Nine months of planning culminated Aug.18 with installation
of the metro’s first bike corrals on Ingersoll Avenue. The three Ingersoll
locations are in front of Sakari Sushi Bar, Star Bar, and Eatery A—all popular
destinations. Of course all the business owners are thrilled to be on the front
line for this project.
The accompanying photo shows Neumann Brothers employees James
Griffiths, foreground, and Justin Berg installing the corral in front of Sakari.
Now what is a bike corral? Glad you asked! An on-street auto
parking space is elevated to higher use with the installation of racks for 12
bikes. So on this day, three auto parking spaces were replaced with parking for
36 bikes—a net gain of 33 parking spots on Ingersoll. Think of it as a street parking space
for one customer being replaced by space for 12 customers.
In other cities, bike corrals often appear in front of coffee
shops, bars, restaurants, and bookstores.
Discussions with Des Moines city officials about a pilot
bike-corral program began in March 2013. Some cities have had bike corrals for
eight years or longer. You’ll find bike corrals in Chicago; St. Paul;
Minneapolis; Portland; Columbia, MO; Knoxville, TN; Los Angeles; Philadelphia;
Salt Lake City; Lawrence, KS; Fort Collins, CO.
We could go on, but you get the picture. According to Mark
Wyatt, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, Decorah was the only
Iowa community with bike corrals until this week. Iowa City should have its
first corrals installed shortly, Mark added.
A Wellmark Foundation grant via the Metropolitan Planning
Organization funded the Ingersoll rack purchase and installation.
Look for news in coming days for bike-corral promotions from the Avenues of Ingersoll & Grand, the new neighborhood association.
Let’s not stop with just three corrals in the metro area.
What other communities or neighborhoods in the metro area will be among the
first to embrace the concept?