Bells, buttons and bike racks

Posted on August 20, 2008 at 9:23 pm by Karen Smith

Last year, I bought a bell for my bicycle. I installed it on the wrong side of my handlebars and I noticed this one day as I was approaching an opening door. Having survived a near dooring and having moved my bell to the proper side of my handle bars, I now feel qualified to write about usability for cyclists.

Usability is a term that is used in the web design world to refer to interfaces which are ‘user-friendly’ or easy for people to use. During recent travels, I have been reminded to think about how the concept of usability relates to cycling. How can technologies and towns and cities be designed to better meet needs of cyclists?

To begin the discussion, let me introduce you to two brilliant technologies which are widely available in Vancouver and that inspire me: buttons for bicyclists, and bike racks on buses.

Buttons for bicylists: In Vancouver on certain designated routes like 10th Avenue, bicyclists encounter buttons which they can easily control when they reach traffic lights. These buttons are available from on the road, and are located at the proper height for a bicyclist to press while remaining on their wheels.

Bike racks on buses: When you live in Vancouver, you might want to go for a 15km bike ride for the beach, hop in a kayak and go for a paddle. If you are thoroughly exhausted afterwards, you can take public transit home. Buses are outfitted with racks on the front which you can load your bicycle into.

Identifying buttons for bicyclists, and bike racks for bikes as technologies which make the city more usable for cyclists is not meant to close down brainstorming about what might encourage more people to adopt cycling or other active forms of transportation. Buttons for bicyclists demonstrate that the real-life activities (i.e. crossing an intersection) of cyclists have been taken seriously. Bike racks on buses show that there is a willingness to allow citizens to integrate multiple forms of travel.

One idea which may combine and extend the design principles behind these technologies are enhanced trip planning websites. Many cities have web-based systems to allow individuals to map their trips around a city using public transit. Hamilton Bus Web and Vancouver’s TransLink sites serve as examples of locations where residents can input their routes to gain access to schedule information. To be more user-friendly to cyclists, the concept of trip planning sites may need to be expanded to allow cyclists who are combining active transportation and public transportation to create a single route plan. In addition to public transit routes, cyclists may appreciate if websites could remind them of the rules for bringing their bicycles on board during particular trip times or the availability of bike racks.

There are many things that could be done to make cities and towns more usable for cyclists. For the time being, I look forward to new bike lanes in Toronto and rides with my bell on the proper side of my handle bars.

Tags: , , , , , ,

14 Comments »

  1. Ok, now you have me curious. What is the correct side to mount a bell for usability purposes? I may have had it wrong all these years!

    GravatarComment by Mark Kuznicki — August 20, 2008 @ 9:30 pm

  2. The key is to not have to twist your wrist around to ring the bell!

    GravatarComment by Karen Smith — August 20, 2008 @ 10:35 pm

  3. Great article Karen.

    Vancouver’s use of bike racks really adds another dimension to the transit system. A 20 minute walk to the bus stop now becomes a 5 minute ride.

    I used a bike rack on 44 KIPLING SOUTH a few hours ago, and I cannot wait for all transit vehicles to have them installed.

    GravatarComment by Andrae Griffith — August 21, 2008 @ 12:13 am

  4. Andrae you will be happy to know that Bike Racks are now available on GO Buses (as of August 1st) on two routes along the Hamilton Corridor and will be available to the rest of the GO bus system as of Spring 2009.

    GravatarComment by Rannie Turingan — August 21, 2008 @ 2:16 am

  5. Thanks Rannie

    The problem with this is that GO has decided to only allow bike racks to be used on the Hamilton Corridor. If an Orangeville bus showed up with a bike rack, the driver would have been instructed not to allow me to use it. Meanwhile, you can use the bike rack on any TTC route if you happen to draw a rack equipped bus – regardless of it being an official rack route or not.

    My fear is that GO will wait until Spring to unlock all the racks, rather than unveil them route-by-route.

