I just submitted the above 3-D rendering to the Treasure Island Bike Rack Design contest. This concept is based on re-purposing old car parking meters to be used for bike parking.

This idea is particularly relevant to Treasure Island due to the redevelopment plan’s focus on sustainability, car independence, and pedestrian access. The out-of-context use of parking meters (i.e. in parks, on pedestrian walkways) serves as a constant reminder to Treasure Island’s residents and guests that we, as a society, need to get over our addiction to the automobile - and that biking is a viable option for transportation that is healthier and more environmentally conscious. Re-using our car parking infrastructure for bike parking makes an elegant statement about not only this shift in mindset about our mobility, but also about the potential to creatively re-use our waste.

As a San Franciscan who bikes everywhere, parking meters are already my preferred bike rack. I get frustrated with over-engineered bike parking solutions (i.e. the bike racks at GG Park’s Botanical Gardens and at the Legion of Honor) - so, with this contest, I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel too much. My original idea was simply to create a grid of parking meters. However, this does not meet the contest’s requirement of being able to secure bikes using all types of locks. If someone only had a loose cable lock, the bike could slip over the top of the meter.

I ended up with two complementary no-nonsense designs, both based on old parking meters and both designed to be functional/durable in demanding urban environments. The first is simply welding, or otherwise fastening, a cross-bar between two old parking meters to create a variation on the popular and functional U-rack design. This design allows both wheels to be securely locked to the rack. The second design is to fasten a closed metal loop to the parking meter pole, which allows a cable lock to be threaded through. While this design does not allow both wheels to be fastened directly to the rack (as the contest rules stipulate), most bikers don’t lock their bikes this way currently. From my observation, it’s more common to lock both wheels by running a cable through the front wheel and securing that cable with a single U-lock fastened to the frame/back wheel. These single meter/racks have a smaller footprint and could more easily stand-alone at various places throughout the island.

The 3-D rendering was created with Google Sketch-Up. The quality of this rendering was limited both by my novice Sketch-Up skills (first ever!) and my computer’s processing power - but I think it conveys the idea pretty well.

(Or, referencing the top-notch Treasure Island music festival, they could go with David Byrne’s sweet bike rack designs for NYC: http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/bike_racks/index.php)

The blogosphere’s theme for the remainder of 2009 should be the Rahm Doctrine. Clearly we are in the middle of a pretty major economic crisis. Hopefully it won’t last much longer than 2009.  I also think we are in the middle of a more subtle social crisis that will likely go on for much longer. Don’t believe me? Think about the climate, income inequality, healthcare, increasing global conflict, rising food prices.

With so much in the way of crisis going on right now, according to the Rahm Doctrine at least, there should be plenty of opportunities. Especially for entrepreneurs.We’ve already highlighted a few of these opportunities, and will continue to do so.  Other bloggers are doing the same (everyone from Gary Vaynerchuk to Paul Krugman)

President Obama in his weekly address this morning confirmed this belief. What we’re going to see in the coming months is a global willingness to try new ideas out, mostly because many of the old ideas are broken. And we’re already seeing signs of it.  Americas workforce is switching sectors. We are investing in our homes to increase their efficiency (and stave off loss in value). For a great article on what some of the coming changes could be, check out this months Atlantic.

And if you have your own ideas of opportunities within crisis please share them with us. One of our favorites is here.

Quick - Post
Fast Company’s piece on Marine Energy is a good introduction to an area that’s often overlooked in our search for renewable energy.

Check it out here http://tinyurl.com/b9v4y4

There’s a lot of talk about how entrepreneurs can save the day.

Who will get us out of this economic mess? Entrepreneurs.

Who is going to lead us towards clean energy? Entrepreneurs.

Who is going to save the New York Times from Rupert Murdoch? Entrepreneurs?

There is an enormous amount of truth to this idea, but its a bit incomplete. Sramana Mitra recently posted an article for Forbes as part of a running series that is exploring a variety of topics related to the economy and entrepreneurs. One article in particular, Barriers to Innovation, reminded me something that I think a lot of people need to bear in mind: We cannot rely on entrepreneurs alone. We need to value the solid research and technical skills that come from academia, science and engineering. Its when they intersect that real value is generated. Read the rest of this entry »