After I noticed a lot of – what I called – “organic bike parking” in front of Farm Burger on West Ponce back in May 2010, the Marlay and its property owner were gracious enough to install a bike rack at the corner of their property. I excitedly deemed it the city’s first “crowd-sourced bike rack”.

Now I’ve walked by that rack many times in the past 8 months and am always cheerful when I see a bike chained to it.  But sometimes the organic bike parking continues around Farm Burger in spite of the rack, as Al captured in the pic above.

What’s the cause?  Is it a visibility thing?  If so, perhaps someone – they city? – could make off-street bike parking more obvious to cyclists by painting some sort of symbol on the sidewalk or street?  Or maybe organic bike parking will persist regardless of racks?  Will a sign post closer to a business entrance always get more use than a rack slightly further away?