Raise the Hammer

Bike parking in Hamilton? I honestly never even think about it. My default assumption is that I'm going to have to search for something to lock my bike to, given how few bike racks there are in this city.

Lucky for me, there aren't too many other cyclists shopping by bike, so I don't have much competition for the street signs and lamp posts.

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Ok: sarcasm aside ... this seems a worth and pretty affordable little goal for the city: provide more bike racks, both to make shopping by bike easier and to raise the profile of cycling as an option.

I've noted over the past few years a slow increase in the number of bike racks at West-end grocery stores. But the Westdale Metro and the Dundurn Fortinos both overflow the available bike parking quite often.

The Main West fortinos is the subject of constant frustration for me - they cut off their bike racks from the curb ramp with their garden displays. Ever try to get a bike with a Chariot trailer containing 60lbs of kid up a curb? It sucks. I can never get my stuff locked up without a plethora of non-kid-appropriate language.

It is truly bizarre the "we hate customers who get here on bikes" message that is sent out by the Main West Fortinos. And it is a very consistent messaage.

It starts when trying to get to the store from the Rail Trail. Customers are forced onto a narrow sidewalk - nasty! Then there are the bike racks carefully placed outside the overhang to ensure we get wet in the rain. The same bike racks are not attached to anything, so an entire rackfull can be stolen at once.

And the bike racks are up a curb in order to exclude anyone with children, a cargo bike or a disabled person with a hand cycle. Gotta make sure those disabled people are kept out of the store!

To be fair, they don't seem to like pedestrians either. There's no sidewalk leading from Main Street to the storefront. Which is normal, I guess... but most of the time a parking lot stands in front of a store, there's less-active parts of the parking lot to walk up. At Main West, you walk up the main driveway. It's... weird. The sidewalk doesn't even end at an accessability ramp, it just dead-ends.

I worked with a couple of other Beasley residents on a Participatory Budgeting proposal to have more bike parking downtown (well, lock-up rings for bikes and other mobility devices, since the idea came from a resident concerned about scooter-user who felt they couldn't go places downtown). The idea was for a series of rings to be combined with those cool display/poster boards you see around downtown, so it would be parking and community events/news.

Unfortunately staff couldn't wrap their heads around the idea and it got split into two proposals, one for display boards, the other for bike rings. Double-unfortunately, the bike rings didn't make it on to the compromise budget, but the display boards did.

Anyway, FYI, in speaking to community members who use bikes and mobility devices, the following locations were identified as needing more secure lock-ups:

(1) James St. N @ Cannon St.; (2) Barton St. E & Mary; (3) King William @ Hughson; (4) Ferguson @ King St. E (5) Beasley Park, SW entrance (Mary & Cannon); (6) Gore Park.

A motion for The 2007 Transportation Master Plan wants 15% of daily trips to be made by bicycle by 2037.

In order to encourage this, the City can lead by 1/6 of all city parking lots to secure cycling lock-ups.

That gives you facilities at City Hall; King & Locke; King & Hess; King & Bay; King & Ferguson; King & Jarvis; Bay & Cannon; Mulberry & Severn; Hughson & Robert; James & Wilson; John & Rebecca; King WIlliam & Mary; King William & Wellington; Catharine & Hunter; Jackson & Hunter; Barton & Caroline....

A multi-level structure like the York Boulevard Parkade would devote its requisite share at street level.

If you include underground garages like the Summers Lane in the mix, the lock-up would be designated on the level closest to grade.

The York Boulevard Parkade cycling cage is under utilized. Secure parking bike cages are a good idea, but they don't meet the new of the irregular rider who doesn't want to buy into a longer-term commitment which ends up happening at most secure facilities.

Utilization may be tied to visibility. I would venture to guess that the YBP lock-up isn't well-known by most of the able-bodied public -- it isn't terribly visible from the street and the city has not exactly gone out of its way to promote it.

With secure bike pens in high-visibility locations every municipal lot (and, I would hope, a public awareness campaign to drive adoption), that might change. I counted 18 lots in the above post in downtown alone. Membership would reach city-wide. The commuter/consumer calculus might shift if the city decided to truly back the option. (And that's not even including the parallel convenience of bike-sharing infrastructure.)

Use of the York Boulevard Parkade cycling cage -- paid for by Metrolinx, AFAIK -- costs, but as cages multiply the cost would presumably remain constant, not compound.

Everyone will have to make their own cost rationalizations, but $40 or so per year for peace of mind over a riding season does not strike me as a huge longer-term commitment.

