Basement bike parking with 24 hr access, easy access to the street, and adequate locking facilities make the decision to ride a bike as a primary mode of transportation much easier.

Roger Gray breaks down the barriers to alternative transit choices into Simple Laziness and Complex Laziness. Simple Laziness is “I’m too tired to bike.� Complex Laziness is “I would ride a bike, but I don’t have one,� or “the tires are probably flat and the seat is dusty.�

Lack of adequate parking facilities in apartments and offices make Complex Laziness more persistent.

Alan Durning's report on his family's car-free year provides this excellent sociological insight into car/human attraction:

...two weeks ago, my family was at a friend’s fiftieth birthday picnic. My wife Amy had arrived in a loaner car, which was parked nearby. During the party, she and I were taking photos of the guests, at the birthday host’s prompting. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of juice and I had left the charger at home, three miles away. I drove the loaner home and got it.

Now, if we hadn’t had a car there, I never would have gone. I would have been more resourceful. I would have asked around for a camera. That’s what I should have done. By the time I returned, another guest had fired up her Nikon and taken over our shutterbug duties. If I’d given the situation a bit more thought, I could have avoided a trip. It wasn’t a big deal--maybe 40 minutes round trip. But for mortal beings like us, time is a nonrenewable resource. And such trips are, in my experience, quite common when there’s a car at the ready. The minutes add up.

Convenient bike parking at home, at work, and at places dedicated to entertainment and social gathering goes a long way towards making biking a viable transportation alternative. While zoning codes encourage percentage storage for bikes, all facilities should have adequate bike parking for 100% of residents/occupants.