For a minute there, we were pleased. Nothing major, mind you, but hey, we take what we can get.
Here’s the low-down: the Union Street Café, in New Edinburgh, is thriving and attracting lots of people on bikes. And those people need to park their bikes while enjoying some well-deserved treats and beverages. So the City, in a very reasonable decision, installed a new bike corral right next to the café in what was formerly an on-street parking spot for cars. All was well.
For a week.
Today, Bike Ottawa was told that the corral is about to be removed. What happened? Someone complained. As a result the City will be removing the corral and plans to install a smaller one on the side street. Twelve bike parking spots gone, in favour of parking for one car.
Why did it come to this? This is a busy cafe, with hundreds of patrons visiting on foot or by bicycle every day. The sidewalks are narrow so there aren’t a lot of spaces for seating, and just two posts to lock up bikes (on the sidewalk).
It’s worth detailing all that is wrong in that story.
Firstly, the obvious privatisation of public space. The street belongs to us all, not just to car owners. The very quick reaction from the City denotes a deeply ingrained problem of favouring car-focused interests over the common good, in this case, a small business that has become a destination point for many cyclists.
Secondly, the decision not to install the corral near the intersection, directly in front of the Cafe. The no-parking zone in front of the café is 9m long. That prohibition near intersections is meant to keep a clear sight of incoming vehicles on perpendicular streets. Bikes don’t block the view as cars do, which is why many cities have no issues allowing them to park next to intersections. See for example this bike corral in Toronto, and the sign specifically allowing bike parking:
Or that Bixi station in Montreal:
Thirdly, the bike corral was poorly installed. Normally, you should be able to walk your bike between the corral and the sidewalk to lock it up, so there is protection for you and your bike. In this case, it butts up against the curb, forcing people to lift their bikes onto the sidewalk in order to park. A similar corral on Wellington Street suffers from the same installation issue. If you are riding a non-standard cargo or other bike, you can’t use the space at all, as Bike Ottawa observed today.
In comparison, look at this corral design from Atlanta:
And fourthly, the planned cut of the bike parking budget (see Brigitte Pellerin’s article). The City intends to reduce the yearly budget from 400k$ to 300k$ next year. Even though the demand is surging (the modal share of bikes has doubled since the 2011 Origin-Destination Survey) and will keep growing, as it is in cities all over the world. The City is only allocating a paltry amount to bike parking (but has no issue spending hundreds of millions to widen roads). Access to secure parking is one of the main impediments to cycling.
So, what could the City of Ottawa do differently in order to be forward-looking? In short:
- Modify by-laws and guidelines to authorise bike parking near intersections. Along with bulb-outs they could make great traffic calming measures.
- Reverse the proposed slashing of the bike parking budget.
- Treat the public space as a common good, here for the enjoyment of the many and not the benefits of the few.
- Use better designed bike corrals.
We spoke to a couple of the users who said they visit regularly because the Café is the only one in the area, and it is conveniently located near several bike paths. When they heard the corral was being removed, they said it was “a step in the wrong direction”.
Although we think the corral could have been better, it’s still an excellent addition to encourage active transportation. We’ll keep working on getting the other changes made (maybe even having more patios beside bike parking). The proposed alternative would be on a much narrower side street at the approach to a stop sign, which would be more dangerous for everyone.
It may not be too late to reverse this: write to the local councillor (Rawlson King) to let him know your disappointment and ask that the bike corral be kept in place.