Last week I went for a doctors appointment and I couldn’t easily find a place to park my bike. If you look closely at the photo below, you will notice a pink bike, but that one is just sitting next to the door unlocked. Not something I would do with my bike.

As you can see in the photo below, I had to get crafty and wedge my bike next to a bush and lock it to the base of the Handicap Parking pole.


It is something I am finding more and more. I know that it is not required of private property to have bike racks, but as a courtesy it would be nice. I remember a couple months ago looking for 20 minutes at Fashion Island ad could not find one at all. I would prefer not to have to use parking poles and benches as it can impede on the public and the intended use of the bench or walkway.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I wish OC had better bike racks. Not just on private property, but on the city streets. And not the edge of the tire kind, something like in the photo below that a cyclist can get a ulock around and through the middle of the frame or in the rear triangle/wheel area. Not every street has parking meters, which have become the old stand-by for a majority of cyclists.

When the gas prices go up again (and it will) and the with ever growing popularity with being green, I would hope more cities would look into doing this as more and more people start riding their bikes around. In the meantime, I know it would benefit myself and other riders in Orange County.