    GravatarComment by Andrae Griffith — August 21, 2008 @ 8:10 am

  6. Thanks for all of the additional Toronto and area information. I pulled a GO transit link with full information on their bike racks on buses in case anyone is interested:
    http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/station/bicycles/bicycles.htm

    GravatarComment by Karen Smith — August 21, 2008 @ 8:45 am

  7. I heard that GO Transit is planning to put bike racks on all their buses by next year, and have bicycle parking on all trains.

    It seems that all TTC buses now have a rack, which is great. However, when I tried using one yesterday, the driver said he wasn’t trained for it so I had to bring my bike on the bus. He had worked for the TTC for 22 years. I wonder how many other bus drivers aren’t trained for the bike racks?

    GravatarComment by Shawn Smith — August 21, 2008 @ 8:51 am

  8. While bike buttons would be great; and bus racks helpful, especially on long trips….

    For me the most basic thing to make bike trips easier (excluding lanes/trails) is a safe and easy place to lock up at either end.

    For me as an apartment dweller; I can tell you no ground floor bike storage is a killer. It means hauling my bike up and down an elevator (on its back wheel to fit); then somehow squeezing it through an apartment door; then hauling it on my shoulder to get it across the living room; then figuring out how to navigate it on to my balcony!

    When I take it out (which is more often that the above paragraph might make you think)…. I’m likely to take it to the grocery store, where I can lock my bike up outside only; or the local subway station, same problem.

    Safe, preferably indoor, bike lockers, including for day-use, not just long-term rentals would be a big boon.

    I might even think of renting a long-term one for my bike, rather than parking it at home.

    But we need many more, in many more places; and as I noted, we also need day-use bike lockers/secure storage.

    GravatarComment by James — August 21, 2008 @ 12:52 pm

  9. James, the need for more bike lockers in the city is extremely important. Perhaps a neat design concept like this could be used to lock up bikes and beautify the city?

    http://tinyurl.com/5q9nl4
    http://tinyurl.com/5ne6as

    GravatarComment by Sameer Vasta — August 21, 2008 @ 3:24 pm

  10. Sameer,

    Not sure about that design choice, granted it looks pretty; but I have practical and privacy related questions over how much power it would need to operate and where my fingerprints are being stored!

    For now, I’d settle for more of the un-sexy lockers the City already uses. We just need a few thousand more, at strategic locations!

    I recollect the ambitious Councillor Heaps saying we would have several hundred more… not sure if meant in the next few years! (smile)

    GravatarComment by James — August 21, 2008 @ 6:54 pm

  11. See the 3 white dots over where the detection wires are inserted in a loop in a road at an intersection and is filled with black tar? Those are Bicycle-Actuated Signals.

    Check out http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/cyclometer/cyclometerApr_1996.htm#8

    GravatarComment by W. K. Lis — August 21, 2008 @ 8:18 pm

  12. I will keep my eyes peeled for bicycle-actuated signals. Thanks for the link!

    GravatarComment by Karen Smith — August 22, 2008 @ 8:50 am

  13. Lockers are NOT the way to go, expensive, most cities lease them
    to a single user, probably easy to break into (if you could find
    one to practice on).

    Most municipalities have multi-million dollar car parks, parking ramps,
    parking garages that are patrolled and out of the weather, yet
    will not sacrifice a couple car spaces to park several dozen bikes
    near the manned booths out of the weather. The cities would rather
    toss away hundreds of thousands on locker “pods” and then say
    “no one uses the expensive bike crap we bought, so shut and drive cars.”
    http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hause011/article/Bus_ride33.html

    GravatarComment by locker mocker — August 26, 2008 @ 1:02 pm

  14. Never really thought about the privacy implications James. Good call. You do have to admit that they’re pretty though. =)

    GravatarComment by Sameer Vasta — August 26, 2008 @ 1:49 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

"));