The city requires any site that takes out a $1m building permit to install bike racks (I think they can off set car parking with the racks) is it just me or should that $1m be lowered to something like 100k? How many $1m building permits
does the city get? And a developer can easily work around that by splitting up the permits to get under $1m per permit.
$250k, I mean if you are putting that much into a business, you can afford bike racks...especially if it off sets car parking. I would think for resturants that are located in neighoborhoods and are required off street parking by code this would be a helpful thing since off street parking isn't easy to find inside of neigborhoods. And right now they can't say we have bike racks, can we off set parking
IMO I dont think there are enough people that travel in or to the city that use public transit or bikes yet to justify a major shift to reduce parking requirements. Most that are willing to spend the bigger dollars to dine or shop at this time will probably only use a car. More commercial wrapped parking garages would be awsome
If you walk down a commercial district in the spring, summer, or fall (less so in the winter, I'm guessing for weather reasons), you can see bikes chained to street signs, fences, railings, etc. I think that's a pretty strong sign that we need more dedicated bicycle parking for those areas.
I don't know what the best way to implement it would be, but there are a lot of options. Each business/building could be required have their own bike parking, or they could pool resources and share a common corral maybe every block or 2, etc., and I don't know what the magic dollar amount should be to trigger some sort of requirement. Regardless, I do think there's a real need for more bike infrastructure, at least along Delmar, Wash Ave, Manchester, Euclid, etc.
If you walk down a commercial district in the spring, summer, or fall (less so in the winter, I'm guessing for weather reasons), you can see bikes chained to street signs, fences, railings, etc. I think that's a pretty strong sign that we need more dedicated bicycle parking for those areas.
There's very little dedicated 'bike parking' in urban Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and other cities with 1000% more bikes per capita. I don't see much of a need for mandated bike parking in urban areas. A business would be smart to put some in if it expects to draw or retain cyclists, but I'm not a fan of legislating it.
Now, if the business has a parking lot, basically removing the entrance from the urban fabric and all of its myriad options for tying a bike, then I could see a requirement. But otherwise, not so much.
Here's our bike parking requirement, part of our zoning code, which I passed in early 2012. Its section 26.16.085 The basic idea is to account for between 2 & 5% of trips being by bike. You get there slowly over time as renovations and new construction occur. In terms of meaningless to very aggressive bike parking requirements that other cities have enacted, this is very much in the middle.
I may not be seeing them, but when I walk down Tucker (several times a day, for work), I notice that the new SLU Law School doesn't have a bike rack out front. I see bikes chained in several places, including a bus stop a block up the street. Would a bike rack have been required under this ordinance?
Is there a way to incent businesses to install bike racks? A coffee shop across the street from me is undergoing new ownership and renovations (the old World Cafe on Mardel and Hereford) and it would be great and appropriate for the neighborhood and clientele to have bike racks. But the cost of purchasing and installing them is a 'love to have' rather than need to have. This is the type of place that needs them and w
shadrach wrote:Is there a way to incent businesses to install bike racks? A coffee shop across the street from me is undergoing new ownership and renovations (the old World Cafe on Mardel and Hereford) and it would be great and appropriate for the neighborhood and clientele to have bike racks. But the cost of purchasing and installing them is a 'love to have' rather than need to have. This is the type of place that needs them and w
This is the kind of thing that the City's many CIDs (Community Improvement Districts) SHOULD have a hand in. An established CID collects an additional property tax on all parcels (or PINs -- Property Index Numbers) and is supposed to turn that around for, you guessed it, community improvement. This can come in the form of hired security, placemaking, sidewalk maintenance/cleaning and street elements.
In a way then, the businesses would be paying for bike rack installations, public art, etc. It just takes the lead agency actually creating an actionable plan and doing it. Obviously the DTSLP is the main organization which could enact these initiatives, but there are others -- Wash. Ave CID, Laclede's Landing CID to name a couple.
