San Diego’s Second Bike Corral
San Diego now has a second bike corral – a dedicated spot to park bicycles, this time in North Park by the Lafayette Hotel.
The good news is that San Diego has another bike corral so people now can look forward to parking their bikes to a bike rack instead of locking them to poles or trees. The bad news is that this new corral is located almost mid-block on Louisiana Street between El Cajon Boulevard and Howard Avenue. I had a hard time finding it since the angled parking blocks the view until one is right in front of the bike corral. It seems that the placement of the corral revealed a sort of embarrassment from City officials who want to hide bicycles rather than revel in the fact that the city is quietly plodding its way to becoming more bike friendly.
The placement of the corral is also worrisome to me because because it is not visible from the Lafayette Hotel that is located on El Cajon Boulevard and I fear that it won’t get any use and thus will wind up being a waste of good money.
The nation’s most bike friendly city, Portland, lists the locations of all their bike corrals on their transportation page including where they prefer bike corrals to be placed,
The City of Portland prefers locating on-street bike parking corrals at street corners in order to add additional benefits, such as creating defacto curb extensions to shorten pedestrian’s crossing of the street and improving visibility for cars turning into traffic from side streets.
Corrals should be located on the main street as close as possible to the main entrances. The City requires that the immediately adjacent business owner and property owner approve of the corral installation and sign an agreement requiring minor, regular sweeping of the corral to discourage the accumulation of debris.
This bike corral located on Louisiana is not located close to the main entrance of the one big business on El Cajon Boulevard: The Lafayette Hotel. It should have been placed on the intersection of Louisiana and El Cajon Boulevard to both increase visibility of drivers turning onto El Cajon Boulevard and for pedestrians crossing Louisiana Street.
What are your thoughts on this new bike corral?