Build It and They Will Pedal

$580,000 Bike Boondoggle Coming Soon?

A draft study is encouraging public agencies and area businesses to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to boost the number of bike racks and lockers in the Eugene-Springfield area to help support and increase two-wheeled ridership over the next decade and beyond.

The Regional Bike Parking Study, set to be finalized later this month after three years of work, concludes that such facilities are needed in the two cities’ downtowns, at transit stations and at more than a dozen shopping centers, major employers and civic venues…

The government-funded $100,000 study reaches those conclusions even as its data, while limited, showed the existing supply of bike parking exceeding the use in some of the studied areas…

The study estimates it would cost nearly $342,000 for materials and labor to add recommended bike parking spaces to 100 blocks in downtown Eugene and Springfield…

The study estimated it would cost about $238,000 to install 30 new and retrofitted bike lockers at some LTD transit stations, as well as secure cages at the stations in downtown Eugene and the Amazon neighborhood…

The study also examined the bike parking needs at 14 “activity centers,” such as the Hult Center, Oakway Center, Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend and the Royal Caribbean office in Springfield, but didn’t provide cost estimates.

Even though the study recommended adding more bike parking spots at these centers, the data appeared to indicate the supply exceeds demand. The study counted 509 spots at the 14 locations, but recommended nearly doubling that number — even though only 55 spots were being used at the time of the survey…

Maffei (who lead the study) said the inventory was taken on Oct. 16 and 17, and there wasn’t enough money to perform more than a single count in a given study area…

Duncan Rhodes, a member of the Greater Eugene Area Riders Cycling Club, or GEARs, who served on the committee, said quite a few local spots could use more bike parking.

“Until you build something, you will never know if it will be used or not,” he said…

–       Christian Hill, The Register Guard

Lane Solutions Responds –

“A $100,000 study recommends spending $580,000 to add thousands of spots” (Register Guard  print edition).

Several elements of this study jumped out at us, nearly causing us to bang our helmeted heads on the potted pavement as we toppled off our sustainable, green, locally produced bikes.

First, they figured need for additional bike facilities by counting actual bike rack use just once. Think it might vary by time of day and month?

Then there’s the fallacy of adding hundreds of bike racks at five “activity centers” when “supply exceeds demand.”  Failing to estimate costs for this only makes it worse.

Third, at six locations they counted 44 of 355 bike racks being used and concluded that we need 727 additional racks.

It’s a perfect example of government imposing its social engineering fantasies on citizens and wasting buckets of bucks turning them into an unwelcome reality.

Here, local wizards, lashing themselves to the mast of urban density and “green” transportation, decided that even if current racks aren’t being used, what we need is more. So they tossed $100,000 after their obsession and may throw another $580,000 into the same sump hole.

Oh, well, “Until you build something, you will never know if it will be used or not.”

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