Bicycle Stations - 24x7 Urban Destinations for Cyclists by Burn Muscle Not Fuel
Pitch
A #storm hit & #miles to go no #jacket!! @BicycleSocialClub has a #rain cape, hot #espresso, park-n-shop, #bike is #safe 24x7 access!!
Description
Team Description
- Architect - Net-Zero Commercial Buildings
- Metal Fabricator & Engineering Specialist
- Security & IoT Integration Architect
- POS & IT Architect
- Store Acquisitions - Marketing Specialist
- Framebuilding Shop
- Repair Shop
- Recycling & Redistribution Specialist
- Changing-Shower Facility Specialist
- Business Mgmt
Design Summary
First of all this design is intended to become a destination for cyclists, not merely a place to park bikes, there does exist a cycling society, we don't care about cars and will hang out where they don't dominate as a society in thinking.
How many of you think of something you need and jump in to the car to go get it? ... on a bike you plan those and run multiple errands unless it's a very short ride.
Get it? Dedicated cyclists give up a lifestyle to gain another one so we want a place were we are the focus, our needs covered 24x7 any weather with all services. It's urban, people work swing & graveyard if you need a tube it's there, or a patch-kit or change your clothes & take a shower some days are totally sweaty to ride.
From experience in bicycle shops hanging bikes by the front wheel is the easiest way to reduce footprint and allows automatic locking so riders don't need a lock; racks are IoT'd to release them, manual override.
For non-riders, it's easy to pop a bike onto the rear wheel, lifting it up to hang it too hard for a portion of riders thus the front wheel hook is an actuator to do that in a section others are manual as most riders don't need that.
So this is a bicycle mall circus concept with cycling related stores that want an outlet, a 24x7 repair shop, a framebuilding & teaching shop the allure of making bikes draws people from all over, truly a social club of sorts.
The architectural style can fit a city's tone, what will make cycling last is to establish these destinations where a cycling tourist can hit and know they can get everything needed or fixed, and have hostel-like services available onsite or nearby as part of the racking system.
Thus, it's high-tech use your phone to lock in, the city pays for the parking if it wants people to use bikes, cars get massive subsidies, this is trivial in dollars to gain ridership and pull cars off the roads for the CO2 emissions reductions are worthy ROI globally.
Design Approach
The fundamental racks are vertical, front-wheel hung, bikes are easy to walk on the rear wheel front off the ground, mentioned are two sections one for most riders manual the other actuators to lift the wheel for those not able.
For utility bikes & those with panniers side-leaning racks are best to load & unload weighty items so a section for these, flatland cities will have more of these than hilly ones.
Having automation to open a rack is a reader-input device; identity can be per locked or grouped; the data recorded & at the station a monitor of lockings; a camera per rack to ID the actual bike; frames are locked at the seat-tube, after it's locked trying to remove a wheel sends an alarm.
Another use of roof panels is recharging eBikes, now becoming popular, easy to add into the system for a section of racks.
If you examine triathalon transition zones that's what's going on, rider arrives, locks the bike and walks away needing to change & having commuter lockers to not need to haul it daily.
This is essential to building urban ridership, you need good clothes, you can't be a total sweat-hog when you arrive if the business doesn't have a changing room.
The large corps where I've worked that had them were packed & always too small for rain gear to dry, this is a pressing need by ridership, the bike locking system is a trivial concern with IoT by contrast.
That brings in asking the question, what does the city want moving forward, where is the cycling cultural hub today? ... without that culture the bicycle isn't respected, the work to power a commute isn't respected monetarily or otherwise for giving up some aspects of having cars that extend one's resources.
That has to change to where being a cyclist is known to be tougher that hopping in a car, it's an athletic endeavor you have to eat good food along with the cakes & ice-cream.
This design is then to establish a bicycle cultural center, a destination for anything bicycle you need as a cyclist from anywhere, basics like changing clothes & drying out wet gear to food, shops and live framebuilding & repairs where the riders can watch & ask questions.
It's equal to viewing glassblowing where it takes a team of three to do anything, it's conceptual you have to see it, teams switch duties all the time so get to know the difficulties of each task. Bicycle culture is similar to this, we all pedal yet the proper stroke is an art, bracing to get more upstroke, cadence vs power vs endurance.
