(Photo © J. Maus)
In an effort to assess the usage rates and demand for on-street bike parking, the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation will conduct its first ever bike parking counts this summer.
The counts will be done annually and the idea is to tally the number of bikes both in the existing on-street bike corrals and surrounding vicinity. Sarah Figliozzi, manager of PBOT’s bike parking program says, “This information will show us how the corrals are currently performing and how demand changes over the warmer season and through subsequent years.”
Other questions Figliozzi hopes to answer with the counts are; which corrals are already over capacity and which corrals are under performing, and whether or not bike corrals are successful in improving the pedestrian environment by reducing the number of bikes parked on nearby poles, gas pipes, and trees.
Figliozzi also looking for volunteers who are interested in “adopting” a corral or two over the length of the six-month count. Volunteers will go out once a week month to count the number of bikes in and around the corrals at peak hour.
If you’re interested in adopting a corral (there might also be special incentives from partnering businesses), email sarah.figliozzi@portlandoregon.gov and let her know which corral location you’d like to adopt.
Learn more about PBOT’s bike parking program here.
Thanks for reading.
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Thanks Jonathan for the posting!
Actually we are only asking volunteers to do the counts once a MONTH – six counts total.
The counts will be really simple and shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes each time. And its a great way to contribute: providing the data to demonstrate our effectiveness.
ok, so we’re only talking about on-street coral style parking? and not a count of all bicycles on all nearby racks? that counts me out, as I only frequently pass one coral and it’s always at night and it’s always empty… it’s SE Division St and SE 26th Ave where they built a new multi-use building but it’s not getting much use…
but thanks to this article now I know how to request a bike coral… I’m going to ask some of the businesses on SE Clinton St and SE 26th Ave if they’d submit a request for one since there’s always a shortage of available staple racks at that intersection in the evenings… and there’s a nice bus stop area there in front of the Clinton Street Theater and/or Dots Cafe that could be converted to a coral…
I’m curious about what “peak hour” is, or how that’s defined. For example, the corral nearest me is busiest during the Hollywood Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. Other than that, it is pretty under-utilized. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t awfully useful while the market is operating. Other corrals are going to have similar variations in their peak usage periods. If you count the # of bikes parked there on Saturday mornings / early afternoons, and then count all the bikes parked nearby, it will look like the corral provides insufficient parking capacity. If you do the count any other time, the corral will look superfluous.
Wow! BikePortland readers are fantastic! We have already received a number of volunteer offers. There are still lots of remaining corral locations though so please contact me if your interested!
Spiffy – yes this count will only apply to the on-street bike parking corrals. As for SE Clinton and 26th we do have business interests for a corral here and we hope to have it on the ground soon!
Michael – We have asked all of the business adjacent to the bike corrals to tell us what days of the week and what times during the day are the corrals full. For example, the corral on 9th near the Doug Fir has the most demand any night they have a show, generally Fri or Sat after 9pm.
More information about the Summer Corral Counts is available at PBOT website here. http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?&a=293949&c=34813
Hi Sarah…perhaps for methodology (and politics) sake consider including a count of the car parking utilization on the same block face as the bike parking being counted – if you count the bikes parked at racks poles and trees too. [IMTO: You will likely see as many bikes parked as cars in these districts.]
Cheers T
Todd – Great idea! I’ll consider how we can incorporate this into the form.
http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?&a=293949&c=34813