We did a little demonstration project today to look at the effects of having a bike corral on residential block of North Polk.

We now have an official proposal in with the City of Eugene to see if we can initiate a residential bike corral.

The neighborhood bike corral would create a wonderful community amenity and utilize public space for a different type of parking than traditionally provided and one that matches the neighborhood usage. We have more bicycle traffic than car traffic on this street, public bicycle parking should be thrown into the mix. It is amazing how much public space is provided for cars, what with on-street parking, highways, parking lots, and wide roads.

Our 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 requires us, the residents in front of the corral, 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 person’s home is the home-owners responsibility.

Please take my poll.
[poll id=”1″]

This is a nice little slideshow that Noah Dewitt put together after a few rides with us to school and to the grocery store.

Walk+Bike day at ATA/Family School was a big success yesterday. We had the 4J Superintendent, George Russell, and Mayor Kitty Piercy join the walk from Albertson’s over the 18th St. bridge and south through the Westmoreland Park. The bike racks were overloaded, with bikes locked to every post and anchor around. We even brought in two extra bike racks for the expected boost in need. On a regular day we are busting at the seams of the current bike rack capacity. We had hot cocoa, incentive prizes – shoe laces, stickers, ribbons, and the pear slices were a delight. We got good media coverage and I think we may see more coverage in tomorrow’s RG. An excellent time was had by all.