Searching for Accommodation in a Hostile World

Since its inception, I've loved Google Street View for two reasons.

• I can tour dangerous places I've always wanted to visit
• I can suss out bike parking in advance before I go somewhere

This works well in cities.  It does not work so well in the suburbs, where the place I'm going might be set back behind a sea of parking.  I do not expect the Google Street View Prius to go putter around every parking lot and garage to spy on my behalf.

This week I am attending Velocity, a conference which up to this point I have been too unimportant to attend.  Velocity is in the Valley which, as indicated by its name, is fucking bunk.  God has turned his back on the Valley.  Unfortunately, the Valley has also turned its back on God's own people, the humble bicyclists of San Francisco and environs.  For a place only two counties away, it sure feels more like I'm somewhere awful, like Phoenix, than wonderful, gushy, liberal coastal California.  This is the case, as well, for the Valley, and also the Valley.

I have a few options for getting there.  Barring extreme masochism and disregard for personal safety (there really is no safe, continous north-south bicycle route down the Peninsula), I will get to take public transit for part of the route.  Caltrain will get me as far as Lawrence.  From there, The Google has instructed me that I can take a delightful trail to the Convention Center.  So far, so good.  Granted, I've had awful bicycling experiences down south, including angry drivers attempting to run me off of the road for presumably no reason other than my choice of conveyance (frustration at said conveyance probably an outgrowth of living in a Valley, plus micropenis).  However, I'm not expecting this to be too bad.  I even know some of the streets, from having taken them a few years ago for an interview at Yahoo.

My concern is what I will find when I get there.  In a place basically not designed for humans, what accommodations have been made for locking up a bicycle?  I was worried that I'd get down there, ask a couple of disinterested and unaware employees (whose experience of "cyclists" was probably of the "Mexican guy on the sidewalk" variety), and eventually be directed to something like this (source):

Don't laugh.  It's happened before.

The scenario continues with me self-righteously dragging my bicycle into the convention center, at which point a security guard tells me to "tie it up outside".  I then demolish him with the sheer power of my smugness, and haughtily drag my bicycle into each session until the conference is over.  In the comic-book fantasy world where I work out all of the angst brought about by my personal powerlessness over the entirety of existance this is an entirely plausible scenario.

Since I actually try to live in reality most of the time, and don't really need to be getting into a confrontation on my boss's dime, I did the much more reasonable act of emailing the general manager of the convention center on Thursday and asking her what was available in terms of bike parking.  I even had the audacity to ask for a picture of the racks.  I called her on Friday, and after a brief conversation she actually went ahead and took one.  Holy shit!

Here is what is waiting for me at the convention center:

The rack(s, there are actually two of them) are located outside and may fill up, depending on whether there are any other Systeembeheerders crazy enough to ride to Velocity.  However, they're of the right design (particularly given the paranoid way I like to lock my bike), and the manager even went so far as to photograph the bolt so I could ensure that they were securely anchored to the ground:

I have to admit, I really feel like someone went the extra mile to let me know my bicycle would be welcome.  Now, if they could follow up by putting a pittance of information on their website, which gushes effusively about how easy it is to drive and park there, it would really complete the picture.  Perhaps I should suggest it.  Anyhow, looks like I'll be biking to Velocity.  Perhaps I will see some of you there!

Comments

[Jesse Robbins]

Thanks for the suggestion about putting bike transport instructions on the http://www.velocityconf.com website. It seems like a great idea, and I've passed it along to Tim O'Reilly & Gina Blaber (VP of Conferences @ O'Reilly).

See you tomorrow, and safe travels!

-Jesse Robbins
Co-chair of VelocityConf & CEO of Opscode

[sascha]

You can park your bike in my hotel room if there's congestion at the bike rack. From one cyclist to another. I can't believe there's no rentabike out here either. I had to walk 2 miles to find coffee and it wasn't even good! It's like this isn't even the west coast or something.

[Dannyman]

If you like trail riding, might I recommend taking Caltrain to Mountain View, then riding North along the Steven's Creek trail up North of Moffett, SouthEast on the Bay Trail, then South down San Thomas Aquino.

It is somewhat more roundabout, but you get to avoid drivers and highway exhaust almost entirely.

-danny

[Dannyman]

PS: Your blogs OpenID login process ATE MY COMMENT.

PPS: If you get off at Mountain View, you can ride the Light Rail directly to that convention center. If you feel ambivalent about riding, you can bring your bike and put it in the most excellent bike rack inside the light rail.

[Mike Baehr]

Danny: I saw that! I'm heading over to BayLISA on Thursday, which is hosted at LinkedIn in Mountain View, so I was actually planning on doing that very ride in reverse. Should be nice!

[Daphaknee]

do you really think someone is going to steal your bike from a rack like that IN THE SOUTH BAY

snob snob freakin snob

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