Tom Vanderbilt speculates that providing adequate bicycle parking will encourage more people to commute by bicycle.
I’m a big believer in the City of Springfield and local businesses / organizations providing suitable bicycle racks. The advocacy committee met last night and discussed producing a brochure to help developers properly choose and install racks. I’ll be working on the initial draft for the next meeting on 16 September.
Just how big of an issue is parking for potential bicycle commuters in Springfield?
I’m lucky. MSU provides plenty of parking across campus.
This past school year my office was downtown, and I parked at racks installed on the Square. When renovations began there, I parked on a rack on Patton Alley. Click here to re-read my survey of downtown parking. This survey is now out of date. I intend to survey parking again in September.
School starts Monday. I’m thinking of riding my Brompton on MWF (teaching and office hours) and “parking” in my office. Or, at least, I’ll do this occasionally.
A buddy of mine has an interesting policy: If no appropriate rack is available at his destination (whatever it might be), he takes his bicycle inside with him. As he says, “I figure if they don’t provide a rack then they must want me to bring it inside.”
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Cycle parking is of course only a part of the story. You also need to make cycling extremely pleasant, make bicycle journeys more direct and convenientthan car journeys etc.
However, how places provide for bike parking is an interesting thing we can easily look at. Tom points to an article in a London paper which counted the cycle parking spaces in London’s 50 railway stations. Between them they offer 2800 cycle parking spaces. London has a population of 8 million people.
On the other hand, over here in Assen we have just 65000 people, but our one railway station has 2300 cycle parking spaces.
That’s two orders of magnitude more provision. There is one space for every 2800 Londoners vs. one space for every 28 Assenaars.
Posted 20 Aug 2009 at 2:58 pm ¶Cycle parking is one more convenient excuse. However, it’s an easy excuse to take away. When I started commuting, miraculously a bike rack appeared at work. I even used it twice. After it showed up, some others rode in, though most didn’t actually use the rack.
When we relocated, so did the bike rack. I park in my office and the other commuters lock up to the chain link fence poles. We’re in a low threat area.
Posted 20 Aug 2009 at 6:09 pm ¶Great post! My suggestion is to install one of the bike corrals mentioned in the Vanderbilt article (paragraph 9). It would be a great fit on South Ave between Walnut and McDaniel. Those wave racks near the Mudhouse? Useful though they are, I’d take them out. Here’s what then might happen:
Art Walk brings the masses downtown.
Some say, “Look at that unusual bicycle parking in the street. First the crazy interchange at Kansas & I-44, now this. Will the innovation never cease? I’ll have to ride down here and use this.”
Others: “Thank goodness those racks are off the sidewalk. It’s easier to walk through here now, especially during Art Walk.”
Ideally, this on-street measure would help legitimize the presence of bikes where cars are driven. Also, getting the bike parking off the sidewalk might convince a person or two to not ride on the sidewalk.
As for the “missing” (car) parking spot, I’ve long considered those parallel spaces too generous. If they were resized there might be no need to decrease their number.
Posted 21 Aug 2009 at 12:14 am ¶Jason… Cool idea
Posted 21 Aug 2009 at 7:03 am ¶