SLCDOT seeks input on downtown bike racks

You may have seen the new, blue automated parking pay stations downtown in the past few months. About 50 pay stations were installed to replace normal parking meters with coin-operated heads as a pilot program test to measure the feasability of doing a city-wide removal of the old coin-operated meters and replace them all with the solar-powered pay stations. The time has come for all parking meters in Salt Lake City to be removed, and replaced with the more intermittent parking pay stations.

Ring racks, like the one pictured above,
won't be a full-scale solution, says SLCDOT.
(Photo: Vxla, Flickr)

With the removal of the parking meters and their posts, bicycles won't be able to lock to them anymore and this ad-hoc type of bike parking won't be available anymore. Though some ring racks remain around Temple Square and the City & County building and could be removed and relocated to satisfy demand, SLCDOT does not plan on using these as a full-scale solution to the removal or parking meters.

To alleviate the possible decrease in avaiable space to park your bike, SLC Bike/Ped Coordinator Becka Roolf has issued a request to bicyclists, businesses, and concerned citizens for suggestions on locations that could use more permanent bike parking downtown (places that previously relied on the parking meter posts to accomodate bicycle parking). This is a tremendous effort by SLCDOT to ensure that with the removal of the traditional coin-op meters, bicyclists will still have a place to safely secure their bikes.

Roolf requested the following in her email to the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee mailing list, and subsequently to all bicyclists in Salt Lake,

"In order to continue to provide bicycle parking downtown, the Transportation Division would like your input on locations where we should increase bicycle parking in preparation for this change.  Please use the bike rack request form located here: http://www.slcgov.com/bike

New parking pay stations will eliminate
the ability to lock bikes to
parking meter posts.
(Photo: Aparc Systems)

Although parking meters do serve as de facto bike parking, parking meters are not designed for that purpose.  Compared to many other communities, I would say that I fairly rarely see bicycles locked to parking meters in SLC.  However, I am not as much for the downtown night-life as some of you might be.

We will continue to install regular bicycle racks, by request.  There is often space along the sidewalk or park strip to install bike racks. If there are locations where bike corrals are needed, we can also add those, by request."

If you're curious to know what the new parking pay stations will look like, see the photo at right, or visit the Aparc Systems website. 

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