Mall bicycle parking

Recently, there have been reports of bicycles being turned away from parking in convenient places near Pavilion Mall Bukit Jalil.  

How common is this?

What are the different malls' policies on bicycle parking, and for that matter, on sustainable transport related to their developments?

Some malls do have bicycle parking in convenient places near their mall entrances (e.g. MyTown, Sunway Putra mall).  So for those that have battled all the other inconveniences to ride their bike to the mall, at least they can park.   Good characteristics are:

• Safe
• Close to mall entrance/ convenient
• Covered (ideally)
• Easy to lock bike to.

It's not really that difficult for malls to do this.  In fact, it's an easy win for mall owners and operators to show they are thinking about a diversity of ways people get around.  The malls might even understand their responsibility towards accessibility, pollution, congestion, noise etc. etc. in their area.

Sometimes, such as in MRT stations, motorbikes can be seen crowding the bicycle parking area, making it difficult to park.  Malls usually don't have this problem as there is a security presence who can deal with this. 

At Pavilion Bukit Jalil, the security seems to have been briefed by the mall management to be hostile to bicycles.  Same goes for Beam scooters.  Security has been seen directing Beam riders away from the mall parking and onto the public roads outside the mall boundary.  Why not have a Beam parking area at the mall?  If someone has used a scooter, it has probably saved one car journey.  

Motorcycles are also banished from the property at Pavilion Bukit Jalil, so they end up blocking the walking path for others.

Interestingly, anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that expensive-looking bikes get turned away less often than cheap, tatty looking bikes.  Is this some kind of deeply-embedded, possibly subconscious bias, perhaps fueled by the mall's attempt to project a 'premium' or fancy image?

As one of the big-name malls in the Klang Valley, Pavilion can play a role in how the urban environment operates around its malls.  Does the leadership at Pavilion feel a responsibility towards the city that makes them rich?  Or do they purely think about profit, and just pay lip-service to sustainability and CSR. 

From the Pavilion website:

Pavilion KL leads sustainable practices, ensuring a vibrant future while enriching communities and preserving the environment for generations.

Their latest article is about supercharging your Tesla.  How inclusive.   (How car-brained.)  

So, while there are still some malls that deny convenient bicycle parking, let's give a thumbs up to those that have made an effort, and call on the big malls to do better and live up to their words.