After a bit of time away (trips to Portland and San Francisco – with observations to come in following posts), and after some inspiring conversations with friends on this topic, I am finally able to kick off our rack etiquette campaign.

If you are like me, you have run into the conundrum of unusable space on an otherwise accommodating bike rack. The situation goes like this: You find a rack (usually the ones that look like upside-down u’s) that has been designed to accommodate a certain number of bicycles. Unfortunately on each side of the rack someone has locked up one bike directly in the middle of the rack, essentially rendering the capacity for the extra 2+ bicycles to be null.

With this campaign I am looking to spread just a bit of know-how to help people help others. Each sticker is placed in a visible location on the rack. The stickers are easy to read and illustrate proper lock up positions for bicycles. I’m hoping that this bit of information will encourage folks to lock up while leaving some room for a fellow cyclist, instead of relegating the other cyclist to the daunting task of finding another non-SDOT provided place to lock up (see: trees and sign posts).

One neat tidbit that I’ve decided to utilize is Microsoft’s TAG bar code technology that, when scanned on a smartphone, redirects people to the campaign page. On this page they will be given an overview of the campaign and a chance to take part in it themselves.

If you’d like to take part in the campaign too, please contact us here.