The Bicycle User Group at our workplace is little more than a handful of riders who are subscribed to an internal mailing list. Every now and then an interesting message is sent around, but other than that it doesn't do much.
But back in July, the following comment circulated on the list:
You can't get much more coldly mid-Winter than July, yet throughout July, the bike racks in the car park have been near capacity. Do you think there will be a shortage of bike rack spaces when the weather improves and more people ride?
The ensuing discussion concluded that "the BUG" should request more parking rails. A related thread of conversation lamented that there was inadequate access space at the existing rails, with parked cars frequently encroaching unnecessarily (company cars the worst offenders…)
Making the case
An enquiry was despatched to the parking office on the same day:
Could you please advise how we might arrange to have more bicycle rails installed in the car park in our building?
In the car park there are 10 bicycle rails to which 20 bicycles can be locked (one on either side). Over the last year or so the number of people in this building has increased to the point that these rails are often at or near capacity. Today is a good example: of the 20 available spaces, 16 are occupied. Note that not everyone who cycles to work does so at this time of year, so we could reasonably expect demand for bike parking regularly to exceed supply as we head towards summer. And given the increase in petrol prices and overcrowding of public transport, it is reasonable to anticipate a further increase in commuting cyclists in this building throughout the year.
A few day later, the BUG was advised who to contact about this issue. Within days of our enquiry to the appropriate contact a draft plan was circulated to the BUG and comments sought. Some expressed concerns about access space (as per Bicycle Victoria guidelines).
At the start of September, we were in contact with the newly-appointed 'Project Manager' of this task, who presented a couple of revised options.
Following up
After a couple of weeks of silence and inaction, we made a short and polite enquiry to Project Manager in mid-September. He replied, "Sorry about the delays I have been very busy with other projects I will endeavour start your inquiry soon."
Uh oh, we thought.
We let it run until things got seriously crowded at the racks in late October and November. Then we sent the following message to the Project Manager:
It's getting a bit urgent for us now--the existing racks are filling on a regular basis and people are starting to lock their bikes in other places. We are concerned that riders will lock their bikes in a way that might be risky in terms of OH&S.
Two days later ten new rails were installed and bike parking capacity had doubled:
In addition four concrete buffers were placed in front of the existing rails, providing clear access and even enough space to perform the odd repair:
A three-and-a-half month run up, but we got there just before summer.
There's no doubt we we are relatively lucky in that our employer is accepting of bicycle commuters but we helped ourselves by asking early and politely, making a good case and following up. It probably didn't hurt that requests were made on behalf of a workplace BUG rather than by individuals too.
I hope someone sent an appreciative email to the project manager -- and cc-ed to her/his boss.
That is an awfully odd repair. Why not just get round wheels so they'll fit inside the tires?
Comments
Indeed the thank-you note is an important but (I suspect) often neglected aspect of advocacy (I even forgot to mention it above). Yes, everyone we'd had contact with was thanked and congratulated on a job well done. We were able to report that the new bike rails were in use on the day they were installed—even as the concrete buffers were being laid down.