Investing to Encourage

Investing to Encourage:

How the investment of more bike racks in a parking lot encourages more bicycling

The automobile dominates today’s society. Our infrastructure, our cities and our lives

circulate and are built around the car, although this has not always been the case. The perception

of the automobile shifted from that of luxury and class status in the 1940’s to more of a necessity

in 2020 due to affordability. Today, a private car provides freedom and easy access to a

multitude of places for a variety of people. This combination of affordability, demand, and

freedom created from the car then shaped a car centric landscape that exists today. In this essay, I

will reflect how a car centric parking lot, such as that in SaveMart Supermarket in Atwater,

California, discourages the use of other forms of movement, particularly that of cycling. Through

investing in and providing space for other modes of movement and parking, specifically that of

the bicycle and more bike racks, the SaveMart Supermarket parking lot can encourage more

cycling.

The integration of visible bike racks in the Atwater car parking lot, in addition to making

biking safer, could encourage more people to ride bikes. The insufficient and hidden bike rack on

the side of the Supermarket, as shown in the photo, does not allow for many people to use the

racks, much less even know of them. Before addressing the issue of even having facilities to host

bikes, we must think of the inclusion of safe bike and pedestrian traffic with car traffic. Chapter

14: “Looking into the Future” of The Geography of Urban Transportation by Genevieve

Giuliano and Susan Hanson states that “currently a major reason people give for not traveling by

foot or by bike is concern about the dangers posed by motorized vehicles” (page 372). If the city

of Atwater was able to thoroughly integrate other modes of movement, such as walking and

biking, in the design of transportation infrastructure, this could encourage more people to walk

and bike to the SaveMart Supermarket in addition to making it so much safer for those who

already do. However, without having a safe space to park one's mode of movement, the desire to

use said mode for the journey could be discouraged. In the case of the SaveMart Supermarket,

the lack of bike racks as well as the singular and hidden bike rack, discourage the riding of bikes

to the shopping center. There is simply no safe place to put a bike if one did ride. Donald Shoup

in his article, “The High Cost of Free Parking”, acknowledges that “parking requirements are a

critical link between transportation and land use” (page 2) as well as “minimum parking

requirements act like a fertility drug…” (page 7). Although the article is talking about cars, this

concept of availability and perception of free parking could be applied to parking for other

modes of transportation. If the Atwater shopping center had a plentitude of bike racks in a clearly

visible and safe area of the stores, more people would trust riding and storing their bikes when

shopping.

By expanding space in the SaveMart Supermarket car parking lot for bike racks, the

Supermarket could do a lot more than just encourage the use of bikes. It could discourage the use

of a car, promote healthier living and even bring awareness to environmental concerns. Although

the Central Valley is spread far and wide, smaller and more clustered cities like Atwater and

even my own town of Winton could benefit internally from better investment in biking and

walking facilities. Many of those who live in these areas are low-income and a car for every

child or student going to school and then to the SaveMart Supermarket after school for snacks is

simply not viable. The investment in bike racks in centers like the Supermarket gives leeway to a

more equitable form of transportation. Lastly, it wouldn’t hurt anyone to add some more bike

racks -- at least more than just the one hidden on the side of the SaveMart Supermarket.

Sources:

Giuliano, Genevieve and Hanson, Susan The Geography of Urban Transportation, Fourth Edition , Chapter 14:

Looking into the Future, Guilford Publications, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/lib/berkeley-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4832774 .

Shoup, Donald C. The High Cost of Free Parking . Routledge, 1997.