bicycling in the rurals (in which the Town of Amesbury is bike unfriendly)

[goddessfarmer]

Amesbury MA has a dearth of bike racks. First we rode into the millyard, to met my dad for lunch at The Barking Dog. We had to lock up to a "no parking" sign, because the parking lot had no actual bicycle facilities, despite being the town center. Then we took the bike path as a shortcut to Amesbury Skate and Sport to purchase cyclometers for my bike and Alice's brand new bike. Um, no bike rack there either. They did sell and install the cyclometers and a kickstand for Alice's bike while we walked up to the Stop and Shop mall where we got haircuts (at the supercuts) and groceries. No bike racks at the Stop and Shop either, despite it being one terminus of the Amesbury bike path. Our new cyclometers told us that is was 4.5 miles home from the Skate and Sport, and we saw NO Bike racks at all in our travels.

Comments

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

And yet you refused to take the hint, and insisted on bicycling anyway.

Shame on you.

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

::blows raspberry at you::

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I like to walk my bike into stores that don't have bike racks. If I'm asked to leave (not a frequent occurrence), I try to say something like, "Oh, I didn't notice a bike rack outside -- do you have one?" or "I'm sorry, I'll just shop somewhere else instead."

Of course, I'm considerate: if the store has more than a few customers or is otherwise crowded, I won't walk the bike in -- but I might choose not to walk in at all.

[miekec]

Oh, I like that one :)

[miekec]

I must say, that it is pretty sad that a store calling itself "Skate and Sport", that even sells bike stuff, does not have any bike racks.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

I do agree that there should be a bike rack at the end of the bike path there.

That lack is boggling.

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

Part of Amesbury's mentality for not having bike racks is that 'bike racks invite kids to hang out' and they don't want any of that. But I think I will make a point to asking the stop and shop store manager about putting a rack there.

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

Oh, I did give them a hard time about it. Also, they (the skate and sport) are across a very busy 2 lane, limited access road from the bike path, luckily 2 of the 4 times we crossed cars actually stopped to let us.

[unclebooboo.livejournal.com]

On a recent trip to Delft, I was staying at a hotel across the street from the main train station. The bike parking lot there is the size of an automobile parking lot that would hold 200 cars. Thousands of students park their bikes overnight at the train station and pick them up each morning when they come in on the train...

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I've gotten kicked out of several stores for that :)