BIKE PARKING IN YOUR AREA
Are there any???
For the past three weeks, my wife and I have been cycling to places which before we usually visit via our car. It was really an eye opener for me how much gasoline I am saving by using a bike instead of a motorized vehicle. Not only fuel costs but I save on parking fees as well. The only drawback of course is I cannot have my sons bike with me in the streets of Metro because its chaotic out there and the pollution. Hassle as well is looking for a safe place to park our bikes.
The following are the places we visited the past weeks:
1. Metrowalk - no bike parkings whatsoever. We need to put a cable lock on our bikes next to a parking post. I didn’t even count the hassle of the guard telling us not just to park our bikes anywhere. Mind you we were parking in a place near a vendor stall and as if we will obstruct the area ;(.
2. Rockwell - none as well. We went to UCC (outside the mall where Cantinetta and Gramm’s). No bike racks but they have lots of car parking. We just parked our bikes on the side of UCC glass wall and ate our breakfast al fresco.
3. HighStreet (Serendra) - With all the car parking slots left and right of High Street how come I did not even see a single bike rack. Perhaps I didn’t search hard enough but there really wasn’t any. So we just parked the bikes near the wall beside Krispy Kreme. You dont even have any place to bolt your bike into. Or if you find any, most likely the guard will tell you that isn’t allowed.
Too bad that with the proliferation of malls around Metro Manila and almost everybody preaching a “greener” culture, nobody even have thought of this. I guess it is high time to put bike racks in designated areas in malls. Doing this will encourage patronizers to go to malls by bikes without the fear of having their bikes stolen or vandalized (of course that is a totally new post 
).
Maybe the mall owners did not know that one car parking slot can accommodate 28 bikes. These malls, like HighStreet, have outdoor stores like R.O.X. (Recreational Outdoor Exchange), shouldn’t they advocate for bike parkings at least?
Oh well. How can I even think of bike parkings when we don’t even have bike routes?
I hope this happens in my lifetime ;).
