Live data from Hacker News

Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

bicycledutch.wordpress.com

1–10 of 26 posts

Re: Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

#2
It may also interest people here that the guidance system is written in Haskell. I originally saw this on Reddit, where one of the authors provides a bit more information on the technical aspects of the system [0].

[0] http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3959r0/haskellbased...

Re: Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

#5
post #3

They also showed some outside parking places. Security is not a problem inside but what about outside? Do the cameras serve a dual role, is the bike insured against theft?

No, bikes are almost never insured against theft, that's the person's own responsibility (lock and chain), and even then sometimes you're just out of luck. Having your bike stolen is one of the experiences every Dutchman has to go through. That's also why there's a huge secondhand / cheap bike trade, or why you won't see much expensive bikes in the big cities like that. And for the few kilometers (if that) between your house and a train station, you don't really need anything fancy either.

Re: Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

#6
post #5
post #3

They also showed some outside parking places. Security is not a problem inside but what about outside? Do the cameras serve a dual role, is the bike insured against theft?

No, bikes are almost never insured against theft, that's the person's own responsibility (lock and chain), and even then sometimes you're just out of luck. Having your bike stolen is one of the experiences every Dutchman has to go through. That's also why there's a huge secondhand / cheap bike trade, or why you won't see much expensive bikes in the big cities like that. And for the few kilometers (if that) between yo…

I can lock the bike almost anywhere anyway, I thought this would help protect it.

I don't see any reason to use this service.

Re: Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

#7
post #3

They also showed some outside parking places. Security is not a problem inside but what about outside? Do the cameras serve a dual role, is the bike insured against theft?

Most of the time cameras are present.

They use cameras for counting free spaces as they mention in the video. Nothing is said about security. Having cameras does not mean you have actual recording and surveillance.

Re: Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

#8
post #6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, bikes are almost never insured against theft, that's the person's own responsibility (lock and chain), and even then sometimes you're just out of luck. Having your bike stolen is one of the experiences every Dutchman has to go through. That's also why there's a huge secondhand / cheap bike trade, or why you won't see much expensive bikes in the big cities like that. And for the few kilometers (if that) between yo…

I can lock the bike almost anywhere anyway, I thought this would help protect it. I don't see any reason to use this service.

The bike parking lots are generally located in extremely convenient places such as next to train stations, or near large squares. In the Netherlands, there are a lot of places that you can't park your bike, unlike in the US where you can just lean it against a wall. As you can see in the video, most of these parking lots feature the double level racks. It was hard for me to understand why this was necessary before I moved here from the US, but if you ever travel to the Netherlands, you will be amazed by the amount of bicycles. Being able to fit 2x as many bicycles in the same square footage is 100% necessary.

Re: Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

#9
post #6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, bikes are almost never insured against theft, that's the person's own responsibility (lock and chain), and even then sometimes you're just out of luck. Having your bike stolen is one of the experiences every Dutchman has to go through. That's also why there's a huge secondhand / cheap bike trade, or why you won't see much expensive bikes in the big cities like that. And for the few kilometers (if that) between yo…

I can lock the bike almost anywhere anyway, I thought this would help protect it. I don't see any reason to use this service.

You can lock your bike however you want, but any experienced thief can remove those locks within minutes. No reasonable priced combination of locks keeps a thief from taking your bike.

Luckily there are so many bikes in Utrecht and Amsterdam and especially around Central Station (10-20k), that chances that they take your bike are really low. Then if you use a good lock, one that takes an extra minute to break, and if you put your bike in a good location, you're relatively safe.

Re: Bicycle Parking Guidance System in Utrecht

#10
post #6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, bikes are almost never insured against theft, that's the person's own responsibility (lock and chain), and even then sometimes you're just out of luck. Having your bike stolen is one of the experiences every Dutchman has to go through. That's also why there's a huge secondhand / cheap bike trade, or why you won't see much expensive bikes in the big cities like that. And for the few kilometers (if that) between yo…

I can lock the bike almost anywhere anyway, I thought this would help protect it. I don't see any reason to use this service.

"I can lock the bike almost anywhere anyway" ...

Yeah, good luck with that near eg. a dutch train station ;-)

http://media.nu.nl/m/m1oxconajm5k_wd1280.jpg/bouw-grootste-f...

Post reply on HN