(Photos © J. Maus)
Portland’s bike parking offerings continue to improve in both quality and quantity. Recently I’ve noticed two developments in North Portland worth your attention: a new on-street bike corral on N. Williams Avenue and a nice covering of a corral on N. Mississippi.
This new on-street corral on Williams is located just south of N. Fargo out in front of Waypost Cafe, a community gathering spot that has been in need of more bike parking for a long time. (Just a block north of this corral is another one situated on a curb extension). This is the fifth on-street bike corral on Williams — more than any other street in Portland (I stand corrected. Alberta has seven!).
A bit north and west of the Williams bike parking are the newly covered bike racks in the Mississippi Marketplace food cart pod. Located outside the popular Prost pub at the corner of Mississippi and Skidmore, this bike parking corral has been given a very nice cover to keep you out of the elements as you lock up. And yes, just a few feet away is an on-street bike corral.
City of Portland bike parking program manager Sarah Figliozzi says Portland now has 64 on-street bike corrals that provide space for 1,140 bicycles in what was previously room for only 107 automobiles. There are few things that make bicycling more pleasant than having ample and high quality bike parking directly in front of cafes and businesses. PBOT is leading the charge on this front and with each new corral that goes up we get closer to being a city where the car/bike balance is a bit closer to where it should be.
Thanks for reading.
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I still haven’t figured out why there isn’t more covered parking in this city. Aparently it doesn’t rain here?
There are so many overhangs and awning areas that can be used.
I agree. Covered parking is a seemingly inexpensive way to add a ton of value to bike parking. I’d like to much more of it too. One problem I can see with PBOT and the on-street bike parking corrals is that a cover would severely limit visibility… so it’s probably not something they’re considering.
Do you mean that the cover would limit visibility in the street/parking interface (thus making it dangerous to get in and out)? Or that the covering makes it harder to see and recognize the corral before you get to it?
Covered parking is probably the number one thing that would make biking through the winter more pleasant, and I’d love to see more of it! What would best convince PBOT? 🙂
The first one… The issue is that a cover would limit visibility for cross traffic and for road users in general.
That also doubles as a good argument for eliminating school buses…
Jonathan,
I think you’d be surprised at how expensive bike parking shelters can actually be!
There are certainly relatively inexpensive off-the-shelf shelters that would satisfy a certain function (i.e. keeping bikes dry), but it would be a challenge to get those designs OK’d for use in public rights-of-way (they are, how to put this…not very attractive). Likely, the City would end up having to design a custom shelter or significantly modify an off-the-shelf design in order to meet various structural and design standards/considerations (think the bike racks on the bus/light rail mall, which are significantly more expensive than standard staple racks). This can add significant cost in terms of design/planning hours, materials, and installation.
Yes, but what about just install bike racks where there already are shelter/overhangs/coverings. How many times have you seen a rack out the rain, and 5 feet away is a dry patch of pavement unter some awening or building’s outcropping? I think it’s a matter of using the coverings already there. This costs no additional money, and would definitely not block the road. Installatio nof some sheet metal and some posts (although crude) would really not be very expensive anyway.
Thank you Sarah F. and everyone working on this at PBOT. Having good parking makes a world of difference in how easy it is to patronize businesses and restaurants.
This looks really great. Just to clarify, I know the City installed the racks but is the City also directly responsible for the covered shelter?
No, as the shelter is installed on private property. Credit here goes to Roger Goldingay, the developer and manager of the Mississippi Marketplace cart pod and the new cart pod to be located at SE 82nd near the Springwater Corridor. The City has been very fortunate to work with many businesses who go the extra mile for bikes.
“This is the fifth on-street bike corral on Williams — more than any other street in Portland.”
Jonathan, apologies, but this is not true:
NE Alberta: 7 bike corrals
NE 28th Ave: 5 bike corrals
SE Division St: 5 bike corrals
The full list of Portland’s bike corrals by location can be found here: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?&a=250076&c=34813
thanks
Sarah