Difference between revisions of "Courtyard"

Revision as of 15:14, 11 February 2014

The Bike Kitchen is located in an internal courtyard at the Mosaica Complex at 18th and Florida Streets. Mosaica is a mixed-use facility, with residential properties above the commercial spaces. The courtyard in front of the Bike Kitchen is similarly mixed-use, and there are restrictions as to where Bike Kitchen patrons can work, and where bicycles can be locked up. This page has the details about this space, as well as staff responsibilities.

The Bike Kitchen's Role in the Courtyard

As part of the terms of its lease, the Bike Kitchen is required to keep common areas in the courtyard accessible to the complex's residents. In practice, this involves two major activities:

1. We make sure that patrons who are working on their bikes do not block access to common areas. A major part of this activity involves enforcing our No Stand, No Wrench policy: patrons are not allowed to work on their bike unless there is an open stand available. The only exception we make to this rule is when someone has to, say, change a flat tire to get home. In any case, we only allow patrons to work on their bicycles inside the shop or in the Bike Kitchen's parking spaces (see the diagram below). Patrons are never allowed to work on bikes on the benches in the courtyard, or to block the fire lanes or emergency vehicle access lanes.
2. Second, we make sure that patrons do not leave or lock up their bikes in prohibited areas. These include the fire lanes, the benches, the emergency vehicle access lanes, and the entrances of the building access lanes (see the diagram below). Unfortunately, the prohibited areas in the Mosaica courtyard are not well marked. Thus patrons often show up at the Bike Kitchen and lock their bike up in the wrong places, not knowing that they are not allowed to lock up there. Thus we have to regularly patrol the courtyard while we are open, and move bikes if they have been locked up in the wrong places.

What is a prohibited area in the courtyard?

The diagram below shows the Mosaica courtyard, with prohibited areas highlighted in pink. Some key points:

• The "lanes" formed by the chains strung between the bollards in the courtyard define the fire lanes running all the way around the courtyard. Bicycles cannot be left in these lanes.
  • Can you lock a bike to the chains? Yes--but the bike has to be outside of the fire lane; that is, the bike itself should be in the grey area of the courtyard, resting against the chain.
• The benches, shown in brown, cannot be used for working on a bike. You cannot place a bike on them to work on it, and you cannot sit there while working on your bike.
  • Can a patron sit on the benches while waiting, for example while waiting for a stand to open up? Yes--but they cannot work on their bicycle while doing so.
• The emergency vehicle access lane is the least clearly marked thing in the courtyard. Still, it isn't hard to visualize: it's the lane running between the entry and exit of the courtyard. No bike can block this. The spot where this is often an issue is the (again, unmarked!) boundary between our parking spaces and that access lane. It behooves the staff to make sure that the stands used by the patrons working outside do not obstruct this lane.
• The boxes marked in red represent the entryways into the Mosaica complex. There are nubbly yellow tiles on the ground in-between the bollards at each spot. It is vitally important that these not be obstructed. These spots have been the largest source of what few complaints we have received. Crucially, bikes cannot project even partially into this space. They have to be kept completely clear. Any inspection should start and end at these points.

What are staff and volunteer responsibilities?