Is This An Ironic Statement On Cycle Infrastructure?
This afternoon I went to Tesco to top up on some groceries (I know - but I had bought all my fruit & veg and meat in Whitley Bay yesterday). The parking facilities for bicycles make it clear what kind of customers Tesco values. There are roughly 500 car parking spaces, and THREE for bikes:
You’ll notice that only one of the bikes is locked to the official parking - they’ve opted for a pre-fabricated set of three Sheffield stands, which are too closely spaced to allow bikes + luggage to use (I mean, it’s not as if anyone coming to a supermarket is going to have panniers, is it?), too close to the shopping trolley shelter to be of any real use, and too short for anything except a child’s bike or a folder to use.
Speaking of folders, what does that sticker on the bike in the background say?
“Give Cyclists Room”
Yeah. So this is either a general instruction to the average motorist, or a comment on the excellent bicycle parking facilities offered in the Tescopoly of British retail.
Which do you think?
I think it’s pretty funny that people around here (Boston area) complain about traffic, complain about parking, complain about the cost of the Big Dig ($14,000,000,000, approximately), yet won’t ride bikes.
We’ve got your answer right here, guys, just holler when you’ve had enough.
We need to educate the supermarkets as to the value of bicycle riding customers, there are a number of studies which show the economic value of replacing car parking with bike parking (note study linked to is from Australia where cycling rates are lower than here). The more welcoming there are to cyclists the more money they can make from them…