http://www.streetfilms.org/portland-bike-parking/ is a four minute video showing the need for and evolution of this concept in Portland. They took a block that had space for 25 motor vehicles and converted it to space for 65 vehicles - 23 cars and 42 bikes. And this is what a local business owner had to say about it:
"They're [on street bike parking spaces] very heavily used all the time, and the usual business argument that you're taking away [car] parking just doesn't work here." Richard Satnick, owner, Laughing Planet Café. ...and of course, Portland is one of only three cities on the League of American Bicyclists' list of Platinum level Bicycle Friendly Communities. www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/pdfs/bfc_master_list_web.p df Which leads me to point out that we've been talking about it for several years now in Madison. Of the top 20 recommendations made by the Mayor's Platinum Bicycling City Committee Report http://www.cityofmadison.com/trafficEngineering/documents/PlatinumAdopted0408 08sm.pdf to be implemented first, two were: - "Complete a public bicycle parking needs study for the central city area." and - "Institute a program of city-provided public bicycle parking racks. Details: The City would provide bicycle racks (usually a two bike rack such as a U rack, post, or ring) to be placed in the public right-of-way at the request of businesses or citizens. Also consider using a limited number of on-street automobile parking spots as locations for public multi-bicycle racks. Best practices occur in Chicago, Seattle, and Milwaukee." [pages 22-23 on the paper copy, 25-26 of 76 pages on the online pdf] I guess Portland could be added to the list of cities where best practices occur. Chuck -----Original Message----- From: Scott Rose Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 12:46 PM Subject: [Bikies] on-street bike parking This is a new idea to me: on-street bike parking, called "bike corrals" by some. At the cost of a single auto spot, high-quality space for a dozen bikes is created. This is particularly welcome in Seattle, where several years ago the city replaced thousands of conventional parking meters with a set of electronic parking kiosks, removing most of the ad-hoc bicycle parking opportunities without any apparent mitigation. http://is.gd/ePDZC (seattle.gov) Also covered here: http://is.gd/ePEyI (udistrictdaily.com) (R&E Cycles is the home of venerable custom bike makers Rodriguez and Erikson. They were old even when I was young.) _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
