The City of Boston is undergoing a biking renaissance. From a proliferation of green bike lanes to helmets that read and convey your emotions, Boston’s bike scene is quickly evolving to the benefit of us all. But one endeavor The Hub has yet to undertake is the issue of parking and storage, particularly when it comes to abandoned bikes that occupy highly-coveted spaces. For that, we can turn to perennial rival New York City.
According to Fast Company, one New York marketing student has taken it upon himself to Instagram snapshots of abandoned bikes chained to desired parking spots like bike racks, fences and lamppost; tag them as #deadpedalNY and map them over an easily navigable Google Maps interface.
The idea, of course, is to aid applicable municipal departments in ridding the streets and sidewalks of these idle hunks of metal and rubber to make room for those who actually need a place to park their two-wheeler.
“The project is an instigation to get the Department of Sanitation to pay attention to the problem,” Pat Gamble told Fast Company about his new bike parking solution. “But it also offers them a tool–through the map and photos, all harvested through Instagram–that they can just look at in the office and see where they need to go to focus their efforts.”
Currently, in Boston, abandoned bikes are to be reported to the Mayor’s 24-Hour Constituent Service, a way for citizens to submit service requests and issues online directly to city officials.
BostInno reached out to the Constituent service to find out what exactly happens after abandoned bikes are recovered. We were referred to the Roll it Forward program which collects and accepts bike donations, repairs them and distributes them to low-income Boston residents who might not otherwise have access to a bike. They also go into schools to help educate both adults and children on bike safety and law, as well as the health and environmental benefits of riding as opposed to vehicular transportation.
And while Roll it Forward is certainly a noble cause, the process of reporting a bike to them is still something of a convoluted process. BostInno had to reach out to the Constituent Service, before being referred to a service that doesn’t deal in abandoned bikes, and finally Roll it Forward. We were also told that Roll it Forward doesn’t come in unless bikes have been chained for months.
Gamble’s map makes locating and collecting bikes easily accessible both for riders and for city departments that repossess them.
What do you think? Should Boston try and create a map of spaces where abandoned bikes are prohibiting avid riders from parking? Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below.
