in Eugene by Paul Adkins.
(Photo: Paul Adkins)
A Eugene resident has submitted a proposal to the City of Eugene to install on-street, residential bike parking corrals. On-street bike corrals are common in Portland, but we’ve yet to extend the idea into residential areas.
Noted bike advocate Paul Adkins and Chair of the local Neighborhood Council, is behind the proposal. According to the We Bike Eugene blog, Adkins feels like public parking shouldn’t discriminate when it comes to vehicles. “There is no reason that streets should accommodate cars and not accommodate human powered vehicles.” Here’s more from We Bike Eugene:
“We share the road with cars, so we should be able to share the parking spots too.”
— Paul Adkins
“His proposal is to install and maintain the parking space for the public to use. Since the street sweepers won’t be able to sweep the area with the rack the proposal is for the resident in front of the corral (in this case, the Adkins family) to clean and maintain the area, including dealing with any vandalism. This is similar to the responsibilities of residents and sidewalks, where the sidewalk in front of a persons home.”
Reached via email this morning, Adkins told us, “We share the road with cars, so we should be able to share the parking spots too.”
It sounds like a common sense proposal and something that might also work in Portland. But we’d need a policy change before that could happen…
to place bike parking in the planting
strip, not in the roadway.
(Photo © J. Maus)
Back in July of 2009, we reported about Portland’s first residential bike parking shelter. The difference between that shelter is that it was placed up on the parking strip, not in the roadway. When asked about putting staple racks in the street, here’s what PBOT said:
“According to [PBOT bike parking program manager Sarah] Figliozzi, it has to do with short vs. long-term parking, and how the staples would be used. Figliozzi says the bike corrals are for parking a bike for two hours or less and they’re placed in areas with a high demand. In single-family residential areas, the demand is not concentrated at a particular location, and residents prefer to have bikes locked inside a garage or in their homes for security.”
Furthermore, the City of Portland Parking Enforcement Division Manager Nolan Mackrill said bicycles are not allowed to be parked on the street. That space, he told us, is only for motorized and licensed vehicles. If someone wants to park their bike on the street here in Portland, they would need to reserve the space and go through the permit process.
Adkins is waiting on the City of Eugene for permission. In the meantime, he has already gone ahead and installed a demonstration of the project in front of his house (see photo above). We’ll let you know how the City responds to his proposal.
If you’re curious how our friends The Netherlands deal with residential bike parking, Portlander Greg Raisman says they use “bicycle drums.”