Assuming you bike downtown once a week the six months of optimal weather, if you rode once a week over the six months of optimal weather, you'd be looking at less than $1.70 per lock-up. That's about the hourly rate for parking, but drivers are obliged to pay that minimum for most off-street spots, even if they only require a fraction of it.

I had no idea that parkade had secure bike parking until reading your comment. Had one bike stolen from in front of the farmer's market, so now I use the secure lockup at the GO station and walk over. Now that I know there's secure lockup in that parking garage I'd love to use it.

AC outlet for charging an e-bike while parked - even with a small surcharge - now that would be the cat's meow!

You are right that it's not visible or promoted enough - I'm on google trying to figure out how to register, so far have not found a website with the procedure or contact info.

In my civic generosity I may have misconstrued what a pass entitled you to:

"Passes are available for a small fee of $50.00 per year and guarantee you a parking spot at one of the parking facilites for the year."

http://www.smartcommutehamilton.ca/en/bike/secureparking


Also, City employees apparently enjoy twice as many enclosed bike parking options as the general public.

"ENCLOSED bike parking - provided by both the City of Hamilton and private employers. In addition to the following information check out Smart Commute Hamilton.

for the PUBLIC:

The City of Hamilton, with the financial assistance of Metrolinx, provides ENCLOSED bike racks at the following locations. These facilities are for anyone to use, but note there is an annual fee. Click here for more details.
1) in the York Boulevard Parkade (32 York Blvd.) near the Vine St. access
2) at the Convention Centre, Hamilton Place and the Art Gallery of Hamilton in the underground parking garage on Summers Lane (80 Main St. W.)
3) at City Hall in the rear parking lot (71 Main St. W.) on the east side of the lower level garage.

The City is planning additional locations, so please give us your ideas.


for EMPLOYEES:

The City of Hamilton has ENCLOSED bike racks at four locations for the benefit of City employees - the three locations that are also available to the public (described above) and a fourth location at 330 Wentworth St. N. For the Wentworth St. N. facility contact Tarquin Adams x.6386 for details.

The Government of Canada building (the Federal Building on Bay St.) has ENCLOSED bike racks for staff in a controlled access area.

Hamilton Health Sciences has ENCLOSED bike racks for staff (free) at their following facilities:

1) Chedoke Hospital - near the Wilcox Building,
2) Hamilton General Hospital - by the parking garage,
3) Henderson Hospital - by the parking garage,
4) McMaster University Medical Centre - near the front entrance.

For staff to arrange access to these facilities, they are to contact Krista at MUMC Security x.76447

McMaster University has bike lockers and ENCLOSED bike racks that are available to staff, faculty, and students. Click here for more details.

Mohawk College has ENCLOSED bike racks at the Fennell Campus that are available to staff, faculty, and students. For more information and to purchase a pass, click here."


http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartments/PublicWorks/CommunityServicesRelatedPoliciesAndGuidelines/Cycling/BikeParking/?WT.mc_id=bikeparking&WT.hamilton_redirect_friendly=1

Thanks for that info Fred!!

Correction: *Public* employees may enjoy twice as many enclosed bike parking options as the general public.

As far im concern every parking lot in this city can give 3 to 4 parking spots for bike raks

Do you mean literally converting parking spaces into bike racks at a ratio of 1:6? That seems like overkill, since a single car parking space could provide many bike parking spots. Also, I worry that there's a good reason why we always see bike parking spots on the sidewalk - is it difficult to anchor a bike rack to asphalt?

But on the other hand: I absolutely agree that every municipal parking lot should be leading by example and providing bike racks - enough to cover a substantial fraction of their visitors being on bikes. And from a cyclist's perspective, locating them in the lot itself does offer some advantages - lugging a heavy trailer up a curb sucks. But on the other hand, locating them at the street/sidewalk or in a lock-up room offers better security than in a less-visible and less-protected parking lot.

Do you mean literally converting parking spaces into bike racks

I hope not. I don't want to have to find a municipal parking lot when I'm shopping by bike. Other cities have plentiful bike parking on sidewalks (e.g. Toronto's ring-posts, they are literally everywhere and it works quite well). With the scale of a bike v.s. a car and the difference in how long a typical trip is, it doesn't make sense to lock your bike in a parking lot. Of course, it is pretty reasonable to have bike-racks in every municipal parking lot..but that is not a solution to making parking your bike easy.

Comment edited by AnjoMan on 2013-09-30 11:57:42

I viewed the 1/6 conversion as a starting point, not an end in itself.

Sidewalk fixtures are needed too, and not incredibly expensive. Toronto's new bike rings cost about $80 per, so you could probably plant one every 20 feet on both sides of King from Wellington to Queen for $20,000.

