These have got to be the worst bicycle racks in the world. They use them all over the Portland area. One of the primary functions of a bicycle rack is to hold the bicycle upright, and these racks do not do that. You can lock your bike to an upright, and as long as nothing happens, it will be fine. But I have seen numerous bicycles lying on the ground, still locked to the rack. Presumably somebody bumped into the them and they fell to the ground. The rack did nothing to stop this. Even worse, it didn't even care. Now you have a bicycle sprawled on the ground taking up ten times as much space as before. Bad, bad, bicycle rack.
A simple horizontal bar would work better. That way you could hang your bike from your lock, or hook some part of your bicycle from it. Someone may bump into your bike, but as long as it is hanging, it is not going to fall over. A plain bar would work fine if it was truly horizontal, but given the nature of things, it might be better with bumps on the bar that would keep the locks from sliding downhill into the next bike.
Another method, for places where ground space is at a premium, would be to have a simple hand hoist that would hold the bicycle in the air. You wouldn't really need to lock the bike, just the hoist.
Update February 2017 replaced missing picture.
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