Organic Bike Parking Along West Ponce
Decatur Metro | May 22, 2010Strolling down West Ponce this afternoon, I counted six bikes locked to posts and signs along in front of Farm Burger. Combined with the numerous bikes often locked to the railing at The Marlay and to signs and trees in front of Dancing Goats, it seems like “Low-cater” could probably support a bike rack or two.
Just sayin’.
THANK YOU for noticing…..it is that way throughout the city. The Bike Decatur group has asked the City to install more racks, as they are needed, and requested by the tax payers. I know that every roundtable discussion has mentioned the lack of bicycling facilities. That is a great picture, BTW
There is one small rack beside Dancing Goats but it fills up quickly. I agree!!!!!! More bike racks would be lovely.
Time to bring in the bike corrals!
http://www.saferoutesportland.com/transportation/index.cfm?a=250076&c=34813
I would be glad to have one on my property. On the grass side in front of house ( between Marlay and Farm Burger ) or on the side between the lower post office lot and Marlay.
Oh noes – Just the perfect excuse for another 10 person committee and a 9 month study.
I prefer the idea of private solutions. On the other hand, the current user-generated solution doesn’t seem to be broken…
If Chadwick is willing to lend the real estate on The Marley property, perhaps area businesses or the Watershed/Farm Burger land owner could cover the cost of the actual bike rack?
(He suggested, not even knowing the cost of such a thing.)
Fred?
A nice opportunity for some high schoolers to run a valet/bike check service during Summer weekends. But that might be complicating things more than neccessary.
I heard they once had bike lockers at the Church St Marta? Where’d they go?
Paging Fred Boykin . . .
I believe the City will install for free if the bike rack is purchased. Farm burger should spring since they came very close to not getting a variance for their parking. I think it even came up during the meeting. They are also supposed have signage up for locations of overflow parking. Also all their employees are supposed to be parking over at the church. The property owner and farm burger really need to step up!
This is exactly why our city should change the codes so that installing bike “parking” will reduce the amount of required car parking for a given business. The business requesting the reduced car parking pays for the bikes racks, not costing the city anything.
This could be accomplished at the next City Commission meeting via ordinance. Waiting …
And further, given the speed at which the City passed the anti-booting ordinance a few weeks ago, don’t tell me this can’t be done.
I would hope that the City would care as much about protecting bikes over cars. Given that our bike shop owning City Commissiner has been serving for 9 years now, you would think this would have already been done.
I appreciate that our commisioners don’t impose their personal business aspirations on their governance.
I’m definitely pro-bike, but I do not think putting one transport mode “over” another should be anyone’s goal.
Good call, Ridge. That’s what got us in trouble with cars.
No need to fast-track this one thing. A reactionary or poorly written ordinance can be worse than none at all. Ideally, lots of people have been pushing this and other similar ideas at their Round Tables so a comprehensive approach to parking across all modes can be prioritized when the updated plan is written.
Are you talking about fast-tracking a bike ordinance or this particular bike rack?
Just the ordinance. No reason why we can’t rally for a rack in this particular instance. It’s the long-term guiding policy that needs greater consideration.
Just to be clear on a bike corral. It’s not just a “rack” in front of a business. It’s a conversion of one or two public parallel car spots specially converted for securing bicycles. In addition to providing needed parking facilites it sends a clear and upfront message that the city also recognises and values patrons who choose to arrive at our businesses by pedal power. (and expects them to use the street). It doesn’t put bikes over cars but helps even out the field in an understated way. After putting a few in as an experiment, Portland had a flood of requests by business owners to put them in front of their establishments too. Conversion of one car spot can park 10-12 bikes so it’s reasonable for certain businesses to expect a break on parking requirements. It’s no longer “one less car”. It’s ten less cars.
I really like Susan’s idea. If property owners got credit for bike racks toward their parking requirements, there would be an abundance of racks and we all would spring for the costs too. Even something as little as 1 rack = 2 standard parking spaces would be enough for most landowners.
On a somewhat related note, I was wondering why there aren’t more park benches at Marta stops. There is a Marta stop in front of the Farm Burger which you can see in the photo above. I was recently having lunch at the Farm, sitting at the window in view of an elderly, perhaps disabled person waiting at the bus stop. She definitely had difficulty standing and used the bus stop sign for support. It was very hot out and I found myself becoming increasingly more uncomfortable as I watched her struggle to stand for about 40 minutes waiting on the bus. Similar to the bicycle rack, it seems like we, as a city, could do more to support those that use public transportation and alternate forms of transportation that reduce the number of cars on the road. I don’t know if park benches would be funded by the city or Marta, but they certainly make an urban setting more user friendly.
I agree. Sometimes I think that MARTA is trying to discourage vagrants and homeless folks from using their equipment and stations as a hang out. But making MARTA uncomfortable for vagrants makes it uncomfortable for their revenue-generating and loyal customers as well.
How about this? http://www.bixisystem.com/home I just got back from Montreal where they have this all over the city and it was fantastic.
I was amazed when visiting Montreal how bike-friendly that town is. Especially considering the climate. But then, I loved everything about Montreal. although the large snow drifts (in May!) made me nervous.
Love the bixisystem, especaily how it can be installed in existing parking spots. We also need a City Bike Training Course for people, this for me is a priority to increase safety. Last, it really hurts me to see the picture of bikes being locked to trees, NO BUENO! Those trees along Ponce are already stressed and to compress the little amount of dirt that is around them is very sad, not to mention damage to the bark and potentially the pholem, that will kill a tree.
Sopo Bicycle Cooperative, a community bicycle workshop (404-392-4597), can hook up our property owners with affordable bike racks.
Bicycle racks are in the city’s Transportation Plan. There’s been some foot-dragging on this issue, like the failure to include bike parking when Farm Burger’s delicate parking arrangements were worked-out.
Since treesrock didn’t mention it this time, please don’t lock bikes to trees. They’re not secure and it may damage the trees’ root systems.
David Byrne of the Talking Heads was just in town to talk about his book Bicycle Diaries. One of his interesting projects in NYC was the melding of bike racks and public art. Here’s a great piece about it by the WSJ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brCk1-AVvRk
It would certainly be a more expensive solution, but the opportunity to turn an ugly bike rack eyesore into an attraction is worth considering.
That is a great photo.
The City does have a bicycle parking ordinance. However, it only requires new commercial construction to install “X” number of racks depending on “X” number of vehicle spaces. Farm Burger didn’t have to do anything because they replaced a business that was already there.
My personal opinion is there should be more bicycle parking in Decatur. There are very few racks in town and most are old style and not very usable if you’re carrying bags & gear on your bike.
And yes -there were covered bike racks at the Decatur MARTA station. They were at the corner of Church & Sycamore, close to where the taxis park. You could rent them by the month. There were two of them, I believe, and they lasted a good many years.
Since SoPo was mentioned, here is the link to bike rack installation, http://sopobikes.org/section/programs/bicycle-parking-rack-installation
If the rack is on private property, I think there would be less red tape to manage. Anyone need additional info/flyers, please let us know.