Preface

Every bicycle trip begins and ends with the need for a safe, secure and convenient place to park one’s bike. Fear of having a bicycle stolen is one of the biggest deterrents to people riding to their favorite destinations.

Contemplating one sunny autumn afternoon what to do and where to go by our favorite mode of transportation – our bicycles – we found ourselves puzzled by the challenge of finding a proper spot to park the bicycles at our destination, while we did what we went there to do. The dilemma we personally faced as well as some impromptu research on the Internet revealed that we had bumped into the proverbial Pink Elephant of bicycling reality – parking.

Getting the Ball Rolling

Anyone not personally confronted with the issue might argue that there are ample bicycle parking fixtures all around the urban landscape. Every imaginable shape, color and size of bent and twisted metal pipes anchored or cemented into the ground has been employed to serve as a post to tie bicycles to.

True, the sad reality is however, that chaining a bicycle to any fixed object only provides marginal protection against theft, being tampered with, accessory theft, vandalism or accidental damage. In fact, the mere act of installing chains, wires and locks on various parts of a bicycle to secure it will in many cases damage paint and finishes over time.

To make matters worse, modern bicycles are often manufactured of hi-tech materials such as hydro-formed aluminum, titanium or carbon fiber. The design of these bicycle frames provides all the structural strength required to withstand the forces of being operated at almost any conceivable speed and circumstance, yet the simple act of bumping or scraping the side of such a frame against an iron post might compromise the integrity of the construction and thus damage it fatally.

We recognize and applaud the efforts that are undertaken by many municipal governments, advocacy groups, businesses and corporations to provide bicycle parking for public and private use and the awareness of the necessity for such gives us hope for improvements in the future. Not being the kind of people who have the patience to wait for the future to arrive we started thinking about doing something about it.

Thank you for your interest and for giving us the opportunity to introduce to you the future of bicycle parking as we see it: The VeloParc™ Bicycle Parking Infrastructure.