DC Could Mandate Bike Parking, Sort Of

3:12 PM EDT on September 17, 2007

While New York continues its on-again, off-again relationship with cyclists, Washington, DC is on the verge of requiring bike parking for commercial and residential development.

Examiner.com has the story:

The D.C. Council next week is expected to adopt legislation that could dramatically increase the number of parking spaces for bicyclists, a bill praised by the cycling community but criticized by property owners as oppressive overkill.
The measure mandates that all apartment buildings with more than eight units provide one bicycle parking space for every four residential units, demands that commercial landlords deliver enough bicycle parking to match at least 10 percent of the number of available automobile spaces, and requires the installation of bicycle racks at the Wilson Building for no less than 16 riders.

In response to protests from property owners, however, the bill's sponsor, Council Member Tommy Wells, may make what seems like a major concession:

"If nobody in the building wants or needs bike parking, then we're looking at an existing building not having to put in bike parking unless a resident requests it," Wells said of his possible amendment.

Addendum: As mentioned in the article, the bill would also bring about a report on bike parking at local government buildings, as well as one on bike parking plans for a new (presumably Major League) baseball stadium.

And no, there haven't been any developments (so far as we know) since, unbeknownst to yours truly, we blurbed this same article last week. That's what I get for taking Friday afternoon off.

Photo of bikes outside DC's Union Station: nocordsnowires/Flickr

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.

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