Bike racks being placed along the parking lot edges to prevent camping on the sidewalk.
The bike racks surrounding the Education Annex parking lot are placed in a way that targets houseless individuals. The wide sidewalks cannot be used for camping or sitting on due to the many bike racks.
The bike racks take up a lot of the sidewalk and limit the sidewalk’s use to solely being for passing through. The placement also prevent leaning against the landscape’s small retaining wall which would trap in heat during the cold seasons. This parking lot is at the edge of campus and the bike racks are implemented in this parking lot to limit the sidewalk’s use to only passing-through which steers houseless individuals away from this specific area and away from the rest of the campus.
This is an excessive amount of bike racks that seem to be under used. I do feel it becomes hostile because of the location. On the edge of campus, near a low traffic area, and so near the cemetery it probably does not need this many racks.
I feel like there is an excessive amount of bike racks that are most likely unnecessary as it is on the edge of campus which doesn’t receive that much traffic, but I also think its main intention was preventing people from using the space incorrectly.
I definitely agree the placement of these bike racks leans toward hostility. Especially considering the racks may not have been imagined in the original design of the space.
Definitely the bike racks act as a barrier for the unhouse people to move toward the street and obviously the street is not a good place to camp. The placement of the racks makes the unhouse people camping impossible. There is not enough space to rest comfortable.
I agree that this could be hostile design consider its location, excessive amount, and how ‘unused’ it looked. Or it can be a design failure that they over estimated the amount of people who choose bike as a transportation to get nearby and use that feature.
These bike racks are a great example of functional hostile design. Their location on campus makes sense because many students bike to campus and need a place to store their bikes while they are in class. What classifies it as hostile is the location of the bike racks in relation to the sidewalk. Instead of the racks being right alongside the street, they are pushed up against the edge of the planters. This makes the ledge inaccessible and prevents anyone from resting there.
I agree that this could be a hostile design by acting as a barrier for the heat retaining wall. However, this could be a design failure since bikes are common on campus. There is also a lot of space on the sidewalk that could serve as a potential settlement for the unhoused.