The black curvy bike racks serve a great purpose of giving something cool looking secured in the ground to lock my bike to, but they frustrate me because they are not intuitive. I am not sure how to place my bike in relation to the rack when I lock it up. Am I supposed to use a kickstand, put one tire over the low part, or simply rest the bike against it under the high parts? The picture above shows how people above feel the same way as bikes are utilizing the rack in different ways. I don't like how resting the bike against the rack is unstable. My bike often falls over when I just rest it against the rack, and the pink bike on the left has fallen over like mine does. While this rack is neat that it can be used in different ways, I prefer the rack below.
I like these gray bike racks better because it is clear how to use them. The design of this bike rack makes it obvious that a tire goes over that first bar and into one of the slots. (I am not sure what that blue bike is doing, maybe it isn't as intuitive as I thought) The slots are great because they hold the bike up, so there is very little chance of it falling over. I am also lazy, and these gray racks prevent me from having to ever use my kickstand whereas I use the kickstand with the curvy racks to ensure my bike does not fall over.
I understand your frustration, I've never understood how to use the curvy bike racks either. I feel like designers focus too much on a cool looking design than making sure the rack is still intuitive. In Edinburgh, they had these bike racks that looked really cool. From most angles they just looked like weird, detached squiggles, but from the right angle, the shapes obviously formed a bike. The only thing was, there was absolutely no intuitive way to lock your bike to them.
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