Meet Decatur’s First Crowdsourced Bike Rack
Decatur Metro | February 21, 2011Isn’t it beautiful?
OK, a little background. Back in May of last year, I posted a picture of at least six different bicycles chained to light-posts and trees in front of Farm Burger on a Saturday afternoon. The need for a bike rack in the area obvious and the pic led to a great conversation about city bike ordinances and how much we should rely on the city’s government to supply or require such things.
The owner of the neighboring Marlay property, Chadwick, quickly let us know that he was open to installing a bike rack on his property. After being tipped off by commenters, I followed up with a second post about SOPO’s bike rack installation program, and DM readers continued to provide guidance on the most affordable and practical options for bike rack purchase and installation.
And now today, I’m happy to report that I just received this pic from Darren at The Marlay showing that the bike rack has been installed and is ready for use! I’m not sure who paid for it, but we should certainly be appreciative to Chadwick and The Marlay folks for being receptive to installing a rack that should be a great resource for both The Marlay and its neighbors.
That’s community folks. And that’s also a primitive sort of crowd-sourcing. All it takes is a bunch of people with a diverse enough knowledge base and a willing property owner and you might just begin to accomplish some of the smaller things in your town that were once only possible as a result of the more traditional models of government.
Groovy.












