Bike rack agro and parking etiquette

Look. When your bicycle has a built in flip down stand you don't really need to put your bike in the bike rack, do you? Especially not when you then also put the blessed built-in one down so that the bike leans to the left taking up yet another slot in the rack that you don't need but that other people do.

If that is the worst thing to happen to you today, then you're having a better day than most.

Bizarrely, this is a common gripe of mine as well. I guess the solution is just to buy a kick-stand like the rest of Germany...

The problem is it happens every day, at every bike rack.

STB - or to kick the offending bike over. Not that I'd ever do that. I'm a good boy, me.

I've put the kickstand up on them, then backed my bike into the rack, making the access to their bike difficult, as I like to lock my back wheel into the rack, not the front!

I have a kickstand - but the damn thing never did hold the bike up - worthless ornament I think added on for the 95 cents in the 199.95 price tag. Same with the lights, come to think of it.

So mine goes on the rack, but is usually on the end locked up to two kids bikes that don't come with kickstands.

if you don't put the kickstand down and the bike somehow gets pushed over then isn't there a risk that the wheel will get bent.

plus if a bike is leaning over another slot then just push it out the way while you are inserting your bike and then let it drop again afterwards - resting on your bike if necessary.

See...easy!

I have a kick-stand and I lock the bike within the bike rack for the simple reason that it's a lot safer to lock your bike to something than just to lock the wheel to itself. I can never understand why people do that unless there really is nothing fixed around. These robber chappies simply come along in a van and pick your bike up and off they go. Makes it too easy for the buggers.

I do the same as Keydeck and my kickstand still doesn't stick out as far as my pedals so it isn't in the way even when I use it.
The worst offenders are those that stick those DB rent-a-bikes in a rack, they are really wide and there is no need to bung them in a rack either.

'Course, lots of places if your bike's not in the rack, they'll tow them like illegally parked cars. SBahn station Laim for example.

And olympiazentrum. There is a white line round the bike racks and a sign that says bikes outside the line may be removed

I just lean my kickstandless bike against a kickstanded bike.

Well, even if you do lock your bike to a rack (by the frame) it may still get stolen (I know this because it happened to me).

This Police brochure (as read by me in Neuhausen Police station on Saturday) says on page 2 of the PDF:

So the Police recommend in their brochure to always use a suitable lock and to always lock to a fixed object such as a lamppost or bike stand - locking only the front or rear wheels is not enough.
Yeah I can still park considerately by not putting my kickstand out if it isn't needed, but if it is good enough for the Police, it is good enough for me.