Shop Blocked
As I was shopping this holiday I went to a mall. And it suddenly occurred to me that, for some reason, I hadn’t gone to a mall in a very very long time.
It’s one of those little lifestyle shifts that has happened with biking. I find myself almost exclusively patronizing small neighborhood shops.
But that makes sense. When you’re walking and biking why go to shopping areas whose entrances send the message “KEEP OUT!”?
I find this kind of funny – all of the shopping malls in my hometown are basically the opposite of what’s depicted here. They had bike parking out the front at every entrance, and lots of it too, although typically not enough, because it was almost always full! They knew that if they did that, they could get kids to come in, and the kids that worked there would have somewhere to park their bikes too. They had plenty of footpaths/sidewalks, to allow easy access from the parking lots. They also had a large number of bus stops for people not on bikes. This is in car centric Australia too, not some forward thinking progressive city.
Malls are cold monoliths, they look like mausoleums…
It’s designed to keep you in and not be free…
It’s also become a baby sitter for unattended unsupervised teens and kids
I think CPS should monitor the entrances…sad
Plus lack of bike racks.