There has been a spattering of bike parking articles and news lately.
What Would Get Americans Biking to Work? Decent parking.
Slate magazine has an excellent article on the state of bike parking in many American urban centers.
If car parking is often overshadowed in traffic talk, bicycle parking is even more obscure. For many people in the United States it might be hard to imagine what there is to talk about. Why don’t you just stick it in the garage? Or: Isn’t that what street signs and trees are for? But as the share of trips made by bicycle has grown in recent years in Portland, Ore., for example, bicycle use has grown nearly 150 percent since 1990, and an estimated 5 percent of people bike to work new attention is being paid to what happens to those bicycles when they are not in motion.
With the city of Detroit revising their zoning parking requirements, we made sure to pass this article along to them. It was passed along to the city’s Municipal Parking Department to let them know about the opportunity to reuse old parking meters for bike parking as mentioned in the article.
In Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities, pilot projects are investigating turning car-parking meters once semireliable bike-parking spots, now rendered obsolete by “smart meter” payment systems into bike parking infrastructure.
The parking department owns 11 parking structures. The idea has been raised at Green Task Force meetings that these garages all should have bike racks.
Also, the author of the article, Tom Vanderbilt writes an excellent blog called How we drive. While not solely focused on biking, it’s definitely worth reading.
A new benchmark in bike parking?
The AIA published a recent article about a new bike parking facility in Washington D.C.
This sustainable transit facility, designed by KGP Design Group of Washington, will feature approximately 150 bike rack parking spaces, changing rooms, personal lockers, and retail spaces for bike repair and bike accessories, all in a secure and semi-enclosed environment next door to a major interstate rail link and a station in the city’s Metro subway system. At the transit center, patrons will be able to sign up for memberships or pay a small fee per day to lock their bike in one of the secure double height bike racks that will take up two-thirds of the building’s space. The $3 million project is being funded by the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, and is currently scheduled to open in the fall.
Detroit’s probably not ready for something of this scale, but we’re probably not too far away either. This type of bike parking would certainly complement the planned Woodward light rail, Ann Arbor commuter rail, not to mention the potential high-speed rail and Detroit River ferry projects.
The question is where would it be located? Near the new Rosa Parks Transit Center? On the RiverWalk? At the Amtrak station at the New Center? Campus Martius? What would you consider an ideal location in downtown Detroit?
New bike rack at Comerica Park
The Detroit Tigers have installed the first of two bike racks at Comerica Park. It’s located in parking lot 3, which is on the northwest side of the stadium, near the corner of John R and Montcalm. The other bike rack is planned for the opposite side of the stadium.
Valet bike parking at Arts, Beats, and Eats
Convenient bike parking is returning to the Arts, Beats, and Eats event in Pontiac thanks to KLM Bikes and Fitness. Not only is the event and parking free, they will give you a $3 in food and beverage tickets. The bike parking is located on Water Street just west of Woodward and near the entrance to the Phoenix Parking Garage.
More information on the bike parking as well as bike directions to the event is on the Arts, Beats, and Eats web site.