Floating Bikes

I have a tendency to over-indulge in fantasies. Yesterday, as I rode my bike up a particularly steep hill in my neighborhood, when each of my laboured breaths sucked in a cloud of exhaust fumes spewing out from the loud trucks and cars that were trying to muscle me off the narrow, gravel-strewn cycle path, I had a day-dream.

I imagined that every single sputtering SUV and sedan was a bicycle. I pictured the rules of the road cycle-style. I envisioned a world of ringing bells and gasping breaths. It made me so happy that I almost didn't swear out loud when I finally reached my destination and could not find a bike rack.

Almost.

The innovative people behind London's Re-Inventing the Bike Shed competition encountered similar bike parking difficulties and have taken my fantasy a little further as a result. The competition was launched due to an increase in cyclists in London, a corresponding rise in bike thefts, and a leg of the Tour de France slated to be held in the city in 2007.

The contest organized by Feilden Clegg Architects and Blueprint Magazine in conjunction with Bike Off unlocked creative bicycle parking innovations from all over the world including North America, the European Union, and Asia.

The three finalists ranged from the realisticthe Clamp-On Cyclehoop, which ladders bikes up existing light poles and lamp-posts, to the surrealthe Placycle, which involves floating bike pods high above the streets and sidewalks, to the successful the Habitat for Urban Bicycles (HUB), which clips parked bikes onto a suspended aerial conveyor belt.

The Clamp-On Cyclehoop, designed by Anthony Lau, reached the finals largely due to its practicality and strong emphasis on theft prevention. Not only did the design offer the city of London the chance to build on existing infrastructure, the thick steel hoop also offered strong protection from thieves. Future problems were anticipated with space, however, as the number of lamp-posts and street signs are finite in London's downtown core.

Marty McFly would surely have voted for David Eburah's Placycle, winner of the Futuristic category and second overall. The floating bike pods which resemble a cycle-storing anemone in the design sketches use ionization to keep bikes gently bobbing above ground while they remain tethered to the gas supply lines on the sidewalk.

As aesthetically appealing as the Placycle may seem, it was the HUB designed by Boston-based architect Robert Linn that garnered the competition's top prize. The bike belt, which resembles a clothesline for bicycles, will be built and tested in London's suburb of Southwark this year. If the prototype is a success, it may become the model for all British bicycle stands in the future.

Though I had yet to consider the parking needs of my imaginary cycle world, it's nice to know that the good people of London are one step ahead of me in their bicycle fantasies. Perhaps my city will follow suit, and at the very least, install a bike rack at the grocery store so I have somewhere to park.

http://www.reinventingthebikeshed.com/

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/travel/story/0,,1926097,00.html