The City of Tucson will begin offering free bicycle racks for businesses who request them.
The formalized program makes it easier for businesses to get a rack from the city at no cost as long as the business installs the rack in a location that meets the bicycle parking guidelines.
The program does not apply to new businesses, which are required to install their own racks as part of the development process.
The city’s bicycle and pedestrian program manager Ann Chanecka said having a safe place to park your bike is a key to getting people to ride their bikes for transportation.
“We are trying to get people to bike for small trips and those are the places you need to be able to park your bike,” she said.
The money for the racks comes from a federal grant to encourage people to ride their bikes.
The racks would normally cost the businesses $100 a piece. The city pays less because they buy the racks in bulk.
Chanecka said cyclists can help get the word out by telling business owners about the program and encouraging them to fill out the application.
What businesses will you be telling about the free racks?
You can download the policy and application here.
Wells Fargo Bank at Broadway and Swan.Though placement is obvious, there has never been a bike rack there.
Chase Bank at Broadway and Country Club (which Red Star can walk to, so what). This bank has an ancient bike rack slammed up against a wall, on their sidewalk, pinned between car parking lot and building, hidden away from the front doors to the building.
Both companies are well-known for happily accepting freebies from federal government. Branch bank managers tend to be moronic implementers of corporate orders, so it will be interesting to see what happens…
I sent a link to this story to the owners of Jimmy Johns on Campbell – we’ll see what happens
They’re not free to the people paying for them.
Wow. I have been out of the loop, but how is this not GREAT news? I’ll print these out and take them everywhere I go. Sure, not everyone is receptive, and sometimes you have to go through channels and deal with property managers (not a bad thing; they make decisions). A good way to sell the idea is to take pictures of bicycle parking at places that have it already, to show how heavily USED it is. Here’s the city making a clear statement that bike parking should be a priority from a commerce standpoint, and giving information about what constitutes decent bicycle parking. Why not help this along by working on getting your local businessfolks to dedicate a piece of their actual PARKING LOT for the purpose? There are places such as the Safeway at Broadway & Campbell where there are bike racks but they frequently fill up and cycling shoppers can be seen wandering up and down looking for a space, sometimes giving up and leaving. The manager there (his name is Tom) is receptive to putting in more– give him a nudge if you shop there! There are low-cost ways to work with what we have to improve our transit infrastructure; this seems to me to be one of them. Good work, Ann!