The Bike Fed racks worked really great for our Blues Society picnic at Warner Park on June 21, which attracted several thousand people. I don't see why those racks would have to be permanently installed (they are 12 or more feet long). In fact, my original comment was that it would be better if those racks were NOT permanently installed at a site. The reason is the racks would then be able to be moved around from park to park, and within parks, as needed.
In fact, may the the City should consider purchasing or accepting the 10 Saris bike racks from Bike Fed for that purpose, since the Bike Fed doesn't have the equipment (trucks) to make those racks easily available to the public at the City's parks, and the City does? As for getting volunteers, as I mentioned previously, we would not have been able to staff a bicycle corral at our picnic since we were already short on volunteers. Nor would we have been able to barter for free entrance to the picnic to obtain more volunteers, since entry to the Madison Blues Society's annual blues picnic is always free of charge. Since we had no additional volunteers to staff the bicycle corral at the park from noon to 9 pm that day, we chose to transport the Bike Fed's racks to the park instead. But it was no small task to transport those racks to Warner Park in a minivan and return them to East Wilson Street after the event. The City would have been far better equipped to do that, and it might have been just as well to have left the racks at Warner Park anyway, since the City is already remiss in not providing adequate bicycle storage there for normal summertime park use to begin with. As for a City requirement mandating organizations sponsoring large events at parks to provide and staff bicycle corrals at those events, I would not be in support of that, particularly for organizations who do not charge entry frees to their events. I would rather see the City of Madison take on that responsibility, since it already charges those organizations for use of the city parks, and moreover the City should be providing a larger baseline amount of bicycle facilities at most of it parks anyway than it currently provides, as you stated as well. Mike Neuman On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:59:22 -0500 "Robbie Webber" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 2:56 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > But from Robbie Webber's message the City recommends against using > those Bike Feds racks and would rather mandate that organizations > who put on such events find more volunteers to staff bicycle > corrals. > > I said that one individual at the city - Arthur Ross - doesn't want > the racks used. I have not surveyed other city employees, nor the > Council or Mayor, so I don't believe you can say "the City" > recommends > against using those Bike Fed racks." I mentioned that Arthur > doesn't > like them in reply to a message asking why those racks cannot or > have > not been permanently installed somewhere. > > In addition, since no one at the city has mandated that volunteers > staff bike corrals, nor has anyone, myself included, introduced > such > legislation at any level, I believe the above statement is > incorrect. > > Many people have approached me over the years to say that, "Large > events should have adequate bicycle parking." I agree, however, > there > is quite a bit of discussion and negotiating to do before the City > of > Madison passes such requirements. I am only one member of the > Council, > so even if I had made up my mind how legislation should read, I > still > need ten other votes. > > There are several ways to assure that adequate bicycle parking is > provided. Only one of those ways is to put the burden on the > sponsoring organization, however it is not the only route. One of > the > ways that a sponsoring organization can provide adequate bicycle > parking is to get their own volunteers to staff a bike corral. > Another > way is to hire or barter with another organization to staff a bike > corral. (One reason it is easy to get volunteers to do bike parking > at > the beer festival is that those volunteers get free entrance to an > event that has sold out every year.) There are other options as > well. > > Please refrain from making statements about what "the City" does, > says > or requires, when the opinion of one person might not represent > official city policy. > > ____________________________________________________________ Sweepstakes!!! Enter for your chance to WIN one of hundreds of daily prizes. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/JKFkuJi7UnnQehbTdNZAnYNNS35QjIsUaoOUjINy8YzoOLKBosI6RF/ _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
