Bicycles, Travel, and Photography
Most businesses are not bicycle aware or bicycle community aware. Sure, some retail stores might have a bike rack out front for people to park and lock up their bikes, but that is done to attract shoppers or to meet local ordinances rather than providing services to cyclists.
For each retail store which does acknowledge cyclists by installing a bike rack, there are an equal number that shun cyclists with no bicycle parking signs. Businesses with drive up windows are notorious for refusing to serve people on bicycles especially banks. They usually claim “insurance” or “security” as the reasons. Use Google or another web search engine to search drive up window bicycle for some examples or read this one.
Bicycle and multi-sport retailers sell bicycles and accessories and clothing to cyclists and are inherently part of the bicycling community. Sports drink providers and protein bar provides sell to cyclists as part of selling to active people. There are hundreds of bicycle touring companies that sell bicycle tours. One of my favortites is ABB.
Perhaps all this is changing?
Last week, I was riding the EL from Cumberland to the Clark/Lake station. I noticed an ad from a major insurance company. I didn’t write down the exact text of the ad but the message is: Chicago is one of the top 5 cities where bicycles are stolen. Buy our insurance to protect yourself. The fact that so many bicycles are stolen is a measure of the number of bicycles in Chicago. This is one of the few times I’ve seen a business selling their service to the bicycling community when the business itself is not bicycle oriented.
Is this ad recognition that the cycling community has grown to the point where the number of us who cycle are now worthy of attention. I hope so. What do you think?
p.s. A bit off topic: If your bicycle is stolen in the Chicago metropolitan area, make sure you register the incident at the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry. Also read Craigs list bicycles for sale – bicycles are sometimes recovered by inviting the police to assist in the repurchase of your own bike.
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