Another take on bike parking - valet bike parking. Nothing really all
that new for cycling or some public events, but a interesting business
proposal is lurking here to be picked up. When I started shopping by
bike about a decade ago, one of the main disincentives was obviously,
leaving the bike fully-laden while you nicked off for other stuff. For
Melboring possibly Lygon Court, Queen Vic market, Gleadell St Market
or Piedimonte's (Nth Fitz) would be good locales, although any future
redevelopment of the Chaddie carpark will have to wait until peak oil
hits. 😉
Full text below, as it's one of those $king registered members access
only thingies.
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LA Times.com: Cities peddle parking for bicycles
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-bikevalet23apr23,1,2914998.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true&coll=la-headlines-pe-california
Communities hope that valet and other services will encourage
residents to use bikes for commuting and doing errands. Pity the
cyclist with the $4,000 titanium road bike attempting to park at the
Sunday farmers market in Santa Monica. After 10:30 a.m., the meters
and street signs were already claimed by early rising cyclists who
chained their bike frames to the poles, and that hefty, pricey
Kryptonite lock simply wouldn't fit around the nearest fence post.
Now, cyclists in search of heirloom tomatoes and organic cilantro can
enjoy valet parking of the sort offered to BMW-driving diners at Ivy
at the Shore or Chinois on Main, handing over their wheels to polite
attendants who park them at a nearby bicycle stand.
In California bicycle circles, this kind of service is the coming
thing. Long Beach residents can check their bikes at the downtown
Bikestation, where they can get free air for their tires and on-site
repair service. A Santa Barbara self-service bike center opening May 1
will feature hot showers and a locker room for changing from sweaty
nylon-spandex jerseys to suits, ties and heels.
Valet bike parking would seem a quintessentially Californian response
to clogged freeways and overflowing parking lots. By encouraging more
cyclists, cities are promoting environmental consciousness and outdoor
cardio workouts. Most important, for some cyclists, is knowing that
someone is watching over their bike. "You can have all the bike lanes
you want, but when you get to your location, you need a place to
park," said Russ Roca, 29, of Long Beach. Roca, a freelance
photographer, travels exclusively on a bike retooled to carry 200
pounds of camera equipment.
He is a regular at the local Bikestation, which, he says, has become a
social spot for area cyclists. These centers for cycling aficionados
are largely public-private partnerships, modeled after facilities in
Europe and Asia. In 1996, the Bikestation in downtown Long Beach, near
the MTA's Blue Line station, was the first to open in the United
States. Its founders have created the Bikestation Coalition, an
umbrella group that helps open other centers on the West Coast.
The concept has spread to the usual progressive hot spots: Berkeley,
Palo Alto, San Francisco and Seattle. Most of the centers offer valet
and self-service parking. Some contain small repair shops, and some
offer classes. They were built largely with public funds, and revenue
covers most operating expenses. The new Santa Barbara center, for
example, is funded by downtown car parking fees. It contains $80,000
in equipment and is expected to cost $25,000 a year to operate.
Pasadena, meanwhile, is preparing plans for a bike center near the
Gold Line light-rail stop in Old Town. The city hopes to use $180,000
in state grant money to build a facility that will hold 40 bikes.
Santa Monica hopes to build a downtown bike center with room for 300
bikes. In the meantime, the city parks 200 to 250 bicycles at its
crowded Sunday market and is bracing for up to 350 bikes this summer.
The city funds the valet service. Planners hope that these service-
oriented parking centers will encourage residents to use their bikes
to do errands and commute to work. On Sunday on Santa Monica's Main
Street, trusting shoppers were handing over their sleek racing bikes
and rusty beach cruisers to attendants who by noon had filled spaces
designed for seven cars with more than 70 bicycles. Although the
service is free, most people left tips of $1, $3 and more.
Kristin Mongiello, 35, of Santa Monica sped up to the valet table, her
bike pulling her son, Riley Egan, 5, who was behind her on an attached
wheeled contraption called a "Trail-a-bike." They were rushing to a
super-hero themed birthday party, and Egan was dressed in a blue and
gold hero costume. On the way, they needed a few things from the
farmers market, where she has become a regular valet parker. "Parking
here is dreadful," Mongiello said, "and we've had two bikes stolen."
She and others said they felt more secure using the free parking
service launched by the city last year to ease parking congestion at
the Sunday market. Some owners initially were wary of leaving their
bikes guarded by strangers. "I actually came and scoped it out, looked
at the people who were taking care of it," said Jason Puerto, 35, of
Santa Monica. He felt so comfortable with the valet service that he
left his $1,700 Felt S22 with the attendants for the first time
Sunday.
As often happens with good intentions, success has come with a cost.
The Santa Monica project has cut severely into the income of a white-
bearded man known only as Johnnie who started watching over bikes and
dogs two years ago at the market's Main Street entrance. "I'm the one
who started this business. They come here and just put up their
thing," said Johnnie, who said he once had as many as 40 cyclists as
customers. On Sunday, he was guarding two bikes and four dogs and said
he was falling behind on his rent. "But I'm not worried. God will
bless me," he said.
These parking services are not simply for upscale cyclists, said
Andréa White, executive director of the Bikestation organization,
which now has centers in six different communities and is consulting
with other cities, including Washington, D.C., where a bike center is
due to open at Union Station next year. Service workers and other low-
income residents use the centers, and the Bikestation is starting an
outreach program to teach cycling skills to women who have recently
been released from prison or drug rehabilitation, she said.
Those who complete the program will get bicycles to help them find
jobs. The Sunday crowd in Santa Monica, by contrast, was largely
focused on finding basil and breakfast croissants. Mary Ann Cummins,
70, has equipped her bicycle with side bags large enough to hold her
artichokes, greens, broccoli and fresh Gaviota strawberries. "My God,
I forgot my eggs," she said, and hastily returned her bike to an
attendant.