I got a ticket last night while parked at COC. But not the usual kind:
Dear College of the Canyons:
Thank you for your kind note. I’m glad you found the time to enforce parking standards even inside your building. You’re certainly very efficient!
Yes, I parked and locked my bike under the stairs and out-of-the-way inside the nicely-appointed lobby of your shiny new University Center. I know this must have surprised you, but rest assured I wasn’t trying to be troublesome, I just wanted a secure place to lock my bike.
See, our City’s municipal code (17.18.105) requires that buildings like the University Center have bicycle parking. But, unfortunately for me and anyone else who wants to ride to COC, there is no bicycle rack installed at the UC. Oh sure, there’s some down on the main campus, but that’s quite a hike, almost a quarter mile! You don’t expect UC students with cars to park that far away, so why should I?
You went to the trouble of building a beautiful new building and a giant ocean of asphalt for cars, but you forgot to install a simple bicycle rack out front for those of us who are actually interested in reducing the amount of cars on the road and in the parking lot.
Your suggestion that I lock my bike to a “pole” is a non-starter, I’m afraid. Poles serve as structures that hold important signs that convey information. They are not bicycle parking devices. I do not want to worry about my bike falling over or God forbid, on someone if it’s locked to a pole.
Fortunately for you, we cyclists don’t require much space. Just a few square feet of pavement in front of the building or behind it with a bolted-down device that we can lock our bikes to. You can go for the cheap and unsightly ones like this:
or you could spend a little extra money and get a nice bike rack befitting such a nice and modern building like this:
or this:
and then you could issue a press release touting how sustainable, green, and bike-friendly your campus has become. Who knows, you might even get coverage in the local paper.
COC, you and I have had a long and positive relationship. You’re tops in my book, the best run institution in all of the SCV I’d hate to see it go sour over something as simple as this. But we need bike racks. Even Westfield Patios installed bike racks. Are you really going to let something as pedestrian as the mall outdo you?
In short, please install legitimate bike racks at the University Center and I will gladly secure my bike to it. Until then, I remain
Very Sincerely Yours,
Jeff Wilson
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