Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I forgot I never posted the follow up to my Hardware Store Bike Ride post!
I ended up writing a letter to the store letting them know that I was unable to find a place to lock up my bike while shopping there. I mentioned that with the new bike lane on the street their store was located on it might help encourage more people to bike to the store but they’d probably want some bike parking where they could lock up their bikes.
When you write this sort of letter you hope something positive happens, but often nothing happens… but, this time something happened.
A few days after mailing the letter I got a phone call. It was from the store owner! He said he wanted to address the issue right away so he figured he’d give me a call. (I included my address, phone number, and probably an email address as well. I figure make it easy to start the conversation!)
He said that they would consider adding a bike rack but first they still had to pay the city for the cost of the bike lane, which he said all businesses along the route were billed for. He gave me a number, I don’t remember what it was, but I think it was over $10,000 USD.
The call came off as a bit of complaining about the cost to their store in adding the bike lane, but he didn’t seem upset with me, just the City of Wauwatosa. I honestly have no idea how the cost of adding bike lanes work in various areas and certainly don’t know how it works in Wauwatosa. (I’m actually a resident of Milwaukee, not Wauwatosa. A common misconception!)
I mentioned this in a biking group and the best response I got was from someone who said:
If I bike to a store and they don’t have a place to lock up my bike I just bring it in the store with me for my shopping trip. I walk my bike up and down the aisles and do my shopping. If an employee asks me to put my bike outside I just ask them to show me where the secure bike parking is… and I let them know that until they have that I’ll be bringing my bike in with me.
And honestly that’s a brilliant strategy I’ll consider in the future.
