The City of Los Angeles has a “bike corral” program in effect, and Venice could use a few of them! A bike corral is an on-street parking facility for bicycles. It can typically accommodate 10 to 16 bicycles by re-purposing one or two motor vehicle parking spaces. Click here to download the application! Once you do, make sure you let Councilman Rosendahl know your business wants one by emailing him!
From the awesome DOT Bike Blog:
The Benefits of Bike Corrals:
Bike corrals make more efficient use of a vehicle parking lane in areas with high cycling demands. They are especially useful in areas with narrow sidewalks where it would be impractical to install a sidewalk rack. Bike corrals can also:
* Provide additional parking to serve local businesses (10 bikes vs. one car = a better customer to parking space ratio)
* Provide a permanent buffer between pedestrian activities on the sidewalk and motor vehicle traffic on the street
* Create a de-facto curb extension, shortening pedestrian crossing distances at intersections
* Increase the visibility of bicycling in the area
* Improve sight lines and visibility at intersections for motor vehicle drivers (by ensuring that larger vehicles do not park at street corners)
* Improve the visibility of businesses from the street, by eliminating the parking of large vehicles in front of the businesses.
The Process and Agreement
With our current pilot project, a local business has agreed to maintain the bike corral while the City agreed to pay for its installation. Other cities including Portland, Oregon have used this method – although that city maintains some of its corrals too. Our maintenance agreement dictates that:
* The Bike Corral and adjacent parking spaces will be cleared of debris at least once per week
* The business owner will regularly maintain any landscaping plantings added to the facility design
* The facility will be visually inspected at least once per week
* Businesses will need City approval to alter the Corral
* The City has the right to remove the corral if obligations are not met
* Click on the link to view and download the full Bike Corral Maintenance Agreement
If you are a business owner that is interested in having a bike corral outside of your establishment, please fill out our interest form and we’ll be in contact with you shortly.
[…] Abbot Kinney Boulevard, on Los Angeles’ Westside, is the first street in the city to have two bike corrals installed. Councilmember Mike Bonin alerted Streetsblog to their installation this morning and I […]