The Chainlink

As president of Chicago Velo Campus I and our other members are trying to define the best idea possible to be proposed to City of Chicago and Jam Productions.

As some of you certainly know, over to the South East side of the city, on the former United States Steel plant land, there are 2 projects taking place right now,

  • Chicago Velo Campus Interim Facilities, a UCI 166 mt. outdoor velodrome and a 1,400 sqf cycling-community center 
  • Dave Matthews Band Caravan 3 day  concert produced and managed by Jam Productions 

We have started to make a plan that hopefully can be soon presented  to our neighbors Jam Production and City of Chicago

We would like to provide the support they may need to manage a large number of cyclists going to the concert cranking pedals, not pumping gas,(at least on the way there...)

So I would like to know what you guys think about Chicago Velo Campus providing a Cycling Valet within our facility on 8th and Burley

We would keep the bike, return it to the rider at the end of the concert (only if not under influence)

Alternative options would be to leave the bike overnight and collect it a day later, or have it delivered home with 48 hours.

 

Please tell us your opinions/suggestions about this plans  

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I helped with bike parking 2 years at Pitchfork and organized the bike parking volunteers at North Coast Festival last year, so I think I have a solid idea of how people will lock when left to their own devices.  I would not characterize it as "wild".  I thought I was clear that I was suggesting a supervised area with volunteers on hand who can ask the people locking their bikes to make wise/considerate use of the space when necessary.
I am not aware of a sigle complaint of a damaged bike.

 

Sorry-- I'm finding it really hard to guess how many people might try to bike to the event, looking at the lineup. Could be anywhere from 300 to 1500 per day.  A lot will depend on whether there is a day pass to the festival-- the $195 3-day price is going to price out a lot of younger folks (and the vast majority of folks arriving at the aforementioned festivals by bike were high-school aged to mid-20s.)

 

 

 

Emanuele Bianchi said:


I think the key is ORGANIZED against wild and self served large space without infrastructure, if you have hundreds of bikes inappropriately parked, could become a nightmare to get your own, or yours could be damaged etc etc... 

 

87th and Burley 

Chicago Velo Campus here is a map of the  INTERIM FACILITIES

sorry about the typo... 

 

I know at Wrigley Field it TOTALLY depends on the event.  Bike valet is filled to the brim and other times 2 bikes in the entire bike valet area.
Especially if Jam is going to pay for it they should make sure to promote it well as an alternative way of getting down to the concert.
It looks like the space is very well located.  Key will be making sure cyclists know where bike parking is before they arrive.  It would be a major score to get the promoters to include the bike parking location prominently in all media.

Emanuele Bianchi said:

87th and Burley 

Chicago Velo Campus here is a map of the  INTERIM FACILITIES

sorry about the typo... 

 

Would you join our project, with your expertise some of our ideas and creativity could be driven to effectiveness.

Think about it, we still didn't even sit down and spent a word with Jam, there are a lot of things that can make it a better event for cycling spectators and our intent is to make it pleasant, avoid stolen bikes (as it happened this week end in Sherman Park) make sure its good for all, Jam Productions, Chicago Velo Campus, the local community, Chicago Lakeside Development, the Aldermen Jackson and Pope etc etc 

if all are satisfied we'll have the event every year and our Velodrome project gains a lot from positive life around it. few weeks ago no one used the word Lakeside, in some months we should be a known locations for thousand of Chicagoans 

H3N3 said:

It looks like the space is very well located.  Key will be making sure cyclists know where bike parking is before they arrive.  It would be a major score to get the promoters to include the bike parking location prominently in all media.

Emanuele Bianchi said:

87th and Burley 

Chicago Velo Campus here is a map of the  INTERIM FACILITIES

sorry about the typo... 

 

Sure, will contact you offlist.

Would be interested to hear what happened at Sherman Park. Have not had any reports at the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry.

dont know details, heard 2 racing bikes have been stolen, don't have any more details.

for what regards the plans I'm so busy, it all started these past few days and I didn't even have a moment to reach Active Trans and discuss with whom should be involved.

Sunday I took lots of pictures of the 2.3 miles from the end of the lakefront path to the velodrome location, we must find a proper way to make this event generate a positive stream of actions, like fixing the bikelanes on the way to the velodrome

 

H3N3 said:

Sure, will contact you offlist.

Would be interested to hear what happened at Sherman Park. Have not had any reports at the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry.

Have you considered legal liability and insurance issues of having a valet?  If you are advertising safe & secure bike valets, you will end up responsible for damage and any theft.  Using local kids as cheap/free labor sounds like a good idea, but what happens if something happens?  A "sorry, we can't seem to find your bike" or "um, it looks like the rear derailuer got busted" is going to result in more than just an annoyed customer.

Hey all,

 

Active Trans is restarting our Bike Valet program this summer. We're excited to be able to offer this service for events that hire us.

 

We're already contracted to provide Bike Valet (free valet parking for 500-600 bikes at a time) at Blues Fest, Bike to Work Day Rally, Lollapoolza and possibly Taste of Chicago.

 

We used to provide this through sponsorship from Chase Bank but the past few summers we've done it entirely by contract, event-by-event and lost money or broke even for most of the events.

 

We're planning to reduce costs this summer by hiring a manager and utilizing volunteers to operate the valet service.

 

Our insurance covers our efforts when we are contracted to execute bike valet at events.

 

If Jam wants to talk to us about providing a quote to run bike valet, we'd be happy to do so.

 

We agree with Howard that an event of this size should also consider a secure parking area to extend what is offered with bike valet. We'd be happy to work with Jam, Howard, Emanaule, etc. to figure out the best plan.

 

Thanks much,

Ethan Spotts, Marketing & Communications, Active Trans

 

PS: surprise, surprise but we'll be recruiting soon for summer outreach and bike valet volunteers...look for an official post next week.

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