San Diego’s First Bike Corral at Fifth and University

San Diego's First Bike Corral at Fifth and University- Finally here! Photo from Tom Landre, City Bike Coordinator

After what has seemed like an eternity, San Diego is finally (finally!) getting bike corrals. But what is a bike corral?

A Bike Corral is an on-street bicycle parking facility that can accommodate many more bicycles than a typical sidewalk rack. Bike corrals typically take up an existing single-vehicle parking space and replace it with up to eight bicycle racks – enough space for 16 bicycles! These facilities make more efficient use of a vehicle parking lane in areas with high cycling demands. They are especially useful in areas with narrow sidewalks where it would be impractical to install a sidewalk rack.

District Three is slated to get the initial set of bike corrals thanks to the efforts of Councilman Todd Gloria and his staff, and of course Tom Landre. There will be three locations in District Three (North Park and El Cajon being the other two) that will have bike corrals by the end of this month. What better way to celebrate Bike Month than finally having something tangible and useful for bicycle riders?

Looking back over our email and in-person conversations, Landre kept reiterating how getting a bike corral was a high priority for him. He began meeting with City staff, neighborhood groups, and advocates in January this year to get this done. In one email, Landre stated,

I know I keep saying this and it might be hard to believe but I am working on it daily.

I trusted Landre but was still unclear, like many others in the city, on what exactly the holdup was. Los Angeles currently has multiple bike corrals and San Diego had, until today, none.

But now that we have an actual bike corral in San Diego, we should all be truly grateful to Tom Landre, the City’s Bike Coordinator, and Councilman Todd Gloria for working to get this done. Please be sure to send your thank you letters, phone calls and other love notes to:

Tom Landre – TLandre (at) sandiego.gov, phone: (619) 533-3045

Councilman Todd Gloria – toddgloria (at) sandiego.gov, phone: (619) 236-6633

Update: It is also Councilman Gloria’s birthday today. He seemed pretty pleased with this news,

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/ToddGloria/status/200699189619994625″]

 

Edit: An earlier version of this post inadvertently stated that three of the bike corral locations would be in Hillcrest. Tom Landre sent in an email stating that the next two corrals are slated to be in North Park.