Pedal pushers have a place all their own
By EMILIE PHELPS Special to the Daily Press
MAIN STREET — Those who have taken to the bicycle in efforts to avoid the traffic snarl around the Farmers’ Market on Main Street have created their own congestion.
On a typical Sunday, there are 130 bicycles or more locked up to fences, posts, parking meters and trees — clogging up the roads and sidewalks of the surrounding Ocean Park neighborhood, said Luis Morris, transportation management specialist for the city of Santa Monica.
To resolve the weekly transportation quagmire, the city has recently launched a pilot bike valet service as part of a traffic congestion reduction program — a combined effort between the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market and City Hall’s transportation management division.
At no charge to City Hall or the customer, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) is providing the bike valet service at the Sunday Farmers’ Market indefinitely, said Jodi Low, manager of the Sunday Farmers’ Market. The tips from the valet zone go to support the LACBC.
The bike valet started July 3. Morris said the city uses up to nine metered parking spaces — which individually can hold 12 bikes each — along Main Street in front of the market. Despite that the valet service can accommodate 108 bikes at one time, Morris one recent Sunday counted up to 120 bikes chained to trees, fences, meters and posts.
The service has proven to be effective and simple thus far — a valet parks the bike and gives the rider a number so he or she can retrieve the bike later.
Bicyclist Dennis Allard, who has used the bike valet service a few times, said the process ran smoothly for him, with no wait to park or retrieve his bike.
“I use my bike a lot for transportation and I get to the market every week by bicycle,” he said. “The bike valet parking is very efficient. It makes parking a bike at the market very convenient and secure.”
Monica Howe, outreach manager for LACBC, estimated that the bike valets at the Sunday Farmers’ Market park about 200 bikes throughout the six hours.
Howe said that although she did get a negative comment from one angry motorist about the usage of metered parking spaces, it was greatly superseded by positive comments from bicyclists or people who are now encouraged or inspired to ride their bikes to Main Street on Sundays.
Howe recalls the glow she felt when one passerby remarked, “Wow, Santa Monica is becoming a more bike friendly city.”
The Santa Monica Cadets and Explorers, programs for youth run by the Santa Monica Police Department, have been on hand working security and keeping an eye on the bikes. However, the Cadets and Explorers won’t be available indefinitely so another security source needs to be found, Low said.
The LACBC is currently providing the bike valet service on a volunteer basis, and according to Howe, it is still “up in the air”as to how the pilot program will continue.
Lucy Dyke, City Hall’s transportation planning manager for City Hall, said a bike valet is more appealing than self-service racks, as added security may make people more willing to ride their bikes. City officials are looking into buying similar racks and using a vendor to run the valet program, Morris said.
The LACBC’s cost for the service is nominal, Howe said. The bike racks are on loan from the AIDS Lifecycle organization, which only uses them once a year. The bike valet requires six volunteers to park and watch the bikes.
Kastle Lund, executive director of LACBC, said it is a pleasure to provide the bike valet service for the people who truly appreciate it. If residents embrace the service and use it, that makes it worthwhile, she said.
This is the first time the LACBC has supplied the bike valet as an ongoing service. The service was one of LACBC’s first fundraisers after it was founded in 1998. It typically volunteers at one-time events, such as the Bicycle Film Festival which was held last month in Hollywood.
Dyke said City Hall would like to add bike valets at other bike-saturated events, like the Santa Monica Pier and other farmers’ markets.
Although it’s more ecologically friendly to ride a bike rather than drive, there was still a push among residents and businesses to open more parking for vehicles. In tandem with the bike valet service, City Hall made more parking available in the Ocean Park neighborhood. Low said the impetus for the pilot program was comments made in the Ocean Park Association’s June 24 newsletter and letters published by OPA’s president Ted Winterer. With Main Street merchant parking being taken up by farmers’ market visitors, and more cars circling the neighborhood burning fossil fuels while looking for spaces, the lack of parking was economically and ecologically unfriendly, officials said.
As a result, free parking is now available on Sundays at the John Muir and Santa Monica Alternative schools at Fourth Street and Ocean Park Boulevard on the north side.
There also is validated parking at the beach available. Drivers are asked to go to the 2600 lot on Barnard Avenue, pay $6 and tell them they are going to the farmers’ market. They take the ticket and validate it at the farmers’ market information booth. To get the $6 back, exit the lot by 1:30 p.m.
The bike valet runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 29, 2006. Read the original PDF.