I imagine that would be an opening gambit, and the ratio would be debatable. I just chose 1/6 because of the 15% target. Admittedly, there's grey area in terms of riders, but it would demonstrate municipal commitment toward active transportation.

I think that the basic premise is reasonable and workable. Municipal lots are presumably located in sites that are in-demand and familiar to motorists,a and they would constantly be reminded that alternatives are available, viable, safe and attractive. In terms of shifting people out of cars, it seems like a pretty straight line, and one of the least contentious supports for cycling that I can imagine.

Plus the City is in the driver's seat, as it were, so it's not like ornery private lot owners are blocking process toward that goal. No EAs are needed, AFAIK. If they can identify the funds for racks and/or fencing they can make it happen overnight.

Oh, and summon up the political will. Tick, tock.

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/F29DD710-D32D-450D-AA20-C434BDE80E1B/0/Sep1781PED12153a.pdf

2,999 spaces in downtown municipal parking lots/garages. Under the 1/6 ratio, roughly 500 City-owned spaces would be devoted to cycling storage.

If they're feeling bold, the City could always apply the same conversion ratio to its 1,138 on-street parking spaces downtown.

Slipped away from me. Meant to type:

"A motion for consideration by Councillor Farr would immediately devote a share of city-owned parking to cycling infrastructure."

I wholehearted agree on the need for secure bike parking in Hamilton. There have been times where I have chosen not to ride my bike for fear that it will have been stolen from its locked spot. Bike parking is poorly managed in Hamilton and often suitable bike parking is unavailable or completely full. The choices for bike parking where they exist (like the Locke Street shopping district) are insufficient for the number of bikes that are, or could be used in the area if more parking was easily available.

I wholehearted agree on the need for secure bike parking in Hamilton. There have been times where I have chosen not to ride my bike for fear that it will have been stolen from its locked spot.

My wife sometimes refuses to bike to some places downtown for the very same reason.

Glad to hear someone pushing for this. I've pretty much given up. Sent in a lot of requests for bike corrals (which in my opinion are superior to the rings which only accommodate 1 or 2 bikes). There's always a reason why corrals can't work on Locke, James, Augusta, York, King, Barton, Ottawa, Cannon etc.... (amazing that we have the skill to build a flyover freeway viaduct and flying squirrel passageway through a nature valley, but we can't plop down some bike corrals in the city).

As a side, you may have noticed that the very few spots that do have bike corrals in Hamilton, are ALWAYS well used - John N, 2 in front of the market/library, McMaster campus, MIP and on Hunter in front of GO.

I met someone on Locke the other day and had to walk a full block to find an empty pole to lock up to.

Very simple, cheap and easy concept to install all through the city. Kudos on continuing the charge:

http://www.streetfilms.org/making-street...

I would love to see some parklets+ bike corral solutions on some of these streets that are perfect candidates: Locke, James N & S, Augusta, King William, King, Barton etc..... I know a couple of business owners on Locke who would love a parklet, but the running joke on the street is "who wants to call the city?" Short answer: nobody. They know the answer they'll get. So, businesses with great and simple ideas to further improve the quality of life in Hamilton's neighbourhoods don't even attempt because they know the nightmare that will unfold, having already dealt with the city to open their business in the first place.

That's a really sad commentary on how business-friendly city hall is IMO.

Imagine this on James, Concession, Ottawa and Locke: http://bikesd.org/wp-content/uploads/201...

Augusta Street lacks adequate bike parking. If it is a busy night, people use the rails along the steps of local businesses, which is not a suitable solution in the long run. On some occasions, there is literally no where to lock your bike on the block. The sidewalks are narrow, so perhaps we could sacrifice one car spot, so we could park a dozen bikes or so. I like Farr's motion, but to be honest, I don't know if parking bikes in a lot with low pedestrian traffic is the best idea. I would think that theft is best deterred if the bike rack is in the most visible high traffic areas.

It's not just more parking for bikes. But secured parking areas that cyclists would pay for and thieves couldn't get at. Without that, not sure how many folks will pedal downtown and leave their bikes chained up on James or King for more than 5 minutes.

The worst is Fennell and West 5th. So many shiftless kids and psych patients. It's absolutely terrifying.

Pretty much the same way people do it in Toronto, where the chance of theft is much higher.

Through our Expressing Vibrancy work we've actually counted all the car parking and bike parking spaces in the 8 areas we're studying. It's shocking how few spaces there are for bikes. Would the data on these areas be useful to anyone working on this issue?

Would definitely be interested in learning more about your work in this area. Will send you an email and perhaps we could connect from there. Seems as though this is an issue that has been looked at from a number of angles, and glad to see the conversation grow. Cheers!