim of the front wheel. Simply not possible with this artsy rack.

Lest any non-riders think I’m being melodramatic, this is the state of one of the racks. Would you want to lock a valuable personal item to this??

Nothing says high security like exposed bolts.

What's the worst that could happen?

I'll get to the ordeal of locking a bike in a minute, but here's another fatal flaw. The racks are secured with externally visible bolts. Meaning that with very basic tools one could remove these racks from the ground in a few minutes. That is not reassuring or smart.

It's a great rack to secure a hula hoop.

There are actually multiple problems with this rack but let's cut to the chase. Its shape and dimensions make locking a bike stupid-hard. Shown below is an 11.5-inch U lock. There is only one way to feed a U-lock through this rack...and I knew as soon as I saw the rack that it would be horrible.

Background: This is at a "lifestyle mall" called The Point—the kind of joint that has a Cotopaxi, Herman Miller, Warby Parker, and of course Soul Cycle. It's at a super busy intersection but an easy 5-minute ride for thousands of people.

Without further ado, let me briefly offer an analysis of an artfully shitty bike rack in El Segundo, California.

Geez, there really are a lot of Democrats who have a problem voting for a Black woman.

I thought everyone knew that misspoke could be a noun.

Lay perspective LOL

In some cases, nothing is better than something bad. I bring my bike into businesses if I don't think the racks are secure.

LOL I appreciate your impatience!

I just saw a bike rack an upscale shopping mall in El Segundo that is so extra shitty that I can't wait to go back with my bike tomorrow and take photos so at least 37 of you will empathize.

California drivers see third-highest car insurance hike despite national decline For all the car owners in the state – im sure youre dealing with insurance hikes.Despite most of the country seeing premiums fall this year – california drivers

One thing I love about riding a bike as my primary transport—I'm fully insulated from the stresses of owning a car. Geopolitical insanity and macroeconomic BS don't add costs. I don't visit gas stations or repair shops or the DMV. I can fix a flat tire in 5 minutes for $6.
kmph.com/news/local/c...

Basing existential foreign policy decision on the Rapture...what could go wrong?

I have had and loved dogs my whole life but honestly have not ever hung out with a Dalmatian. But this fellow’s family is moving into a new apartment today and he has been a very sweet houseguest. Would repeat.

If I wanted to read shitty tweets written by shitty people, I would be on Twitter. The whole reason I'm here is to not read those shitty tweets.

Very good points; thanks for adding that.

It's sadly very similar to the discourse around AI. People with massive power really struggle (or refuse) to see regular folks as having as much worth as themselves. The oligarchy sees regular folks more as disposable resources that have a certain value for various enterprises or priorities.

It's really disheartening to think about how little powerful leaders throughout history care about the individual lives that are lost and families that suffer and all the repercussive harm caused by totally unnecessary warfare.

This isn't rocket science. Put racks in busy places. Near the front door. Space them out, far from a wall. Make sure they're well lit. Make locking easy. The goal is for riders to come back and have their bikes still there. If it's a business, the goal is to have riders come often to buy shit.

The folk who decide where to place racks seem clueless about what users need. In places where theft is a problem, the best practice is to lock the frame and both wheels. Riders need space to do that. Tucking a rack near a wall makes that hard, especially if the rack is meant to hold multiple bikes.

Yet businesses and public places often hide racks in the darkest, weirdest corners—a hidden corner of a parking structure; a dark alcove on the side of a building; an alley no one uses. Their unspoken goal is to check a box (to have bike parking) but stick the facility in an unused sliver of space.