Since arriving in Northampton a few months ago, I've noticed that while drivers are quite friendly to bicyclists in these parts, there is almost no bicycle parking anywhere in town. Sure, you might luck out and get a spot at one of the very few racks scattered about, but more likely than not you'll be forced to strap your wheels to just about any vertical pole you can find. Meanwhile, downtown is chock-full of diagonal parking spaces on both sides of Main Street. What gives?
In stark contrast to the situation on the ground, Northampton's Sustainable Northampton Comprehensive Plan, adopted in December 2007, has a short section on page 54 called "Design for Bicycles," which states the city's intention to "develop a comprehensive citywide bicycle system" that includes various paths and lanes, as well as "supporting services" such as "bicycle storage." I realize that this plan was adopted just 8 months ago, but really, isn't it about time for the city to take the baby step of converting a few of those Main Street parking spaces to bike parking? Is the cost of, say, converting 4 to 6 downtown parking spots to bicycle parking so exorbitant? It would certainly help tremendously in meeting the goal (Goal T-2 in the Sustainable Northampton Plan) of encouraging bicycle transit.
Meanwhile, businesses are not really asked to do their part to help promote bicycle transit. The city's zoning code (Section 350-8.11.) states, "Except in the Central Business District, bicycle racks or other provision for indoor or outdoor storage of bicycles must be provided for all uses for which the zoning requires 10 or more parking spaces."
First of all, why is it that there is an exemption in the Central Business District? Developments in the Central Business District are not exempted from providing off-street car parking, yet they are exempted from providing bicycle parking! This makes no sense, and the implicit take away lesson is that cars are more important and their use is being promoted over the use of bicycles. If anything, it should be the other way around: We should further reduce off-street car parking requirements and increase bicycle parking requirements in the Central Business District. By making it easier to park a bicycle and more difficult to park a car, we will encourage more bicycle and fewer car trips to downtown. At the same time, secure off-street bicycle parking would allow employees to bicycle commute and would allow residents to safely store their bicycles and potentially reduce the number of cars they own. Sadly, the outcome of this zoning law is clear: There is no bicycle parking in the parking lot behind Thorns, or in any of the other off-street downtown parking lots for that matter.
My second beef with this zoning provision is simply that one bicycle rack per every 10 parking spaces is downright stingy, and it means that you need to have a fairly large business to be required to provide parking for bicycles. For example, outside the downtown district, commercial businesses are required to provide 1 car parking space per 300 sf - Since one bicycle rack is required for every 10 parking spaces, a business would need to occupy 3,000 square feet to be required to have a bicycle rack. That leaves out many small businesses.
Even so, I assume that the “one bike rack per ten spaces” rule is relatively new, as even the larger businesses in town have no bike racks. This includes Liquors 44, Paradise Copies and Tiger XPress, among others. We need to address how we can bring these businesses up to code.
In stark contrast to the situation on the ground, Northampton's Sustainable Northampton Comprehensive Plan, adopted in December 2007, has a short section on page 54 called "Design for Bicycles," which states the city's intention to "develop a comprehensive citywide bicycle system" that includes various paths and lanes, as well as "supporting services" such as "bicycle storage." I realize that this plan was adopted just 8 months ago, but really, isn't it about time for the city to take the baby step of converting a few of those Main Street parking spaces to bike parking? Is the cost of, say, converting 4 to 6 downtown parking spots to bicycle parking so exorbitant? It would certainly help tremendously in meeting the goal (Goal T-2 in the Sustainable Northampton Plan) of encouraging bicycle transit.
Meanwhile, businesses are not really asked to do their part to help promote bicycle transit. The city's zoning code (Section 350-8.11.) states, "Except in the Central Business District, bicycle racks or other provision for indoor or outdoor storage of bicycles must be provided for all uses for which the zoning requires 10 or more parking spaces."
First of all, why is it that there is an exemption in the Central Business District? Developments in the Central Business District are not exempted from providing off-street car parking, yet they are exempted from providing bicycle parking! This makes no sense, and the implicit take away lesson is that cars are more important and their use is being promoted over the use of bicycles. If anything, it should be the other way around: We should further reduce off-street car parking requirements and increase bicycle parking requirements in the Central Business District. By making it easier to park a bicycle and more difficult to park a car, we will encourage more bicycle and fewer car trips to downtown. At the same time, secure off-street bicycle parking would allow employees to bicycle commute and would allow residents to safely store their bicycles and potentially reduce the number of cars they own. Sadly, the outcome of this zoning law is clear: There is no bicycle parking in the parking lot behind Thorns, or in any of the other off-street downtown parking lots for that matter.
My second beef with this zoning provision is simply that one bicycle rack per every 10 parking spaces is downright stingy, and it means that you need to have a fairly large business to be required to provide parking for bicycles. For example, outside the downtown district, commercial businesses are required to provide 1 car parking space per 300 sf - Since one bicycle rack is required for every 10 parking spaces, a business would need to occupy 3,000 square feet to be required to have a bicycle rack. That leaves out many small businesses.
Even so, I assume that the “one bike rack per ten spaces” rule is relatively new, as even the larger businesses in town have no bike racks. This includes Liquors 44, Paradise Copies and Tiger XPress, among others. We need to address how we can bring these businesses up to code.
And of course, my favorite bicycle rack omission is at the Northampton Bicycle shop itself… But I’ll leave that story for another day…
No comments:
Post a Comment