Nobody likes taxes so why not find other ways to encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles and do things that are good for society?
After looking at @daveks photography of an art piece which reminded me of a fancy bike rack, I came up with this idea. Why not pay people to park their bike?
Here some details on my idea that I thought I would put out there as suggested by @thecryptofiend in the post on the ideas factory.
Here’s my fancy beater bike, there’s no real need to lock this one up around here, but it would be really annoying if someone took it
How this would work
A new type of bicycle parking rack needs to be designed. It should be sturdy and usable by anyone with a credit card or near field communication through a cell phone. These would be optimally placed near grocery stores or other shopping centers with video security cameras in view.
Rather than having to pay for parking, the first few hours of parking would pay you. This would be an incentive to go shopping by bike. Only one incentive payment per 24 hours per person would be allowed. This could be tracked through payment information. If you parked the bike for longer periods you would get charged for parking to prevent those people who would milk the system by clogging it up with junk bikes. :D
In high traffic areas you could check on bike parking availability through your cellphone and reserve a slot if you wanted.
Where would the funding come from? If we can get creative with money flow through quantitative easing putting money into the hands of banks and who knows where, perhaps we can find a way to get some more cash back into the hands of bicycle enthusiasts? ;)
One possibility is that non-profit businesses and government grant money may be an option for funding some bike parking incentive payments and developing and distributing the bike parking racks.
The parking payment would need to be small, however, merchants in the area could offer additional discounts on purchases if shopping by bike is done.
So you lock up your bike by using a credit card to make a small payment. If you come back sooner than a certain time limit you get your payment back plus an incentive payment when you unlock the rack with your card. If you leave it there too long there is a record that can be used to contact you and the potential to make additional charges. The bike parking rack prints out discount coupons to the local merchants who want your business.
What do you think about it? Perhaps this has been done before somewhere but its not in my neighborhood yet. Most places don’t even have a simple bike rack.
Why it would be nice
Carrying a bicycle lock to the store is a real disincentive to go shopping by bike. Any lock built well enough to stop even the most casual of thieves is not going to be much fun to carry around. High dollar bicycles are a real target for theft and having a safe way of parking them would be really nice.
Years ago when I was in college there was an old bicycle chained up in front of the computer lab from the dark age of computing. Rusty, flat tires, and moss encrusted it sat there the entire time I was in school without moving. My hope is the owner was not not killed in some gun battle in the computer lab. My idea would help establish some ownership and free up the bike parking in cases like this. After a certain length of time the bike could be confiscated and sold, recycled, or returned to the owner.
Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned for more ideas on how incentive payments can be helpful.