Want more safe bike parking in Somerville?

[turil.livejournal.com]

I just recieved this from the Somerville Bicycle Coordinator. You can fill out this survey and send it to Steve Winslow at SWinslow (insert "at" symbol here) ci.somerville.ma.us

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Subject: Somerville Residential Bike Parking - Testimonials on the Need

The City of Somerville Planning Board recently voted 3-2 to oppose a
residential bike parking requirement (they did support retail bike parking).
Several Planning Board members said that they did not see any strong need to
require residential bike parking. They were not convinced by national
information on bicycle ownership that there was any need to require
residential bike parking requirement. The Alderman will vote on the bike
parking ordinanace in early January 2006.

As Bike & Pedestrian Coordinator for the City, I am seeking to learn about
the experience of current and former Somerville residents with residential
bicycle parking in order to help establish that there's a need for it,
particularly in residences with more than 8 units. Please forward the
results of this survey back to swinslow (at) ci.somerville.ma.us



Call 617-625-6600 x2519 if you have any further questions. Stephen Winslow,
City of Somerville.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SEND THIS ALONG TO FRIENDS WHO ARE CURRENT OR FORMER
SOMERVILLE RESIDENTS.

I am a Current ( ) or former ( ) Somerville resident:

1. What is/were the number of units in your building?
a. 1-4 units
b. 4-7 units
c. 8 - 20 units
d. >greater than 20 units

2. Does/Did your landlord, condo association or property manager provide
bike parking racks?
If so, were they indoors or outdoors?
Was the location convenient to use?
Was there a significant problem with theft or vandalism?

3. Are/Were you allowed to bring your bike into your unit?

4. Is/was there a secure bike room, basement, other storage area where you
can put your bike? Is/was it convenient to get your bike out (eg - would
you do it everyday or occassionally?)

5. Does/did your lease specifically prohibit you from bringing a bike into
your unit or the building? Did the building rules or property
manager/landlord prohibit bringing your bike in to your unit or the
building?

6. If bike parking is/was not provided, did you or anyone ask the
landlord/property manager to provide bike parking? If so what was there
response?

7. Do/Did you ever have to park your bike on a sidewalk outside your
residence because there was no other convenient place to park it?

8. Do/Did you anyone ever steal or vandalize a bike stored at your
residence?

9. During the month of the year you cycled most frequently, how frequently
do/did you use your bike?
a. frequently - twice a week or more
b. regularly - at least once a week
c. infrequently - less than once a week
d. decided not to bike because there is/was good place to put it

10. Further comments on your experience with residential bike parking...

11. Optional: Contact information:

Comments

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Not to go kicking a beehive, but...lj-cut?

[turil.livejournal.com]

I was having technical difficulties putting one in, sorry 'bout that!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd lj-cut, too.

Also, you might consider cross-posting to the bostoncycling community.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Crossposting on the Boston Bicycling community? That's my plan! Thanks.

[ron_newman]

Also consider cross-posting to somervillemass. They too will appreciate an lj-cut.

[jadia.livejournal.com]

For the ignorant, what does a residential bike parking requirement entail?

[ron_newman]

it would require developers of new residential buildings of more than N units to provide some number M of indoor bicycle parking spaces for the residents. N and M to be determined.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Also, *how* do you want us to fill out this survey? In a comment? (In which case, I think a poll would make more sense. Can we do those?)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

From the post:

Please forward the results of this survey back to swinslow (at) ci.somerville.ma.us

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Question 8 is totally weird. Are they asking if someone has ever vanadalized your bike, or whether you've ever personally vandalized a bike?

Yeah, duh, totally, I vandalize bikes all the time, doood.

It's a trick question!

[turil.livejournal.com]

Heh. I missed that one! I'm sure he meant to say "Have you ever had your bicycle vandalized or stolen..." There was another typo in 9d, too, that I pointed out when I sent him my response.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Why stop here? How about giving the police the ability to ticket and tow bikes as well as cars and allow bike owners to share in the joy of trying to remember if tomorrow's the 3rd or fourth Friday....

:: narf ::

[ron_newman]

Actually, the Somerville Bicycle Committee and the MBTA are trying to ticket and remove bicycles that are obviously abandoned and unrideable, so that the racks have room for bikes that people actually use.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you can answer this question, but I'm awfully curious: Where would we offer suggestions on encouraging ticketing cyclists that do not follow traffic rules while they're in the streets? I commute to work by bike and see many many people run red lights on their bikes right in/around Davis. I think the city would make a bundle ticketing those folks and it'll make it all that much safer for everyone.

Somerville police and bikes

[turil.livejournal.com]

You could send your comments to Steve Winslow, the Bicycle Coordinator in Somerville (his address is in the original post up there...). I'd also send a letter to your ward alderperson, as well as the chief of police, and the Somerville Bicycle Committee. Contact info for all these folks is available on the city's website at http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/ (http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/)

Several years ago, there used to be a great Somerville police officer who served on the bike committee and we tried to help him get the police department to be more aware of bicyclists rights and responsibilities on the roads, but we didn't have much luck. The main problem is that most cities and towns just ignore bicyclists, as a general rule. This willful ignorance has lead to Somerville's police officers carrying around a traffic ticket book that has no checkboxes for traffic violations by bicyclists. Cambridge has corrected this glaring oversight, but Somerville is still bicyclist-blind. So when a Somerville cop is feeling annoyed he (are there any female Somerville cops? I''ve never seen one...) is far more likely to completely make up some trumped up the charges, arrest the cyclist, and treat him or her like a violent drug offender or something, when the poor cyclist was simply riding on the sidewalk in Davis Square, a minor $20 civil infraction.

By the way, there is an official Bicycle Awareness training program that is now available for Massachusetts police officers. It wouldn't hurt for you to suggest that the SPD participate in this training program. Lots of people have already suggested it, but one more couldn't hurt.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Well, if the city ever took it upon itself to actually take care of the sidewalks as obsessively as they do the streets, I'd be overjoyed to not park my bike on the sidewalk so I could have a nice clean place to walk...

Actually, when I was on the committee to hire the Somerville Bike/Ped Coordinator a few years back, we interviewed Steve Winslow on a particularly snowy day in January and my very first question to him was something like "What would you do to help the city take more responsibility for keeping the sidewalks clear of snow and ice like they do with the roads?" I'm not sure if Steve had anything to do with it, but at least the fire station at Lowell and Somerville Streets now shovels their sidewalk, which they never did before.

[twe.livejournal.com]

Well, if the city ever took it upon itself to actually take care of the sidewalks as obsessively as they do the streets

Having started driving regularly about a year ago, I can assure you, the streets are not obsessively taken care of either: busy multi-lane roads lack lane markers, potholes and horrendously bad pavement that never seems to get fixed...

In the big blizzard last year, the street I used to live on (which was always chronically short of parking eve without snow) dutifully emptied the even side of the street so they could "plow to the curb." They never did though, so that side of the street remained mostly unusable for far longer than it would have been if some of that snow had been on top of cars. (You could go on for hours about the snow emergency policies and the poor implementation of them.)

Having spent many years as a pedestrian though, I can certainly support the city shovelling its sidewalks, especially since it requires businesses and residents to shovel/salt theirs. There's really no excuse for making people walk in the street for days after a storm. It's dangerous to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I was being extremely facetious in my comment, but it seems to have stirred a bit of a discussion.

I'll give the city and the citizens points for trying. There's definitely a few bugs in the system, but at least people care and are trying to change things.