Utility BoxesShare This
Posted on June 8, 2012 by Tamara Shopsin in 2012 fellows, News

Santa Cruz is trying to get more people biking to work. So they’ve installed electric cabinets all over town.

James Burr the Transportation Manager for the Santa Cruz Public Works Department explained that these are bike lockers. You can rent them for five cents an hour and your bike will be kept safe from theft.

There are stickers explaining the purpose of the lockers, but people don’t really notice them.

James was about to print new stickers with a drawing of a bike in a locker, but they still seemed too small. So I suggested we just paint a life-size bike on the side of the locker so people would know what they are for. James told me to “go for it.”

I did a test on the bike locker located at city hall.

George from city maintenance brought traffic cones when I was done and unfurled caution tape like he was putting a sash on Mrs. America.

I painted another locker in a busy part of downtown.  People stopped to watch and to tell me they had thought the lockers were utility boxes.

This was a quick analog side project to the larger digital focus in Santa Cruz.

  • http://nicelookin.com/2012/09/ux-week/ UX Week | Nice Lookin'

    [...] I especially liked one very analog solution she highlighted. Bike lockers had been installed in Santa Cruz, but usage was very low. It was determined that the usage was so low because passers by did not recognize what these giant metal boxes were. Solution? Paint a bike on it. [...]

  • http://bowercollective.com/2012/11/30/the-bower-bird-our-spirit-animal/ Channeling the Bowerbird – Bower Collective : Bower Collective

    [...] Shopsin, a co-fellow of mine at Code for America, noticed that what looked like big electric boxes all over Santa Cruz were actually bike lockers . Thinking this might  be a common mistake, she painted bikes on them. “People stopped to watch [...]

  • Peter Forbes

    I really dislike those. Do the boxes in the top picture hold only 5 bikes total? An access-limited bike cage seems more sensible, cheaper and easier. Those boxes strike me as an obstruction and an eyesore.

  • James Glass

    More of an eyesore than a parking space or a parking garage?

  • red

    I think I agree that it’s a shame the storage units are so limited (5 bikes is not a lot). I’m not sure how an access-limited bike cage can replace these storage containers… The thief’s can just pay the fee to access the cage and go to town. I personally like the idea of the storage container. I live in NYC and there are some very trafficked areas that I do not feel at all comfortable locking my bike – no matter what type of lock I use. Areas like Union Square, Times Square, etc. I would totally pay for temporary storage when I’m in those areas for a meeting or a quick shopping trip. Perhaps they should be time limited… a dollar for the first hour, then 5 for the second, 10 for the third, etc. Like bike share, so that ppl are encouraged to use them but not abuse the system.

  • red

    I think I agree that it’s a shame the storage units are so limited (5 bikes is not a lot). I’m not sure how an access-limited bike cage can replace these storage containers… The thief’s can just pay the fee to access the cage and go to town. I personally like the idea of the storage container. I live in NYC and there are some very trafficked areas that I do not feel at all comfortable locking my bike – no matter what type of lock I use. Areas like Union Square, Times Square, etc. I would totally pay for temporary storage when I’m in those areas for a meeting or a quick shopping trip. Perhaps they should be time limited… a dollar for the first hour, then 5 for the second, 10 for the third, etc. Like bike share, so that ppl are encouraged to use them but not abuse the system.