Before reading: press play to get in the mood.
Have you
ever seen the amount of bicycles in The Netherlands? In many cities, like
Amsterdam, there a numerous bikes. All these bikes are not good for the view
and more importantly they take a lot of space occupied. I found a few interesting
signals about this matter, with each their own solution.
What did Metro say?
On the 22th
of April an article was placed in the newspaper Metro. It was about paying to ‘park’
your bike. The purpose is to reduce the surplus of cycling in cities. CROW, a
research institute, has conducted a research which shows that cities will get
clogged by the growing number of bicycles. They consider paid bicycle-parking
as a serious possibility for the future. Many responses poured in, “it should
not get any crazier” is one of the responses. Most people already feel obligated
to take the bike instead of their car because the parking costs are often very
high. Would you pay for parking your bike?
What happens in Japan?
You can
close a cheap subscription in Japan that allows you to an underground parking space
for your bike. This would allow the city to filter the old, disused bicycles
out and remove them. This does not only make the streets look a lot better, but
it also means you will find your bike much quicker. It works due a chip on your
bike and in your subscription card, it is fully automatized.
What is the solution in Philly?
There is a
new concept in Philadelphia, also referred to as the new streetwise street
cruiser. It is a cyan-blue bike. It is very similar to the OV bicycle as we
know in the Netherlands. The concept is based on point-to-point journeys and it
needs to end in a Indego-location. The concept starts at 60 stations, but
Indego does not know how many bike they need yet.
When you
park your blue Indego bike somewhere else as in the Indego-location and I gets
stolen or damaged, you are the luck owner of a fine of at least $1,000. I
personally would not dare to risk getting a fine.
Why
We probably
all know about the problem cities have with bikes parked everywhere. But the
solution from The Netherlands, Japan and Philadelphia do not have much in
common except for the fact it costs money. I personally think the solution from
Japan is the best, it may costs some money but I will have the least risks for
the user. Even though it might take some time and money to build it, but
eventually it will give the best
results. No more bikes in our street view and it is also easy and quick to use
for everyone (with an subscription ofcourse). The risks of paid parking and the
borrow-cycle-concept is that bikes can be stolen and old unused bikes will
still continue to clog the streets. The concept from Japan will only allow you
to get your own bike. You not only pay for the storage but also for the security
of your bike for being stolen and from bad weather. The ideas from Philadelphia
and The Netherlands does not erase there negative points and for this reason I think
the underground parking spaces for your bike will be THE solution for the
problem about bikes all over the world.
From these
three ideas I think with underground parking the problem can be solved. How do
you think about it? Would you pay for storing your bike or maybe would you
rather take your car, since you have to pay for both your car of your bike. If
you got curious about how these signals, they can be found bellow in the researches.
I would love to hear which solution you prefer.
Researches:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210539515000127
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