The Chainlink

Why does Chicago have so few on-street bike parking corrals? It's all about the Benjamins

On-street bike parking corrals, which park up to 12 cycles in one car space, promote cycling, free up space for pedestrians and attract customers to businesses, and they're starting to become a standard element in bike-friendly streetscapes. Portland, Oregon, has installed 97 of them since 2004. San Francisco began installing them in 2010 and now has 32; New York City debuted its first corral in August 2011 and now has 12. So why does Chicago, which installed its first corral by Wicker Park's Flat Iron Building a month earlier than NYC, only have four?

The difference is funding. Although the Chicago Department of Transportation has a staff member working to coordinate installation of the corrals, with the goal of installing 20 by
this September, unlike those other cities, CDOT does not provide the corrals free of charge. Instead, businesses and community organizations that want corrals are asked to pay thousands of dollars for the racks and installation, making the corrals a much tougher sell, but hopefully this situation will change in the near future:

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/03/08/why-chicago-is-lagging-behind...

Keep moving forward,

John Greenfield


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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on March 12, 2013 at 9:12pm

Have to disagree.  Have you seen a Bike Corral in situ? The one in front of Jumping Bean looks so damn cool, I have no doubt it increases their business.  Now, if there is no advantage to you in having your business look hip and cool, like, say you run a dialysis center, or accounting firm, than I suppose having one would make less sense.

Mike Zumwalt said:

It's seems a little cost prohibitive for small businesses to buy them and have no real return on investment unless they cater to or happen to attract a large number of cyclists. 

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on March 12, 2013 at 11:04pm

True. But most people don't understand or know about Paniers, racks,trailers or Chrome bags which can carry every thing you need or want home. BTW I consider "local" anywhere I can ride to and back.
Lisa Curcio 4.0 mi said:

Personal experience/anecdotal observation/no scientific basis:  I like to shop locally.  There is not enough car parking to drive to most places where small businesses are located in the city, therefore going by bike is the best option.  If there is a bike corral near the business, I am assured a place to lock my bike and I am more likely to go there.  Otherwise I have to figure out if there is bike parking near enough to bike to the shop.  Bike corral=business from cyclists if it is a business that caters to people who shop.  

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on March 12, 2013 at 11:10pm

I have no idea what you're talking about. Is this a Southside thing? I'm not talking about being hip or cool but if the business has the revenue(to afford it) or the thought that it would be worthwhile to add.

Handlebar on North put a rack in back which is not only off street but 100% visible in the summer back patio season.

h' 1.0 said:

Have to disagree.  Have you seen a Bike Corral in situ? The one in front of Jumping Bean looks so damn cool, I have no doubt it increases their business.  Now, if there is no advantage to you in having your business look hip and cool, like, say you run a dialysis center, or accounting firm, than I suppose having one would make less sense.

Mike Zumwalt said:

It's seems a little cost prohibitive for small businesses to buy them and have no real return on investment unless they cater to or happen to attract a large number of cyclists. 

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on March 12, 2013 at 11:21pm

Jumping Bean is pretty much in the center of the city, not "south side."

You've lost me though-- what does Handlebar having racks on their patio have to do with Bike Corrals?

Mike Zumwalt said:

I have no idea what you're talking about. Is this a Southside thing? I'm not talking about being hip or cool but if the business has the revenue(to afford it) or the thought that it would be worthwhile to add.

Handlebar on North put a rack in back which is not only off street but 100% visible in the summer back patio season.

h' 1.0 said:

Have to disagree.  Have you seen a Bike Corral in situ? The one in front of Jumping Bean looks so damn cool, I have no doubt it increases their business.  Now, if there is no advantage to you in having your business look hip and cool, like, say you run a dialysis center, or accounting firm, than I suppose having one would make less sense.

Mike Zumwalt said:

It's seems a little cost prohibitive for small businesses to buy them and have no real return on investment unless they cater to or happen to attract a large number of cyclists. 

Permalink Reply by Kevin K on March 12, 2013 at 11:25pm

Don't underestimate the importance of the hip/coolness factor for dialysis clinics.  The Kidney Bean just opened a new location in a vintage loft space above the Double Door, and the line to get into Hemo, in River North, was over 3 hours last Saturday night. 


h' 1.0 said:

Have to disagree.  Have you seen a Bike Corral in situ? The one in front of Jumping Bean looks so damn cool, I have no doubt it increases their business.  Now, if there is no advantage to you in having your business look hip and cool, like, say you run a dialysis center, or accounting firm, than I suppose having one would make less sense.

Mike Zumwalt said:

It's seems a little cost prohibitive for small businesses to buy them and have no real return on investment unless they cater to or happen to attract a large number of cyclists. 

