The beverage company Honest Tea and the Whole Foods in Bethesda, Md., did a nice thing. They installed a bike rack outside of the grocery store. The rack’s made out of 15,000 juice pouches made by Honest Tea, which donated it to the store.
Now, if only it worked.
The plastic bars are so thick I can’t put my U-Lock around them and my frame, and the side diagonal posts are also too thick. In addition, you can’t even put your wheel over the top because they’ve put the sponsor sign on top preventing me from getting that part close to my frame between my front wheel and down tube.
It’s clear in this picture that it’s certainly possible to stick a bunch of bikes’ front wheels in the rack. But that’s not much help if cyclists can’t lock their rides up! It’s not a huge surprise that, out in the wild, no one’s using the thing. This type of rack might be appropriate for a town where everyone keeps their doors unlocked and knows everyone else by sight, but Bethesda’s not that kind of place. Lesson: If you’re going to do a nice thing, maybe consult just a little bit with the people who are actually going to use it?
