Wellness programs at workplaces are becoming more common, as are other ways of getting there, like on a bicycle. With this comes the need for facilities managers and building owners to provide adequate parking for these bikes.
Christoph chats with Mike Arvidson from Duo-Gard about the bike parking trend from the expo floor at BOMA 2018.
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Christoph: Hi everyone. Christoph Trappe again here with BUILDINGS Media at the BOMA show in San Antonio. And as you know, I’m walking around looking for new trends that are of interest to building owners and facility managers. And the latest that I’ve actually noticed is bicycle parking at commercial buildings.
Now, what’s interesting to me here especially is when I interviewed for my current job at BUILDINGS Media, I met with the CEO of the parent company in San Francisco and he came riding his bike over to this coffee shop where we met. And he actually tied it to a lamp post outside. So there was no bike parking there.
But anyway, I’m here with Mike Arvidson with Duo-Gard Industries.
Mike: Hi. How you doing?
Christoph: Doing great. Thanks for joining me today. And we want to talk about why is this a trend? Why are more people riding bicycles? I don’t even know if that’s the case, if it’s more people riding them or more people just want to ride them at different times. But talk about what’s going on out there.
Mike: Well I think one thing you’re seeing is that bike parking is becoming in more demand because there are Millennials and younger people are using pedestrian and biking as alternate modes of transportation. So it’s putting more demand on having parking for that type of transportation as well as having secured parking. So the infrastructure for bike parking right now is pretty weak.
Also trending at BOMA 2018: Wellness for Commercial Buildings
Christoph: So did I hear that correctly? So now you can actually check the security on your phone?
Mike: That’s correct. You can actually pay for a space in a bike parking cage or shelter from your phone. Or if it’s a free facility for, let’s say a membership, let’s say a corporate campus, you can enter and exit that with your phone and secure your bike in there.
Christoph: And that’s of course a really important topic. I grew up in Germany and I rode my bike everywhere, right? Of course Europeans do that.
Mike: Sure.
Christoph: But often my mom still rides her bike more than her car I think. And counting the number of bikes that were stolen from me, I mean I don’t even want to go there. But of course back then, there were really no solutions, right?
Mike: Right. The bikes now too are in the thousands of dollars, some of the bikes so security is something we’ve seen just a growing trend from when we first started, we did a lot more open structures. And now we’re really focusing more on secured structures. And it’s in demand - in parking garages is another area, especially for the corporate clients. They all have parking garages. And that’s a great place to accommodate bike parking.
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Also what we see, especially at this show too, people are trying to, when they build a new building, they’re making space inside the building for bike parking, which they didn’t use to do. So it’s a whole new trend to be able to maximize capacity in a functional way inside the building. So that’s a very new trend in buildings.
Christoph: So of course one of the first trends when I saw people riding their bikes to work, they would just put them wherever, right?
Mike: Right.
Christoph: Inside the building. And there was like one person riding their bike, right? Then more and more and more. So what kind of buildings are adding bike parking facilities?
Mike: Well residential buildings for sure. But every corporate building we see now, they’re trying to accommodate because many people are choosing to ride their bike to work. So it’s just a growing demand that really needs to be addressed. So we see it in all types of buildings really.
Christoph: Very interesting. Well thanks for joining us and if you have any other stories to share, riding your bicycle to work or any other solutions you see out there, feel free to email [email protected]. And thanks for tuning in. Thanks for being on.
Mike: Thank you. It’s good being here.
Christoph Trappe is director of content at Stamats Business Media - the parent company of Buildings.
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