The temporary bike corral we wrote about last month has been installed near Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street last week.
The rack, which sits outside eXo Coffee Roasting and the future home of Tap and Bottle will provide temporary parking until the city’s first parklet is installed.
The rack provides protected parking for up to 14 bicycles.
As a cargo bike rider, however, the rack is difficult to use. As you can see from the photo below cyclists enter between the corral and the curb. An Xtracycle barely fits in the rack and does not allow cyclists to get around the bike.
Ultimately the rack will be used for businesses around the city to try out a bike corral before installing a more permanent rack.
Have you used the new rack? What do you think?
I haven’t tried that rack, but my trike is a rack hog. It takes up so much room at most racks that other cyclists have little space left. That rack design wouldn’t be very convenient for locking my trike, but I think I could manage. I was at Bookstop the other day and the little U rack already 2 bikes locked to it so I didn’t have a place. The shop owner said I could park inside. You can’t find nicer people than that!
“Corrals to Protect Separated Bike Lanes”
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/04/new-york-tries-out-bike-parking-corrals-protect-separated-bike-lanes/5331/
Interesting idea, but it’s not clear that cyclists would want their parked bikes to serve as barriers to auto mayhem…
Noel’s gone, what’s the point? The rack doesn’t look very paint friendly but I’ll give it a try next time I ride by. I would have used the rack over the last 9 months or so. I’m not sure it matters to me now.
We think a bike rack at Exo Roast is great, and we will plan to ride our bikes there for coffee. We would also like to see the City get up to speed on what is going on with bicycling in this country. America is finally learning from the rest of the world that cycling is not just about road bikes or mountain bikes. Bicycles of today can haul cargo and may be extra long or extra wide. Imagine parking a Yuba Mundo or Bakfiets. More and more cyclists will embrace these forms of pedal power in the U.S., so Tucson get ready!