Secure bike parking hubs — a place to store your bike while you shop or work without relying only on your own lock — is an idea that’s older than you might think.
In 1996, Portland had three “bike central” locations where commuters could park bikes and a citywide network was envisioned thanks to dedicated funding from the federal government in the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). The idea came roaring back in 2007 when a “Bikestation” was in the running to take over the former McCall’s Restaurant adjacent to Salmon St. Springs. The idea gained momentum for a few years but ultimately fizzled out and Portland never opened a large, publicly accessible bike parking facility.
Those were the heydays of peak-hour commuting and an era when everyone assumed bicycle riders had to have showers and changing facilities. As bicycle styles and behaviors changed over the years, the need for showers and lockers has (thankfully) waned; but the need for secure bike parking has never been greater.
When I visited New York City last fall, I learned about a very intriguing solution known as Oonee pods. These publicly funded, privately operated facilities offer a high-tech, easy and secure solution for parking bikes in busy areas. They can be small for a half-dozen bikes in a neighborhood, or larger with dozens of spots in higher-traffic areas downtown.
But before someone brings an Oonee pod, Cyclehoop Cycle Hub or other product to Portland, we’ll need to figure out where to put them. And we can’t just go on vibes, because these only work when they are used.
Portland State University graduate student Brandon Barnhart has the answers. He just completed a project for his Advanced GIS class that used mapping and data analysis to find the optimal location for 10 secure bike parking areas. Barnhart shared his project on the BikeLoud PDX Slack channel this morning.
To find his locations, Barnhart ran the numbers on four factors: bike traffic demand, major destinations, proximity to affordable housing, and proximity to multi-family housing. After pushing all the data through various GIS modeling tools, here’s his list of “optimal bike parking hub locations”:
- NW 21st and Johnson
- NW 10th and Lovejoy
- NW 10th and Glisan
- NW Naito Pkwy near Union Station Crossing
- NW 4th Ave and Flanders
- SW 2nd Ave and Pine
- NE Williams Ave and Russell
- NE Williams Ave and Ivy
- N Haight St and Failing
- N Mississippi and Failing
Notably, there are no location in southeast, which is traditionally the area of the city with the most bicycling traffic. Barnhart noted that in his writeup: “I suspect that though southeast Portland has high amounts of bike traffic and destinations, the area doesn’t have the same levels of affordable and multi-family housing, compared to Northwest and North Portland.”
Barnhart also added that if he ran the numbers again he’d give more weight to places with more low-income housing.
Barnhart thinks the time is right for secure bike parking hubs because Portland’s bike theft problem is still out of control. And with skyrocketing interest in e-bikes, including a new city-funded rebate program set to launch next summer — there will be an even larger demand for safe bike parking. On a related note, Portland City Council adopted an ordinance at their meeting this morning that authorizes the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability to recruit and hire staff and organizations to run the forthcoming e-bike rebate program. A key part of that program is funding set-aside for low-income housing developments to develop bicycle parking areas.
Like Barnhart, the folks who created the Portland Clean Energy Fund’s e-bike rebate program understand that cycling will never reach its potential if the threat of theft remains high. Secure bike parking hubs could be the answer.