Norman Hinderliter has a letter to the Illinois Times this week--in his words, "my yearly reminder to those citizens who are fed up with working 40 hours a week to just sign their paychecks over to local gas stations: Try bicycling this summer -- not just to save gas money but for health as well." I totally endorse that sentiment, but there's one quibble I have.
At the end of his letter, Hinderliter says bike parking is unbeatable, since bikes can park anywhere. To which I say: Not in my experience, sir! I have about six places I bike to repeatedly: work, downtown, the library, the grocery store, Hometown Pantry, and Walgreens. At work, I chain up to a tree; ditto at the grocery store (County Market on Monroe). Maldaners and the library both offer downtown racks, as do Hometown Pantry and Walgreens.
Bike racks--like bike lanes on heavily traveled roads--don't just make it easier and more convenient to cycle, they also signal that bicycling is an important part of our transportation system. Their absence--say, from workplaces, from grocery stores, from downtown at the old state capitol--communicates the reverse: bicycling is fringe and frivolous.
Bike racks are not expensive, and a tree is not a parking space.