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on March 13, 2013 at 12:10am

Good point.  Now that you mention...

Oh, I give up.  Damn, you're good ! 

Kevin K said:

Don't underestimate the importance of the hip/coolness factor for dialysis clinics.  The Kidney Bean just opened a new location in a vintage loft space above the Double Door, and the line to get into Hemo, in River North, was over 3 hours last Saturday night. 


h' 1.0 said:

Have to disagree.  Have you seen a Bike Corral in situ? The one in front of Jumping Bean looks so damn cool, I have no doubt it increases their business.  Now, if there is no advantage to you in having your business look hip and cool, like, say you run a dialysis center, or accounting firm, than I suppose having one would make less sense.

Mike Zumwalt said:

It's seems a little cost prohibitive for small businesses to buy them and have no real return on investment unless they cater to or happen to attract a large number of cyclists. 

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on March 13, 2013 at 12:58pm

They have a bike rack on the premises obviously for their customers only but if more individual businesses did that it would be great.

h' 1.0 said:

Jumping Bean is pretty much in the center of the city, not "south side."

You've lost me though-- what does Handlebar having racks on their patio have to do with Bike Corrals?

Mike Zumwalt said:

I have no idea what you're talking about. Is this a Southside thing? I'm not talking about being hip or cool but if the business has the revenue(to afford it) or the thought that it would be worthwhile to add.

Handlebar on North put a rack in back which is not only off street but 100% visible in the summer back patio season.

h' 1.0 said:

Have to disagree.  Have you seen a Bike Corral in situ? The one in front of Jumping Bean looks so damn cool, I have no doubt it increases their business.  Now, if there is no advantage to you in having your business look hip and cool, like, say you run a dialysis center, or accounting firm, than I suppose having one would make less sense.

Mike Zumwalt said:

It's seems a little cost prohibitive for small businesses to buy them and have no real return on investment unless they cater to or happen to attract a large number of cyclists. 

Permalink Reply by Kevin K on March 13, 2013 at 7:28pm

I guess it depends on how you define 'interests of the City."  Was it in Daley's short term interest?  Absolutely.  Long term interest of the City?  Probably not.

As everyone knows, the city is facing major long-term structural budget deficits, right now around $500M per year.  There's no 'painless' way to correct these deficits.  Every option involves pissing off vocal & vehement constituencies and getting into nasty, ugly brawls -- with taxpayers, unions, contractors, city employees, special interest groups, etc.

So Daley was in his last couple years in office, staring at a huge deficit.  How do we deal with this?  Do I reduce headcount and enrage the unions?  Do I dare attempt some pension reform, and open that can of worms/powder keg?  Do I raise the sales tax rate, and piss off all the retailers and voters? Do I cancel major infrastructure projects, like Millennium Park?  Do I scrap those bike lane projects, and get Active Trans & the Critical Mass crew chewing on my a**?  Do I want to go out as a villain and a chimo, or do I want everyone to still love me?

Oh wait, I know -- I'll just sell the next 75-years of parking meter revenues to an investor, get a one-time cash payment, and use THAT to plug the hole this year.  No need to deal with those messy issues now, I'll just let the next sucker in office deal with that.  City Council is happy to oblige, they'd rather deal with it later, too.

A lot of cities have done this. Rather than face their financial problems, they sell off assets (tangible or financial), get a one-time payment, and use that to plug the hole. This year. Can kicked down road.  

Problem is, that actually digs the whole a little deeper.  You don't get a $1B payment for $1B of future revenue.  Nobody's gonna do that deal with you.  You'll probably get $600M for that $1B of future revenue.  Now your long-term deficit problem is slightly worse than it was before. 

You know all those 'structured settlement' commercials you see on TV?  "Cash now for your structured law suit payments!!"  The parking meter deal was essentially a big version of that.


Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:

I wonder if the City has tried an insanity defense to get out of the contract. The deal was clearly not in the interest of the City and no sensible party should have signed on to it. Is sanity relevant to contract law?

Seems applicable to the former mayor and his city council at the time:http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/insanity


Kevin K said:

If I understand the parking meter deal correctly, the city didn't do the contract w/ LAZ, right?  Wasn't the deal done w/ a special purpose entity (Chicago Parking Meters, LLC) that's half owned by Morgan Stanley and quarter owned by two other investment groups, who subsequently hired LAZ to manage the operation of the meters?  LAZ is just a subcontractor here.

Point being, it's not like LAZ cooked up this deal, or tricked the city into signing the contract.  They've just been hired to manage the meters and write the tickets.  LAZ might be doing it as cheaply as possible while still staying within the performance standards of the contract, they might be unresponsive, trying to get by with too few workers, etc, but it's not LAZ's fault the city has to pay out when they remove parking spaces.  "They just work here..."

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