me wrote in
oups.com:

Another take on bike parking - valet bike parking. Nothing really all
that new for cycling or some public events, but a interesting business
proposal is lurking here to be picked up. When I started shopping by
bike about a decade ago, one of the main disincentives was obviously,
leaving the bike fully-laden while you nicked off for other stuff. For
Melboring possibly Lygon Court, Queen Vic market, Gleadell St Market
or Piedimonte's (Nth Fitz) would be good locales, although any future
redevelopment of the Chaddie carpark will have to wait until peak oil
hits.

The parking issue puts a real dampener on using our bikes for things where
they will have to be unattended for a long time, such as going to a movie.
My bike is an old clunker, anyone can have it and provide me with an excuse
to $$upgrade. But my wife's bike is quite new and eminently stealable. I'd
actually pay a few dollars to somebody like white-haired Johnny in that
article, if I was confident he'd keep an eye on the bikes.

Publicly-funded (or even user pays, on a large scale) is only going to work
at 'big' venues like those you mention, sporting events, farmers' markets,
etc. Maybe the public money would be better spent employing plainclothes
snipers to deal with bike thieves, car window smashers and other sundry
lowlives.

--
beerwolf (feeling grumpy after a smash&grab raid on our car)