Main Street Parking and Cyclists
The current Main Street plans continue the exclusionary front in diagonal parking we have Today. This undermines the choice of a bicycle as a normal mode of transportation for all but the experienced cyclist. Novice cyclists are excluded with this parking arrangement which is why the plan fails to be a livability enhancing solution for Concord. It's anything but complete and serves no more cyclists than it does Today.
The recreational cyclists are content with the plan, but the bicycle is so much more than just a toy for recreating. It is the most efficient human powered transportation vehicle ever invented. The TIGER Grant is about multi-modal transportation!
The leadership of Concord could include safe bicycle transportation for all by returning back in diagonal parking to Main Street (See below). The time has come to provide equal safe access to the road, to allow individuals a choice for sustainable transportation alternatives to the gas guzzling thousand pound machines. Cars could stay home in driveways and garages for short trips. Many could opt for tens of pounds of metal and synthetics powered by their heart and muscle on bicycles. Kids, and the ones in all of us, could discover the simple pleasures and mobility a bicycle provides. People can learn to ride if they never have before.
The leadership of Concord could include safe bicycle transportation for all by returning back in diagonal parking to Main Street (See below). The time has come to provide equal safe access to the road, to allow individuals a choice for sustainable transportation alternatives to the gas guzzling thousand pound machines. Cars could stay home in driveways and garages for short trips. Many could opt for tens of pounds of metal and synthetics powered by their heart and muscle on bicycles. Kids, and the ones in all of us, could discover the simple pleasures and mobility a bicycle provides. People can learn to ride if they never have before.
As a society we have become big and mean behind our steering wheels as we drive in car country. We've brought the rewards of suburbia to every doorstep and spend countless millions to pave and concrete our habitat. Meanwhile people are driving less [graph] while seeking livable communities to thrive in. People seek complete street solutions, not more of the past.
Comments overheard lead me to wonder if merchants see getting around by bicycle as a means for poor people, those without drivers licenses, former prisoners, homeless, or those without means, those that many may prefer disappear from our community. The bicycle can give mobility to all of these groups and others as a choice for increased
livability and every day transportation.Vision
Instead of shunning the bicycle for basic transportation, we can embrace it's virtues for a cleaner planet, and reap the benefits of more people being able to get safely where they want to go without owning and operating a car. The future is full of possibilities which may very well shift us away from the car as we know it. Just as the City Manager imagines a future without newspaper boxes, perhaps we should consider how bicycle transportation is transforming cities large and small all around us.Would-be cyclists have no idea what they may be missing as our roads seem unsafe to try, and so the status quo seems destined to prevail. It is the proverbial chicken and egg question of which comes first: The bicyclist or safe streets to bicycle on?
Will you speak up? Contact City Leadership and ask for safe cycling infrastructure for all cyclists.
Consider The Teaspoons
Driving 200 feet takes about a teaspoon of gasoline at 30 mpg. A 528 foot city block takes about two and a half teaspoons. And that drive down the 4,200 linear feet of Main Street requires about 20 teaspoons.
Now think of what's required to find, produce, deliver and pump that into your fuel tank.
Finally, consider what's created and pumped into the air we all breathe after you've driven to Main Street.Transportation Choice
If you would be so kind, I would like a place for my transportation choice on Main Street. Kindly back your motor vehicle into the parking space instead of backing into the lane we will be cycling in. Is it really too much to ask for increased livability?
As a bonus this adjustment from front in to back in diagonal parking would provide for additional parking spaces on Main Street as indicated in the Final Design - Project Recommendation Report, May 1, 2013 to City Council (page 10) which states:
"Because most design guidelines allow for an angle change (from a 45° angle to a 60° angle) in back-in angle parking, a significant amount of parking can be gained - perhaps as many as 13 spaces within the downtown core area alone. This alternative would address both parking count concerns as well as bike safety concerns."
Back in Diagonal Parking - Popular in the 1920's in Concord, NH
From "Main Street: A History of its Evolution & Infrastructure 1726 to 2010, January 2013" page 25 of 44
Diagonal Parking for the 21st Century
[ Update 2013_0704 Link to case study ]
#4 – Back-in Diagonal Parking with Bike Lanes
City Council Work Sessions May 28, 29, 30th, 2013
Check the City Calendar for updates
Get Involved - Call or write the Mayor & your Councilor and ask them to simply specify back in diagonal parking so that all cyclists can have safe access to Main Street. The bonus of 13 additional spaces in the core area is the carrot, as well as an honest Complete Streets solution for Main Street.
Project Timeline
From City Council Agenda 12/10/2012 Consent Item #31. Report dated November 29, 2012 from City Engineer to City Council:
