The Sheffield/staple/inverted-U design is great, but I think you undersell the Toronto ring and post. Having just one point of contact with the ground instead of two, they're cheaper to install and require less concrete for the footings (and therefore less upfront carbon), while maintaining two points of contact to lock to. I think they're a lovely, clever little design.
and I know David Dennis who designed it, I agree that it is great. After I saw this I went to a meeting downtown and locked to a ring and have to note that you are right, it gives you two points of contact, and my bike was still there after lunch.
I'm gonna grip on to that last paragraph, and especially the notion of "safe places to ride", as I think there's a really interesting debat needed to be had, which hasn't materialized; a few notes on it below, trying to keep it organized. And just as a frame of reference, as I think experience in biking is very important in these debates, I grew up in DK biked since I was a kid. Live ½ year in Amsterdam (2007). about 5-6years in Copenhagen, and just left NYC after 10 years there, arrived in Taipei and excited to get my bike out of the container. Commuting primarily on bike in all places.
I think it would be interesting to have a wider conversation about what constitutes safe biking infrastructure. A lot of biking infrastructure is somewhat just a scaled down version of auto-infrastructure, a separate lane, the lights are the same just a little smaller, Stop signs are even worse as cops think you can only stop by putting your foot on the ground (no one is expecting a driver to put their foot out the door to prove they've stopped, and all this even though bikes functions in a very different way; our visibility, agility, speeds, are all different from that of sitting behind a motor with a speeder.
It appears that to most safe bike infrastructure means divided infrastructure, this is at least what is being constructed a lot. But is it more a of a mixture, which also includes adding bike awareness to all driver license tests, to educate the driving public on awareness of bikes. In NYC the bike lane is in many cases a dangerous place to be, as pedestrians are not used to this, and so will pop into without looking, delivery people roll their carts there, all mayor drains are located here, which are dimensioned for cars and trucks not thin bike wheels, and so often times the safest place would be in the street with the cars, especially if you can bike around the speeding limit, and if you take up space for yourself, the drivers of NYC are much more aware of "incoming" objects, as they are used to people jaywalking and people jumping lanes, so if you make yourself visible and know, they'll be annoyed with you, but drivers are annoyed with everything, but they will give you space. I also understand that it is not for everyone to bike like this, my point is, that safe biking I think need to include much more than "Copenhagen-style bikepaths" separating people; some separation is likely needed, but it's also education in awareness of each other. For me it was a lot easier and better to bike in New York City than it was in Copenhagen.
Furthermore, as you're mentioning e-bikes; do we at this moment also need to consider if there needs to be additional specific e-bike infrastructure an/or training needed to get on one? During my 10 years in NYC I witness the rise of the e-bike, and especially the city-e-bike, which in many cases is quite dangerous, as the people using them often have little experience with biking, and suddenly move a speeds (20mph) they are not fully in control over, to the danger of other bikers and pedestrians.
As for bike parking, I'm all for more and maybe not on the curb where drivers are still prone to hitting parked bikes, or pedestrians knocking them over. Do consider how to make e-bike parking better, also from a fire hazard point of view where there's some safety against overheating batteries. Add that, but don't remove all of our hanging and up top bike storage (in the last photo from Amsterdam, there's quite a few bikes parked up top)—it's one of the few privileges of having a light weight 100% human powered bike still.
Here in the District-Maryland-Virginia (aka, Washington DC and suburbs), ebikes of all sorts (supported by e-scooters) are outnumbering traditional bikes everywhere. I have enjoyed also seeing the increased number of cargo bikes and other designs supporting families, deliveries, etc. - I have not seen what new construction projects are doing about bike parking but there are a number of new buildings in our area that I should check out.
I recall ours then had roofs of corrugated iron and were double-sided so a free standing rack could be approached from both sides and better use was made of the available space, keeping handle-bars apart. The racks for the wheels were U-shaped, so different sizes (lengths) of bike could use the racks. I expect a well-known Toronto architect/cyclist could probably alter the design to accomodate e-bikes...
>>"Who knows, if we had that Amsterdam kind of parking infrastructure we might find that there are 7,000 cyclists to fill it."
The population of Toronto in 2017 was 2.93 million, according to StatCan and the United Nations (although Wikipedia pegs the number at 2.79 million in 2021 ... Covid-19 excess deaths at play?) so forgive me for saying that this is a lot of fuss to accommodate 0,24% of the city's population.
The Sheffield/staple/inverted-U design is great, but I think you undersell the Toronto ring and post. Having just one point of contact with the ground instead of two, they're cheaper to install and require less concrete for the footings (and therefore less upfront carbon), while maintaining two points of contact to lock to. I think they're a lovely, clever little design.
and I know David Dennis who designed it, I agree that it is great. After I saw this I went to a meeting downtown and locked to a ring and have to note that you are right, it gives you two points of contact, and my bike was still there after lunch.
I'm gonna grip on to that last paragraph, and especially the notion of "safe places to ride", as I think there's a really interesting debat needed to be had, which hasn't materialized; a few notes on it below, trying to keep it organized. And just as a frame of reference, as I think experience in biking is very important in these debates, I grew up in DK biked since I was a kid. Live ½ year in Amsterdam (2007). about 5-6years in Copenhagen, and just left NYC after 10 years there, arrived in Taipei and excited to get my bike out of the container. Commuting primarily on bike in all places.
I think it would be interesting to have a wider conversation about what constitutes safe biking infrastructure. A lot of biking infrastructure is somewhat just a scaled down version of auto-infrastructure, a separate lane, the lights are the same just a little smaller, Stop signs are even worse as cops think you can only stop by putting your foot on the ground (no one is expecting a driver to put their foot out the door to prove they've stopped, and all this even though bikes functions in a very different way; our visibility, agility, speeds, are all different from that of sitting behind a motor with a speeder.
It appears that to most safe bike infrastructure means divided infrastructure, this is at least what is being constructed a lot. But is it more a of a mixture, which also includes adding bike awareness to all driver license tests, to educate the driving public on awareness of bikes. In NYC the bike lane is in many cases a dangerous place to be, as pedestrians are not used to this, and so will pop into without looking, delivery people roll their carts there, all mayor drains are located here, which are dimensioned for cars and trucks not thin bike wheels, and so often times the safest place would be in the street with the cars, especially if you can bike around the speeding limit, and if you take up space for yourself, the drivers of NYC are much more aware of "incoming" objects, as they are used to people jaywalking and people jumping lanes, so if you make yourself visible and know, they'll be annoyed with you, but drivers are annoyed with everything, but they will give you space. I also understand that it is not for everyone to bike like this, my point is, that safe biking I think need to include much more than "Copenhagen-style bikepaths" separating people; some separation is likely needed, but it's also education in awareness of each other. For me it was a lot easier and better to bike in New York City than it was in Copenhagen.
Furthermore, as you're mentioning e-bikes; do we at this moment also need to consider if there needs to be additional specific e-bike infrastructure an/or training needed to get on one? During my 10 years in NYC I witness the rise of the e-bike, and especially the city-e-bike, which in many cases is quite dangerous, as the people using them often have little experience with biking, and suddenly move a speeds (20mph) they are not fully in control over, to the danger of other bikers and pedestrians.
As for bike parking, I'm all for more and maybe not on the curb where drivers are still prone to hitting parked bikes, or pedestrians knocking them over. Do consider how to make e-bike parking better, also from a fire hazard point of view where there's some safety against overheating batteries. Add that, but don't remove all of our hanging and up top bike storage (in the last photo from Amsterdam, there's quite a few bikes parked up top)—it's one of the few privileges of having a light weight 100% human powered bike still.
thanks for the very thorough comment!
Here in the District-Maryland-Virginia (aka, Washington DC and suburbs), ebikes of all sorts (supported by e-scooters) are outnumbering traditional bikes everywhere. I have enjoyed also seeing the increased number of cargo bikes and other designs supporting families, deliveries, etc. - I have not seen what new construction projects are doing about bike parking but there are a number of new buildings in our area that I should check out.
When I was a student in Reading, Berks. in the early 1960s I recall we had bike racks that looked a bit like these:
https://www.cyclepods.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DSC03315web.jpg
https://www.parrs.co.uk/images/semi-vertical-bike-racks-upto-10-bikes-p10484-18287_image.jpg
I recall ours then had roofs of corrugated iron and were double-sided so a free standing rack could be approached from both sides and better use was made of the available space, keeping handle-bars apart. The racks for the wheels were U-shaped, so different sizes (lengths) of bike could use the racks. I expect a well-known Toronto architect/cyclist could probably alter the design to accomodate e-bikes...
>>"Who knows, if we had that Amsterdam kind of parking infrastructure we might find that there are 7,000 cyclists to fill it."
The population of Toronto in 2017 was 2.93 million, according to StatCan and the United Nations (although Wikipedia pegs the number at 2.79 million in 2021 ... Covid-19 excess deaths at play?) so forgive me for saying that this is a lot of fuss to accommodate 0,24% of the city's population.
that's just one garage, there is parking for 200,000 bikes on the rail network leading into Amsterdam.