I know that there is a fair swag of commuters here. I was wondering what your best and worst end of ride facilities were? Is there anything that you couldn’t do without now? Have you had difficulty convincing “the man” to provide a change room? I’ll start the ball rolling:
Myer Knox City (MEL): NONE! Had to get changed in a fitting room or toilet. Shower in a can.
Portland House (MEL): One shower and 4 employees who used it. Bikes were stored in the equipment storage room.
Swinburne Uni (MEL): Plenty of showers and some semi-secure bike storage.
Univ. of Queensland (BNE): Plenty of showers, secure bike storage.
300 Queen St (BNE) semi-secure bike cage in carpark and shower and clothes storage on floor.
95 North Quay (BNE) bike rack in basement and on back balcony on floor. Two showers in basement (for my employers use only, not whole building) but no lockers to hold change of clothes. Showers installed at request of staff but I’ve never seen anyone else use them…
no complaints overall. Lockers in basement would be nice but not essential.
For ages my office let us bring our bikes through the office and park on the private balcony – no lock required, until ‘the man’ deemed them an eyesore and banished us to the basement bike parking enclosure. The journey underground and two lifts almost takes longer than my ride. Change room, lockers and shower provided at office. Although, being nude that close to colleagues is something I avoid.
Our office is in an old Gymnasium on top of a car park 522 Flinders Lane and there is just us up here. So we have a full change room with lockers. The directors like to project a green image so everyone’s bikes are in racks in the reception area.
Depending on the day we can have up to 20 people out of an office of 45 riding.
I’ve visited your office a few times- very cool space on top of the carpark. When I went to the toilet I was indeed impressed by the number of bikes. It was a while back, but who rode the Paconi?
I’ve worked in places that spanned from having their own in-house gym (with all the lockers and showers and provided toiletries) to using the on-street bike racks and changing in a cubicle (handicapped toilets make the best change rooms ).
Current place provides rack space for about 4 bikes but ample railings in the 4 floor parking garage to lock up to. There are single showers on 5 floors, but a complete dearth of lockers to store your work/riding clothes in. A couple of us have repurposed some spare filing cabinets and use the sides of them to hang our towels, which isnt optimum, and gets worse when it hits winter as your gear doesnt dry well. the showers range from some pretty rad setups with hand-dryers/mirrors/powerpoints to a stall in the corner of a handicapped toilet. ive also worked out which shower to hit at what time to avoid queuing.
Vancouver was amazing for bike facilities as a lot of companies are given incentives for encouraging bike commuting. showers seemed to be standard in most buildings and bike rooms were very common.
I was telling someone on the weekend about a mate who worked at a place where the boss was a keen cyclist and they provided some great facilities as well as a spares cupboard with tubes and floor pump.
Where I currently work you can pay $100 a year for access to a swipe card secure bike cage where you’re allocated a specific bike rack. This ranges from on the floor, to the hanging up variety. With this $100 you also get a locker and access to showers and other usual facilities. There is also an iron if you want to iron your shirt.
Since I don’t have a huge commute, I just lock up at the bike rack at the bottom of the basement car park. This fills up pretty early, so people also lock to a fence and a few other lock points throughout the carpark.
As well as the facilities down stairs, there are also showers on most floors. I only have a shower at work if its been REALLY hot, usually just have a quick wash, spray of rexona and change my clothes. I’ve got a filing cabinet with all my supplies in it like spare socks and jocks, different shoes and a lint roller. I have always planned to bring a floor pump, few basic tools and tubes in for emergencies, but I haven’t quite got there yet.
The facilities are good overall, I like that there is the option to pay for the premium services.
secure bike cages in the basements car parks: you have to apply for use and you can only access them with your security swipe card. the racks are good, well thought out etc.
each of the basement floors has a locker room with showers etc. im always there early so dont have to wait, and i usually only shower if im doing a long commute or im really hot and sweaty. none of the lockers have locks any more, and you cant leave stuff in them overnight, but theres access to lockers on main floors in the building. so generally the facilities are pretty good, with access for 160 bikes or something.
bike access varies from building to building with westpac, but i know some of the older buildings have bike rooms on the floors.
We’ve got the whole floor now, There has been a total renovation now so the bikes are lined up against the front window.
The Paconi belonged to a guy called Adam, or Fireman Adam now, he skipped out of Architecture and joined the MFB. It was a very nice bike, he’s had it totally repainted by Paconi, very sweet.
Royal brisbane hospital: 2 showers with decent pressure/heat, with lockers and supply of “free” towels, infinite bike rack spaces. In three weeks i have only ever seen one person using the shower facilities
My end of ride facilities, everywhere I’ve worked, consist of absolutely nothing.
Although my work places have always accepted me bringing my bike inside. Mostly because I just ignored anyone who told me other wise and its not a big enough issue for anyone to bother firing or reprimanding me. Even security at a major Melbourne hospital gave up when I just ignored them.
(actually one place did have a shower but that was a because it was a school with sports facilities, it wasn’t for cyclists)
RCH, Parkville, (Mel): Two secure lock up cages, showers on some floors (today’s shower was very cold though!), not many large lockers for hanging clothes but I have a room with an autoclave and a few other heating devices so I just pop them in there if I need to.
Random factory in West Melbourne: Barely a street sign to lock the bike to, tiny male/female toilet to change in, nowhere to hang clothes, tea room had a trestle table for eating on with a couple of chairs and that was it.
69 Ann Street (BNE) Bike rack in basement and secure changing room with showers and lockers. Although I have been told the waiting list for a locker is over 12 months so I just use a box!
+1
apparently one of the upstairs offices(that lease it from us) has one but don’t let anyone else use it. bet they never use it either, don’t think a single one rides/walks/jogs to work…bastards
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