Philadelphia’s new bike racks: a thief’s best friend.
yikes.
while i was unable to ride due to torn acl, i walked by one of those and was all like “man, that looks like something cool to lock a bike to. i think i might lock my bike to it when i can”.
Yikes for sure.
Holy shit, that’s even worse fail than our Toronto bike posts which at least require the use of a 2x4 to break. That doesn’t even need tools, what dipshits
I wonder how much the city paid for these turds.
nothing a monkey with an arc welder couldnt fix
“(The mayor’s office) announced yesterday that it has received a $14.1 Million ‘Energy Efficiency Block Grant’ from the U.S. Department of Energy. Approximately $375,000 of that will be used to retrofit 1600 meter poles left standing by the Philadelphia Parking Authority as it converted street parking from meters to kiosks this summer. It will also be used to purchase about 1000 more inverted-U racks. This past August, the Bicycle Coalition and the Center City District advised the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities on the location of 1600 meter poles that should be retrofitted based on where bike parking was heaviest.” - October 9, 2009
They were installed June 9, 2010.
$234.38 each. I assume that includes installation costs (a union job, clearly ^). And these fit how many bikes (for however long they’re “locked up”, that is)?
Fucking stupid.
you can fit like 2 bikes on them?
welding them will be cakesauce
foresight. they haz none.
But it didn’t include welding, apparently.
Gotta love the government. Quality couldn’t be job #1, because this is stimulus money after all guys. Those “jobs” this project created only lasted a couple months tops, so they’ve smartly factored in routine maintenance and upkeep for the next 12 months – which has been budgeted to go 3 million dollars over the initial investment of 375k. And the most exciting thing is that it saved and/or created 15 jobs. That’s only 225k/yr spent on each worker. Cheaper than “administrative costs” involved in sending them unemployment checks 
[quote=redyourmoon]$234.38 each. I assume that includes installation costs (a union job, clearly ^). And these fit how many bikes (for however long they’re “locked up”, that is)?
Fucking stupid.[/quote]
Don’t blame the fact that the people installing that shit presumably got compensated fairly for the fact that it was installed improperly. That’s some fucking bullshit right there 
Your panties, in a knot they are. I didn’t read into it that he was placing blame on the worker. Calm down :dramacloud:
I think he was making the joke that there are a lot of dudes standing around while two do a simple task. Kinda like any other jobsite.
people who don’t ride bikes shouldn’t be allowed to design or approve designs for bike racks.
Correct. The racks being turds are not the fault of the installers, although after putting 1600 of them in you’d think someone would have said “Hey… wait a minute.”
Also, this.
[quote=http://blog.bicyclecoalition.org/2010/03/meter-post-and-ring-racks-coming-soon.html]
For those of you who still have doubts, the metal rack is sturdier than it looks in the photo. The manufacturer, Creative Metal Works has improved the design for mounting the circle to the pole. These design changes have been used in Seattle, Baltimore, Sacramento and Boulder.
- Thickening the rack and the top and bottom mounting brackets, making them more difficult to bend;
- Adding set screws, preventing the rack from rotating around the post (pre-drilling of the top and bottom brackets by the manufacturer eases thread tapping for the set screws);
- Adding a center bracket, securing the bicycle icon to the post;
- Beveling the outside edge, reducing the chance of denting/scratching a bicycle frame
- The bolts which hold it in place can only be installed with a special tool and can only be removed by breaking them.
[/quote]
Hrmpf.
Correct. The racks being turds are not the fault of the installers, although after putting 1600 of them in you’d think someone would have said “Hey… wait a minute.”[/quote]
Probably goes back to the thing about having too many non cyclists involved in the process. I still see new installations of those fucking bike racks that only let you lock up your front wheel all the time