Saturday, January 17, 2009

Bike Stairs

It continues to amaze me how well bicycling fits into daily life here, thanks to numerous little details in infrastructure. For instance, above is an image of the stairs accessing a pedestrian bridge. How to ascend and descend stairs with your bike? With a little tire-groove ramp at the edge of the treads, of course! You just roll the bike up or down the ramp while you walk the stairs.

I've seen this little detail in a few places, including at the mall, where the stairs lead down to the free, underground bike parking lot. Way better than any American mall I've been to! They give you a little claim check when you drop off the bike, and someone's there to make sure nobody takes it while you shop.

2 comments:

ljc said...

I noticed that the outdoor stairs in Germany had little metal ramp on the side for people to roll their bikes on so they could still use the stairs.

charlie wood said...

I've seen at least one of these on a set of stairs here in Portland, Oregon. A very bike-friendly city too.