I’ve taken my bike into stores before if I needed to grab something quickly and for some reason I didn’t have my lock.
Rant: Today, it happened. I took my bike with me to an assorted goods store, Daiso if you know it. The plaza has no visible bike racks near the front of the store and in fairness I don’t have a ulock yet so I wasn’t planning to lock my bike today.
I came in the store needing to grab a few things because I just moved to the area. I figured I’d be quick in and out: came for two items. Then, one of the employees saw me in the store, even though I had already been walking around with no problem. Telling me bikes aren’t allowed in the store and that is company policy. Then, I asked them where is the bike rack because none are nearby and I asked where that was stated in the policy. I also asked if I could leave my bike with them because there is no rack outside. They saw a fire extinguisher and started making storylines about fire codes – which I wouldn’t leave anything by the door anyway… that’s why I had it with me. I just wanted to understand why the bike couldn’t be in the store. They just kept saying it was dangerous (you all remember the last time a bike took someone out right), and they had never seen a bike in a store (I wish I saw more bikes, I’d park next to all of them, but I’m bias). I asked for a name, management information of the building to perhaps install bike racks in the future, and for their names. None of this information was given to me, I wanted to find a solution to lack of bike racks and understand our relationship with bikes, but the women literally shooed me out and walked away when I asked for information. They were older women who didn’t speak English as their first language, so they had no interest in reasoning further with me. Frustrating and annoying that being on a bike makes your experience at a store less of a priority. The lack of accommodation for my bike by the store and in front of the store was all in the midst of a massive car parking lot.
I biked around the plaza and found a bike rack by the bike shop, on the other end of the plaza. On the bright side, I got to visit the local bike shop and meet one of the mechanics. I asked them about bike parking, so I found two other ones on the other side of the plaza. This is what they all looked like lol.
Prior to this incident, I already emailed the management of the plaza last week because while I was visiting I saw no bike parking, and saw people locking bikes to benches. Turns out they exist: just super hard to find, 3 options on opposing ends of the plaza, and they are designed to look like a fence not meant for bikes.
Why paint bike lanes in your city if you won’t accommodate them? (I know the shopping plazas are usually privately atly owned, but more can be done)
by pasndulce