One of the ways to get more people on bikes is to have safe convenient places for cyclists to park near shops, restaurants, libraries, and schools. By making the space convenient, shoppers will use bike parking racks that give them priority over drivers. Also, by placing racks in convenient and visible areas, cyclists will visit more often and stay longer if they know there bicycle is parked in a safe spot. Currently such forward thinking cities as San Francisco, New York, and Portland are incorporating bike corrals into business districts.
According to Portland's Department of Transportation (which has now installed 67 corrals in the city) on street bike parking provides some benefits where bicycle use is already high or growing. Some of the benefits are:
- Businesses: Corrals provide a 10 to 1 customer to parking space ratio and advertise “bike-friendliness.” They also improve the outdoor café seating environment by removing locked bicycles from the sidewalk.
- Pedestrians: Corrals clear the sidewalks and serve as de facto curb extensions.
- People on bicycles: Corrals increase the visibility of bicycling.
- Motor vehicle drivers: Corrals improve visibility at intersections by eliminating the opportunity for larger vehicles to park at street corners.
On street bicycle parking, or bike corrals as they are also called, does this and more. The concept of the bike corral is to take the space of one car and provide as many as 10 to 14 spaces for bicycles. Many times bike corrals are place at the corner of busy intersections to improve safety by using a design technique called "
daylighting". High volume business such as coffee shops make perfect spots to locate corrals due to the reduction in traffic volume around such businesses.
What are some areas that could use bike corrals in your city? Does your city have a program to install bike corrals?
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