Bike valet going away?

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Permalink Reply by dittoottib on May 29, 2009 at 7:43am

chase bank, committed to community. thank you for the bailout!

why not charge for the service? $3 is reasonable which is approximately the amount needed to fund the program? why didnt ATA propose charging for this service, were they too busy planning something else?

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Permalink Reply by Greg Coleman on May 29, 2009 at 8:00am

"The price tag for setting up bike valet service at Grant Park events is considerably higher: about $50,000 to pay for attendants and equipment for the entire summer, Sadowsky said. It's about $70,000 for a company that wants to be listed as the official sponsor, Gatziolis said. "

It's interesting that if someone wants to sponsor this program for the summer, it's going to cost them an extra 20k just to put thier name on it. It seems a little odd to me.

Anyway, I agree, it does seem like a backwards step. Unfortunately, it may take a year before people realize the benefit:
-More attendees due to convienece of bike parking
-Less bikes potentially locked to trees (which could cause some damage, depending on how it's done)
-Less bikes just wrapped on ANYTHING

I've been to some of the festivals where they underestimated the amount of bike parking that would be needed. In some cases, it was so frustrating that I (and others) simply left after riding around looking for a place to lock up safely.

And a great idea on the charging aspect! Especially charging at something like the Taste, where people are already throwing down a LOT of money. Park your bike forthe cost of a ticket or two.....

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 4, 2009 at 12:22pm

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with paying a few bucks for the service. I think that would be better than not having it at all.

dittoottib said:

chase bank, committed to community. thank you for the bailout!

why not charge for the service? $3 is reasonable which is approximately the amount needed to fund the program?

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Permalink Reply by E A on June 4, 2009 at 1:16pm

And I would think volunteer help could be recruited to assist so as not to have to "hire" all of the help required to run such an operation.

Does the bike valet need one sponsor only? Couldn't several sponsors be found to fund such a program for multiple events throughout the summer???

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Permalink Reply by heather s on June 4, 2009 at 1:30pm

In theory, I'm sorry to see this go, but I've never really understood the bike valet thing. Why don't they offer more bike parking? I've consistently had a difficult time finding anyplace to lock my bike in any public park here.

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Permalink Reply by S on June 4, 2009 at 1:57pm

heather stratton said:

In theory, I'm sorry to see this go, but I've never really understood the bike valet thing. Why don't they offer more bike parking? I've consistently had a difficult time finding anyplace to lock my bike in any public park here.

It's been more of security and capacity thing. You normally don't need that much parking in grant park for bikes since people don't really lock bikes up there very often. However, it's nice to have during festivals, movies in the park, etc. Plus I'm a lot more confident in leaving my bike parked there if I know it's in a secure area that only a few people have access to. Other people probably fall into the same category.

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on June 4, 2009 at 5:53pm

Hey Chainlinkers,

We wanted to provide additional background and answer some of the questions in this thread.

1. We will be piloting a $2 per bike valet program for the Dew Tour June 26-27. If this works, we could consider building a full-season of bike valet but we do not have the resources to pull that off for this year. It’s a large-scale business start-up that would need available cash and staff resources….that’s why we’re seeking sponsors.

2. We are working to secure one or several sponsors for the program. With the current economy, sponsorship is very challenging but that isn’t stopping us from asking…please let us know if you have any good leads! http://www.activetrans.org/sponsorship/bike-valet

3. Additional money that is generated (e.g. $20K above the cost to execute the program) helps fund other Active Trans advocacy and outreach work that does not have specific income sources like a foundation grant. Plus, the sponsor gets the benefits of branding, exposure and awareness through their association with the bike valet program.

4. Volunteers running bike valet would present insurance and liability challenges. We wouldn’t rule it out but the program definitely requires some staff. The first step though is to get a program going either through sponsorship or pay-for-valet (more likely for next year if a sponsor can’t be secured).

5. S is right on about why bike valet works!

Thanks,

Active Trans

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