Given that you're starting from scratch, it might be worthwhile consulting the new APBP Bike Parking Guide for best practices on rack spacing.  30" would certainly work, but I believe APBP recommends 36" between racks and 24" between racks and curb.  We definitely get by at UW with narrower spacing, but if you have an opportunity to set a new standard, you might consider this wider spacing.  Good luck!

David Amiton

Transportation Analyst | MURP
Commuter Services | Transportation Services
University of Washington
p: 206.616.7493
f: 206.543.2409
damiton@u.washington.edu
bikehelp@u.washington.edu

 I would talk to on campus bike users first though because those U shaped stands are really annoying and in the same space that fit the bike rack you will not fit as many bikes on the U's.  It might be good to have students on campus do a class project (perhaps in GIS) as to which bike racks are most used, how much occupancy each rack has, which racks aren't used in which locations, etc.  We did this at Furman and saw the need to rearrange some of the bike rack locations which was easy to do with the racks, not so obviously with the U shaped locks.  I agree that the racks aren't as stylish but there are options that are: see http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2009/08/treelike_vertical_bike_rack_de.html (Boulder CO has a version of this for their RTD and they work great + pack in a lot of bikes in a small space).  

We at the University of California, Santa Barbara have shifted to the dutch style staggered height  self-orienting bicyle racks made by http://PeakRacks.com 

We currently have over 10,000 bicycle racks and PeakRacks allowed us to increase the density of our bicycle parking in the same sized footprint.  

We had an contractor for a bike/pedestrian plan that provided a recommendation (inverted U "staples", replacing wave and wheelbender styles).  I needed to work through an outdoor aesthetics committee of high-ranked administrators.  They would not approve the change without student/community input (which I will seek this fall).

I also had an intern pull together our first inventory of bike spaces (>1,000).  Since learning the number I have been informally asking audiences of students, staff, etc. to estimate the number of spaces on our campus.  Almost everyone says we do not have enough bike parking, but no one has guessed higher than 200, including some of our most active year-round bicyclists.  This has me thinking that the diffuse spread of bike parking (one at every door) may not be the best  model for our tight urban campus, and we are now discussing some massing to create some bike parking lots.  This could also helps us deal with the growing scooter/moped use.