(Photo: Jeff Castro/Bikeracker)
As more people use bicycles to get around our city, more businesses are taking notice and bike parking continues to expand and improve. The PGE Park sports complex and the Whole Foods Market in Laurelhurst are the latest locations to unveil bike parking that goes above and beyond what’s required.
(Photo: Jeff Castro/Bikeracker)
The City of Portland worked with PGE Park on temporary bike parking during Portland Timbers soccer games. PBOT Bicycle Program Specialist Sarah Figliozzi, the woman who’s also in charge of the City’s on-street bike corral program, helped PGE devise a plan for parking around 100 bikes directly in front of the park’s main entrance on SW Morrison. The new bike parking was unveiled back in July and is now in place at all Timbers home games.
PBOT worked with local bike parking provider Bikeracker on the racks and Figliozzi says PGE is considering purchasing their own racks and taking over the management of the bike parking themselves for the 2011 Major League Soccer season. PBOT has no formal event parking program yet, but Figliozzi has published some very helpful information online. The PBOT Event Bicycle Parking page includes the application for street/sidewalk closure permit, bike parking recommendations, and more.
(Photo: Brian Eustis)
Another place in town where some new bike parking will catch your eye is the Whole Foods Market on 28th and E Burnside.
Local designer and metal sculptor Matt Cartwright (he created the bike people on the roof of River City Bicycles, among other things) installed their new, covered racks last week. Whole Foods’ Marketing and Community Relations Specialist Helen Lee says the racks were “eagerly anticipated” and they went in just in time for a special Bike Day event on Saturday. The event featured free bike repair from Citybikes, giveaways from New Belgium Brewing, live music, and more.
The racks themselves were made using mostly recycled materials and the design incorporates a banana, oranges, and a pineapple. Whole Foods made the racks hard to miss by having them painted orange. There are five staples (space for at least 10 bikes) and a roof overhead to keep bikes dry.
It’s great to see these collaborations between the City, businesses, and local artists to make these projects happen, not to mention what they say about respect for people who arrive by bicycle.
— Browse more stories on this topic on our Bike Parking story archive page
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those Whole Foods racks are awesome!
now I just have to convince the wife to bike all the way over there instead of driving…
the car has had a flat all weekend, maybe I just won’t fix it… c(:
sweetness!
At Sunday’s Timbers game, they shut down over half of Morrison street to cars, making room for a wide pedestrian plaza, and doubling bike parking! (there were racks down at the 20th entrance too, in addition to the ones mentioned in the article that are normally at the 18th entrance.)
I could get used to this…
The best bike parking I’ve seen is at the Clackamas Costco. They have individual cages that prevent people from messing with your bike and are protected from the rain. The doors lock with your U-lock or any padlock. They’re also extremely space-efficient for a complete enclosure. Costco also has normal bike racks for xtracycles and bikes with trailers that won’t fit in a cage.
Those Costco bike cages must be for employees. I bike everywhere, but never once could I schlep my Costco purchases home on my bike. But if I had a large cargo trailer…
The space around PGE Park will be the city’s newest cool car-free space next year during the MLS season. The combo of excited Timbers fans, no cars, food carts, the light rail and the local bars will likely turn the square into a big party during game days. go timbers!
The extra parking at Timbers games is great. They also sent out trimet day passes with their season tickets this year. Next year you can choose bike valet, but they only allowed one per set of tickets purchased. Thus my wife would get to use the bike valet and I’d have to park on the street, which defeats the purpose if we both have to park in seperate places. We raised this with a couple people in the organization and their reasoning was strange. Saying one bike spot per group of ticket holders was fair because they wanted to offer the benefit to the most people, but for instance we didn’t take advantage of this because we’d have to park in to different locations… Anyway they are trying to encourage cycling though a bit misguided in this instance.
Carl B #4, they also have those enclosures by the Barnes and Noble mall entrance at the Clackamas Town Center…
My bike has a tall stance with the upright cruiser bars and wouldn’t fit in there but most road bikes would fit without a problem… I like how the lock can be used with a regular padlock or a U-lock… best bike parking solution I’ve seen…
There is going to be some cognitive dissonance going on for all those people who said they were going to boycott Whole Foods because of the founder’s opinion on health care benefits.
I always wondered why the bike parking at that Whole Foods seemed so random. I was happy to see that they made at least some small effort to put up some covered parking, but I thought it was pretty skimpy on the shelter and number of bikes it could accommodate. When they asked me, I could only say I was disappointed.
Compare it to the much larger awning that covers their shopping carts right next to the front door. (just visible from both of the pictures in this story).
I have yet to see a business be as generous in allocating bike parking spaces or integrate their bike parking as well as the Fred Meyer on 39th and Hawthorne.
Nice try, Whole Foods. Don’t get me wrong, two minutes in heaven is better than one minute in heaven. I hope the nice folks at Whole Foods don’t give up, but take a larger view of their random bike parking arrangements and try do at least as well by bikes as they do for shopping carts.
Seems like grocery stores would be better off providing double-length racks so you can lock a bike AND ITS TRAILER to the rack. Or am I the only one who tries shopping for two weeks of groceries by bike?