The fastest way to get your village to install bike racks...

[Kristian M Zoerhoff]

....is to show up to village board meetings on your bike.

For the last 2 months or so, village board meetings have coincided
with my wife's night class, so I've been attending them to keep
myself entertained. Naturally, this is a perfect excuse to ride:
short distance, light traffic (meetings don't start until 19:30).
However, we don't have racks in town, except at parks and playgrounds,
so I've been locking up to the railings on the front steps of village
hall.

The first week, one of the trustees saw this, and we got to chatting.
Turns out he rides (in fair weather, anyway), and he immediately said
we should install a rack at each village building. I agreed, but then
let that piece of info slide to the back of my brain during the
following week. At the next meeting, during the administrator's report,
he reported that this particular trustee had brought this to his
attention, and that racks would be ordered and installed as soon as
the ground thawed.

Rock!

And all because I showed up on my bike.

Now to get myself hooked into the new village transportation plan...


--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_ [email protected]
(_)/ (_)

 

[[email protected]]

> And all because I showed up on my bike.
>
> Now to get myself hooked into the new village transportation plan...

I haven't done anything so proactive, but for the past few years I've
been riding to my polling places by bike (either because I was riding
to work anyway that Tuesday, or if it was an "early voting" day,
during a sunny weekend), and would either chain up to a railing if
there was one, or I'd bring my bike inside with me. I didn't do
anything like write-in a referendum on bike racks, but just did some
conspicuous demonstration of "I cycle and I vote" kinda of thing to
the politicians doing their campaigning outside.

The next town over also had a discussion about a proposal to mandate
the placement of bike racks in all new, commercially zoned
developments that included parking lots (needless to say for
automobiles) over some size threshold. I sent the town council an e-
mail in support of it, telling them I'd choose to do more of my
shopping, etc. in their town if it was more convenient for cycling
there.

I got one response back from a town council member ridiculing the
proposal as an undue burden on businesses, e.g. how much sense does it
make to force a funeral home to install a bike rack outside their
facility (whether any funeral home would actually fall under the
proposed regulation notwithstanding). That guy probably didn't care
too much about the LAB giving his town a Bicycle Friendly Community
designation the year before.

 

[Kristian M Zoerhoff]

On 2007-02-28, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
>> And all because I showed up on my bike.
>>
>> Now to get myself hooked into the new village transportation plan...
>
> I haven't done anything so proactive, but for the past few years I've
> been riding to my polling places by bike (either because I was riding
> to work anyway that Tuesday, or if it was an "early voting" day,
> during a sunny weekend), and would either chain up to a railing if
> there was one, or I'd bring my bike inside with me. I didn't do
> anything like write-in a referendum on bike racks, but just did some
> conspicuous demonstration of "I cycle and I vote" kinda of thing to
> the politicians doing their campaigning outside.

I do the same thing. The first time I did it, the election judges looked
at me like I'd sprouted a second head. The second time, I was "that guy
on a bike". We'll see what they say on April 27th.

> The next town over also had a discussion about a proposal to mandate
> the placement of bike racks in all new, commercially zoned
> developments that included parking lots (needless to say for
> automobiles) over some size threshold. I sent the town council an e-
> mail in support of it, telling them I'd choose to do more of my
> shopping, etc. in their town if it was more convenient for cycling
> there.

This is somewhere else I'd like our village to go (I'm seeing various
plans at bike parking equal to 5% of auto parking, which is pretty
darned reasonable), but I'm going to take my time weaeling into this
process. Change doesn't happen overnight.

> I got one response back from a town council member ridiculing the
> proposal as an undue burden on businesses, e.g. how much sense does it
> make to force a funeral home to install a bike rack outside their
> facility (whether any funeral home would actually fall under the
> proposed regulation notwithstanding). That guy probably didn't care
> too much about the LAB giving his town a Bicycle Friendly Community
> designation the year before.

Did the ordinance allow for exceptions? Sounds like he was just another
"bikes are for kids" bigot, but any bike parking rules should allow for
/some/ flexibility. A 30-minute oil change shop probably wouldn't need
one, for example.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_ [email protected]
(_)/ (_)

 

[Ben Pfaff]

"[email protected]" <[email protected]> writes:

> I haven't done anything so proactive, but for the past few years I've
> been riding to my polling places by bike (either because I was riding
> to work anyway that Tuesday, or if it was an "early voting" day,
> during a sunny weekend), [...]

