Target Bike Rack Completely Useless
Recently I was heading into the fairly new Target Greatland at Brentwood Promenade and noticed the bike rack adjacent to the entry (left of entry in photo).
I’m always happy to see businesses include a bike rack, however, it is nice when they actually install it in a place where someone might actually be able to use it.
The only way this bike rack, a unit designed to hold five (5) bicycles, can actually be used by someone is to lock a single bike parallel to the rack. So the five-bike rack becomes a single bike rack.
The reason it cannot be used as designed is the rack is mounted too close the back wall. If it were pulled out from the wall a foot or so it would allow the front wheel of a bike to go beyond the rack. This would allow for three bikes — the two outer positions and the center — to be secured. The other two spaces are designed to be approached from the opposite side. But even pulling the rack forward by a foot leaves little room for a cyclist to get around the bike to lock the frame and wheel to the rack.
This facility was professionally designed and professionally built. Someone thought to include a bike rack, perhaps that was a Target requirement. But the professionals, somewhere along the line, failed to make sure the proper rack was specified for the location. Yet another example where someone knowledgeable of such issues should have been reviewing the drawings, specifications and monitoring the construction process.
– Steve
My hat’s off to anyone who could get to the Brentwood Promenade by bike . . . alive.
^Those were my thoughts as well.
hilarious
When the new Metrolink opens later this year, this bike rack *could* probably have gotten a little more use (had it been designed correctly) by people who use their bike and public transport in combination to get around …
Hopefully future new construction will be more bike friendly.
One question: Does the Galleria have bike racks?
And in an unrelated but positive side for bike riders in St. Louis, it’s great to see transportation planners add bike lanes on Grand, Russell, Lindell, etc in recent years.
Yes another example of the local metality and lack of accountability.
The carts are usually parked in front of the rack even preventing the parking of one bike. The rack is also placed in a position which prevents easy monitoring , thus increasing the risk of theft.
I would never use a bike in this area.
Considering the soccer moms, and the senior citizens shoppers who can barely see, I would simply be dead.
It would be safer to bike down a busy street. Getting between shoppers and their precious valuable goods is dangerous.
People get crazy when they shop.
This is pretty expected, however, maybe this will be fixed once Cross County opens.
This is probably the most poorly designed strip mall in the area, and that’s saying alot. So that’s why this bike rack doesn’t surprise me. Trying to get into the Trader Joe’s is scary. The pedestrian walkways go nowhere- straight into a curb. Then the curb cuts that do allow you to push your cart down (or wheelchair maybe?) go right into the traffic. And the stop signs are random. Our city Target is so superior to this one in Brentwood, so I would never go there. But I’ll admit a weakness for Trader Joe’s, so I occasionally will venture out to this strip mall for that. It is stressful to say the least.
What is even sadder is this strip mall is only about 5 years old. Hundreds of people lost their homes for this ridiculous development.
Wasn’t there a historically African-American neighborhood located on this site?
It is safe to say that millionaires did not loose their homes, so probably lower to middle class white or african american citizens.
I was not in the area when it was developed, and I agree, this is probably the poorest designed POS I have visited. I used to live out in another suburb which is across the river, and generally, they do a better job, and I am using better very loosely. There is always traffic, and there is no traffic control. I do not think they planned for the amount of traffic this area has.
Maybe Cross County will help, but in general, light rail does nothing for traffic.
Sorry to say, but I agree, the North Hampton Target is vastly superior, and forunately, in walking distance from my apartment.
Michael- It was an African-American neighborhood, but I know nothing about its history. I remember when it was being torn down because I was in college and working at the Brentwood YMCA, so I was going by there almost everyday. Lots of frame late-19th century houses if I remember right. I wasn’t smart enough at the time to take pictures. I’d give our friend Esley a call, because I’m sure there is a facinating history that he could tell you about.
Wave racks suck anyway. That thing is bolted into the concrete so it can be cut out and moved without too much cost.
A brand new Walgreens local to me installed a set of bike racks in a similar arrangement — too close to a wall for it to be useful. I went inside, found the store manager and took him outside to show him my bike and trailer (chained to a signpost), the four other bikes scattered around his building, and the impossible bike rack arrangement. By the following week he had the bike rack moved out a few feet.
The recent history of the neighborhood is relatively simple – economically depressed by the looming threat of I-170 just to the north. The highway was supposed to cut through the neighborhood on it’s way south to I-44, but MoDOT never followed through on their plans. Brentwood finally got tired of the waiting game and Target plopped itself directly in front of I-170. Now, of course, the property is too expensive to build the highway through.
As far as the wave racks are concerned, I like them – they’re the predominent bike rack type on the Wash U campus. You should check out the series of racks in front of Cupples II Hall: a rack the size of the one pictured would have as many as 9 bikes attached.
And for Metrolink, should ask why there’s no convient access to the Eager station from the west, Dierberg’s side. (though I’m guessing the reason is long-term parking).
That neighborhood was called Evans Place. Like the Hadley Township neighborhood in Richmond Heights now slated for demo, it was a neighborhood of small frame houses originally built, I believe, around the turn of the century for African-American workers at the brick plant located about where the Home Depot is now.
The demolition of Evans Place was a big fight almost 10 years ago. I think Eric Vickers was hired by some of the opponents; but of course the City of Brentwood and Sansone Group won. Eminent domain may have been threatened, but I’m not sure it was used. I think all the homeowners got a lot of money – several times what the houses were worth on the market (as houses anyway), and a monument memorializing the neighborhood was promised to be built on the site. I’m not sure it ever was.
Brentwood Promenade was built in 1997. It is owned by Sansone Group, and includes Target Greatland, PetsMart, Trader Joe’s, etc.
Just uphill, Brentwood Pointe Dierbergs center is newer – 2001. I don’t think any houses were taken for that one, just industrial property including the former location of RSI Kitchens & Bath.
It looks like there will be an access walkway to the Brentwood-I-64 MetroLink station on the Dierbergs side, but pointed toward the end of Hanley Industrial rather than toward Eager. But the main entry will be on the east side, pointed toward a planned parking garage behind the Best Buy complex.
I’ve noticed this poor spacing at other Target locations across the country, although literally backing the rack into a corner is a new one. (When it’s just too close to a flat, probably blank, wall, you can usually try some kind of extreme angle.) Wonder if it’s company policy, or just more Stupid Engineer Tricks?
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