A blog for better streets and public spaces in Portland, Maine.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

New indoor bike parking downtown

I had some fun at John Peverada's expense a couple of weeks ago, regarding his parking agency's fear of mopeds in the city's parking garages. But let's give him some kudos: Mr. Peverada's Spring Street Garage (the one next to the Civic Center) has just installed some of the city's first indoor, sheltered bicycle parking.


Downtown office workers now have a safe, sheltered place to park their bikes, just inside the garage's Free Street entrance:

2 comments:

Corey Templeton said...

Good news! I hope they put up some signs to make more people aware of this and that the other public garages follow suit.

Turbo said...

I worry that this is a really bad idea. What if the automatic traffic gate should malfunction and close on a bicyclist, causing injury? What if someone uses a bicycle kickstand, or walks through the garage with cleated bike shoes, causing damage to the flooring "membrane"? What if a bicycle is knocked over, spilling god-knows-what out of a waterbottle? I just hope these and other possible scenarios have been carefully thought out.