I usually bicycle to the polls, and then I stick the "I Voted!"
sticker they give me on my bike. It has a few of 'em on it now.
--
Ben Pfaff
[email protected]
http://benpfaff.org

 

[Qui si parla Campagnolo]

On Feb 28, 3:04 pm, Kristian M Zoerhoff <[email protected]>
wrote:
> ...is to show up to village board meetings on your bike.
>
> For the last 2 months or so, village board meetings have coincided
> with my wife's night class, so I've been attending them to keep
> myself entertained. Naturally, this is a perfect excuse to ride:
> short distance, light traffic (meetings don't start until 19:30).
> However, we don't have racks in town, except at parks and playgrounds,
> so I've been locking up to the railings on the front steps of village
> hall.
>
> The first week, one of the trustees saw this, and we got to chatting.
> Turns out he rides (in fair weather, anyway), and he immediately said
> we should install a rack at each village building. I agreed, but then
> let that piece of info slide to the back of my brain during the
> following week. At the next meeting, during the administrator's report,
> he reported that this particular trustee had brought this to his
> attention, and that racks would be ordered and installed as soon as
> the ground thawed.
>
> Rock!
>
> And all because I showed up on my bike.
>
> Now to get myself hooked into the new village transportation plan...
>
> --
>
> __o Kristian Zoerhoff
> _'\(,_ [email protected]
> (_)/ (_)

Nope, the fastest way in the US is contribute a buttload of $ to their
re-election fund. Everywhere else it's called a bribe, in the US is
called a 'contribution'.

 

[AustinMN]

On Mar 1, 9:26 am, "Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]>
wrote:
> On Feb 28, 3:04 pm, Kristian M Zoerhoff <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > ...is to show up to village board meetings on your bike.
>
> > For the last 2 months or so, village board meetings have coincided
> > with my wife's night class, so I've been attending them to keep
> > myself entertained. Naturally, this is a perfect excuse to ride:
> > short distance, light traffic (meetings don't start until 19:30).
> > However, we don't have racks in town, except at parks and playgrounds,
> > so I've been locking up to the railings on the front steps of village
> > hall.
>
> > The first week, one of the trustees saw this, and we got to chatting.
> > Turns out he rides (in fair weather, anyway), and he immediately said
> > we should install a rack at each village building. I agreed, but then
> > let that piece of info slide to the back of my brain during the
> > following week. At the next meeting, during the administrator's report,
> > he reported that this particular trustee had brought this to his
> > attention, and that racks would be ordered and installed as soon as
> > the ground thawed.
>
> > Rock!
>
> > And all because I showed up on my bike.
>
> > Now to get myself hooked into the new village transportation plan...
>
> > --
>
> > __o Kristian Zoerhoff
> > _'\(,_ [email protected]
> > (_)/ (_)
>
> Nope, the fastest way in the US is contribute a buttload of $ to their
> re-election fund. Everywhere else it's called a bribe, in the US is
> called a 'contribution'.

While I agree with this, I feel it's incomplete to not point out that
we in the U.S. only have to bribe, er, contribute to the ones running
for election. In many other countries, you have to um, contribute, to
everyone else, too.

Austin

 

[[email protected]]

On Feb 28, 6:14 pm, Kristian M Zoerhoff <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Did the ordinance allow for exceptions? Sounds like he was just another
> "bikes are for kids" bigot, but any bike parking rules should allow for
> /some/ flexibility. A 30-minute oil change shop probably wouldn't need
> one, for example.

I don't recall if it allowed for exceptions, but I'm thinking that for
stuff like the oil change shop, their parking lot probably isn't big
enough to go beyond the threshold. The proposal was intended mainly
for making strip malls more bike friendly, I think. The supermarket
where we do much of our grocery shopping has a tiny bike rack right
next to their fire door and it's not secured to anything, such that a
couple of guys in a pick up truck could take the whole thing and any
bikes attached to it in like five seconds. I lock my bike up to their
cart return corral instead.

A large mall in the area has a large bike rack (too big to steal
unless you have a U-haul or something) near one of its main entrances,
but it isn't secured to anything.

The public library downtown has a single-sided bike rack chained to a
chain-link fence along their driveway, but it is installed backwards
(to avoid extending out into the driveway, I suppose) at a bizarre
slope such that it is unusable for anything but maybe a little 20"
wheeled BMX bike. As you'd expect, nobody uses it.

Fortunately the new library has some decent bike parking in a covered
area, and it sees lots of use.

 

[[email protected]]

On Mar 1, 10:26 am, "Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Nope, the fastest way in the US is contribute a buttload of $ to their
> re-election fund. Everywhere else it's called a bribe, in the US is
> called a 'contribution'.

This reminds me of this past Election Day (or rather the Saturday when
I did early voting). I rode my bike to the community center and since
it was my recumbent "stick bike" (i.e. monotube, no frame
triangulation), I used a pair of MasterLock "Street Cuffs" to secure
it to the stair railing. A couple of candidates for judgeships and
maybe a campaign worker for a sheriff saw me do this and marveled at
my massive set of cuffs (more like leg irons in size than hand
cuffs). Somebody cracked a joke about borrowing them (in a law
enforcement capacity, I'm sure .

 

[Matt O'Toole]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:06:52 -0800, [email protected] wrote:

> I haven't done anything so proactive, but for the past few years I've
> been riding to my polling places by bike (either because I was riding to
> work anyway that Tuesday, or if it was an "early voting" day, during a
> sunny weekend), and would either chain up to a railing if there was one,
> or I'd bring my bike inside with me. I didn't do anything like write-in
> a referendum on bike racks, but just did some conspicuous demonstration
> of "I cycle and I vote" kinda of thing to the politicians doing their
> campaigning outside.

I have a bunch of those stickers on my bike too!

Next election I'm going to encourage our bike club members to ride to the
polls. Our politicians are one thing, but we really need to show the rest
of the voting public how many of us there are.

> The next town over also had a discussion about a proposal to mandate the
> placement of bike racks in all new, commercially zoned developments that
> included parking lots (needless to say for automobiles) over some size
> threshold. I sent the town council an e- mail in support of it, telling
> them I'd choose to do more of my shopping, etc. in their town if it was
> more convenient for cycling there.

I'd like to know where this is, because I'd like to introduce a similar
ordinance here. I need a model. Is this based on square footage like car
parking spaces, or what?

> I got one response back from a town council member ridiculing the
> proposal as an undue burden on businesses, e.g. how much sense does it
> make to force a funeral home to install a bike rack outside their
> facility (whether any funeral home would actually fall under the
> proposed regulation notwithstanding). That guy probably didn't care too
> much about the LAB giving his town a Bicycle Friendly Community
> designation the year before.

Show him how his math is wrong (preferably at a televised public comment
session at a Town Council meeting). Find out what a parking space is
worth in your town ($20k-plus is not uncommon), plus the other costs
associated with motor vehicles. Compare this to the few hundred dollars
it costs to install a bike rack. Ask him how a few hundred dollars could
possibly be a burden on a strip center worth several hundred thousand to
millions of dollars, with at least tens of thousands of dollars a month in
rents coming in.

All with wit and humor, of course.

You'll always have one or two of these cranks, and they usually have a few
like minded constituents (or they wouldn't be there). But use them as an
opportunity to really make your point, and to get the buzz going in your
direction.

Your audience is not the cranky councilman, it's the rest of the public
who may be watching. Ultimately, working on the public, not the
politicians, is most effective. I've found that local politicians will go
along with anything that appears to have widespread public support.

Matt O.

 

[Kristian M Zoerhoff]

On 2007-03-01, Matt O'Toole <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I'd like to know where this is, because I'd like to introduce a similar
> ordinance here. I need a model. Is this based on square footage like car
> parking spaces, or what?

If you need a model, Naperville, IL has one:

<http://www.sterlingcodifiers.com/IL/Naperville/08009000000009000.htm>

Bike parking is generally provided at 5% of vehicle parking spaces,
but there are exceptions listed.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_ [email protected]
(_)/ (_)

 

[[email protected]]

On Mar 1, 4:26 pm, Kristian M Zoerhoff <[email protected]>
wrote:
> If you need a model, Naperville, IL has one:
>
> <http://www.sterlingcodifiers.com/IL/Naperville/08009000000009000.htm>
>
> Bike parking is generally provided at 5% of vehicle parking spaces,
> but there are exceptions listed.

This isn't about the ordinance I mentioned before, but it's related,
from the other end of the issue (i.e. removing existing bicycle
unfriendliness vs. adding bicycle friendliness):

http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/library/parking/nobicycles.htm