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?