These become conversations like talking cars, with a miniscule investment to make it free to lock the riders show up, it's fast to lock-unlock.
Now consider that the roofs over racks can be hybrid solar panels that heat a fluid to be used to heat the pads wheels are on as a thermal-mass to keep them ice-free for cold climates along with the building power, IoT & LED lighting.
The next need for a cyclist is a toilet after a ride or before one, from this to establish a cycling culture you must have them, that brings up with that investment the need for changing-shower rooms for commuters.
From this then to connect a cycling oriented group of shops & food stores beyond a bike shop cyclists need before or after a ride, this will be a growth market given it supplies real needs for cyclists and not assumptions about what they need.
Cyclists are athletes to get somewhere, they must convert calories so must replace them, and for every 1-2 hours of cycling requires a meal & rest to recover for most people, well you get off your bike need a pit stop, changed get some food & go.
This is the workflow to satisfy a bicycle culture versus car people, that is the intent of this design, start with free locking IoT style with phones.
Design Proposal
Sketches under way.
Estimated Production Costs
The main expense beyond a need for roof posts, roof & solar power will be more posts, one for each bike.
For the racks the rider manually locks a bike after ID unlocks it, the wheel hook height is adjustable by the rider manually, the lock is separate on an arm for the frame, to keep bikes from swaying the arm adjusts angle & height not sides.
Being electronic with 24x7 services & surveillance the locks are the foundation of security by remote sensing events and with the camera for each, physical security for each bike has a data record with this system.
Consider that bike lockers are available here in Seattle area at park-n-rides they have a much larger footprint yet should still be free because people with expensive bikes don't have much money!
They pay by the month for that thing, really true, so to increase ridership subsidize this cost and keep adding them in long-term planning, they are one-day lockers only or won't turn over, expensive bikes will get used if they have a free locker, bets?
So the priority of gaining ridership implies mandatory fulfillment of real needs not hype.
Creating the racks is an opportunity to put down a foundation for a cycling culture from this area via supporting businesses with easy access to toilets & changing rooms, repairs & parts, food & cultural hang outs fueled by having live framebuilding always going on everyday.
With all this consider accounting, we are buying generation equipment a capital investment paid over time most 25-year terms thus power is a monthly payment not an expense by-the-watt paid monthly.
So, consider then this is proposed as a 24x7 downtown all the time scene costing no more than daily operations for power, that reduces power bills to all vendors, an advantage to other shopping venues.
This type of high return for a capital investment in real value to operate more hours of business at less cost is a key issue.
Timeline
Being a simple square post, the side facing the rider has a gutter for guiding the tire so it rolls up and held sideways to a J-hook on an adjustable T-track similar to sailing hardware to snap into holes for height to get the rear wheel off the ground.
The cart will have a pressure sensor for alerts, similar to self-check systems in that weight removal sends a signal.
On the side of the post an arm with bike-frame vinyl-coated jaws that lock with a servo this rigid enough to also keep the bike from rotating on the hook not very tightly held to avoid paint damage & adjustable to fit the seat-tube or top-tube diameter.
The rider clamps it, to lock-unlock it they push a button to notify the card reader; needed is onsite support for charging phones & other errors to manually override, each transaction is recorded so relates to the proper rack for this service.
So the first prototype is using OTS extrusions racks as the rail, an marine or actuator track & cart for the bolt-on J-hook.
The clamp-arm also has a T-track & cart this with the pivot axle for the telescoping arm with the clamp, that IoT enabled with sensors.
A card reader, POS with software to identify the user & rack location, a button for the rider to then notify the reader, the rider again validates to lock it workflow to have grouped racks per reader.
Networking can be hardwire or wireless, assume wireless.
Rack extrusions are numerous, fitting ridership bikes comes with data history to handle volume by tire sizes a need for vertical racks to be easy to use, so, changing them considered.
A custom jaw set is best to enable the sensors and servos, with a manual override the rider can use to reposition, locking is after they clamp the bike, then push a button on the post in a grouped card-reader architecture.
The goal is for riders to know the machine is safe, it's fast & easy vs horizontal racking that available for utility bikes & tandems, then to have their immediate needs met, a missing need, then to be a hub.
Related proposals
Haven't researched this aspect.
References
Bibliography not assembled.
By:
Burn Muscle Not Fuel
