It sometimes seemed like the day would never come. And yet:
That’s right, a Bike Corral is finally coming to Highland Park. In the coming weeks, a bright & shiny bike corral will be installed in front of Cafe de Leche at York Boulevard and Avenue 50. First leaked to Highland Park Patch, a tentative date of February 18th at 9:00 AM has been set for the corral’s grand opening. Flying Pigeon and CicLAvia have also posted jubilantly about the impending bike corral. But before jumping into specifics, let’s take a little stroll down memory lane. How did we get here?
What is a bike corral?
A bike corral, most simply put, is a car parking space that has been refitted to accommodate bicycle parking. Space for one car becomes spaces for 10 or more bicycles, and pedestrian space is freed up as bike parking moves from the sidewalk to the curbside. You can read more about bike corrals in our post when we first covered the effort to bring a bike corral to York Boulevard.
A citizen-driven process
First of all, LADOT Bike Blog would like to thank C.I.C.L.E., LACBC, Matt Schodorf (co-owner of Cafe de Leche), Josef Bray-Ali, Joe Linton, and countless other advocates and dedicated citizens who helped move the idea of bike corrals in LA from a figment of our collective imagination to an imminent reality. Our thanks also goes out to CD 14 Council Member Jose Huizar and his tireless staff for seeing this project through from start to finish.
On twitter, on facebook, and on blogs activists called for a bike corral on York in 2009 and 2010. CD 14 Council Member Jose Huizar, hearing the needs of his community, drafted a motion to create a bike corral “Pilot Program” at York Boulevard & Avenue 50.
In a mere 14 days in March of 2010, the motion swept through the Transportation Committee and City Council to gain approval for installation. You can read both the initial motion that began it all and the final council action which gave ultimate approval.
Lingering Doubts
At the time of the bike corral approval, there was a mixed reaction from the bicycle community. While some were jubilant that a bike corral was approved, others were dubious about whether it would ever become a reality. LACBC and Streetsblog primarily led the charge of cautious optimism.
Those doubts at first seemed well-founded: months and months went by without a bike corral. Some people began to wonder if it would ever get installed. After initial setbacks, CM Huizar’s office once again stepped in to provide leadership and a greater level of commitment to getting a bike corral on the ground. With their help, all the outstanding issues surrounding the bike corral were resolved.
The City is now ready to move forward with installation through the joint cooperation of LADOT, the Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Street Services (BSS), and the Department of General Services. Cafe de Leche has signed a Maintenance Agreement with the City, promising to provide upkeep for the bike corral at no cost to taxpayers.
Space for 10 bikes; safety, too
Now that we’ve covered the background of the bike corral on York, let’s jump into what it will look like. First, there’s the corral on the street, at the corner of York Boulevard & Avenue 50. It will be directly in front of Cafe de Leche’s front door. Notice the bike lanes on York Boulevard: the plans give 1 foot of distance between the edge of the bike corral and the bike lane in order to assure safety for both those riding in the lane and those parking their bikes.
But see that triangle and oval on either side of the bike corral? Those will be raised-curb buffers which will protect parked bikes. The triangle-shaped buffer will protect bikes from oncoming traffic and the oval buffer will protect bikes from a car backing up in the parking space directly the right of the corral. As you can see in the technical plan below, the buffers will be painted white. Reflective glass beads embedded in the paint will make the buffers more visible at night.
The racks themselves will be our standard “Inverted-U” racks. Five of these racks will be welded on a single steel track for simple installation on asphalt. They’ll be able to safely accommodate ten parked bicycles.
What’s next for bike corrals?
Although the bike corral on York Boulevard is authorized as a “Pilot Program” by the City Council, LADOT is planning on installing many more bike corrals throughout Los Angeles in the coming years. One of the applications recently submitted by the LADOT Bike Program in Metro’s Call For Projects proposes installing 30 bike corrals across the City, 2 in each council district. If our application is chosen by Metro, funding for the corrals should become available in 2015.
As we get closer to the grand opening date, LADOT Bike Blog will be sure to keep you informed on the most up-to-date information.
ZOMBIE BIKE CORRALS!!!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rick Risemberg, Christopher Kidd. Christopher Kidd said: Yippee! Get your bike corral specs here RT @LADOTBikeProg Back from the Dead: Bike Corral on York Boulevard http://wp.me/pMTUf-vy #BikeLA […]
Any chance you could scan the plans and share them, so we can actually see what’s going on?
It’s within the purview of Bikeways Engineering, but I’d be happy to discuss it with them.
I am excited to see this project moving forward! Thanks, Chris, for bringing out the details.
The painted islands look cool – maybe we’ll put a little plaque there to NYDOT’s Janette Sadik-Khan – who stated on her visit here: there’s a lot you can do with just paint. This looks like one of those relatively low cost, relatively high benefit projects.
Thanks! These are a bit more robust than JSK painted islands. These are raised to physically, as well as visually, protect bikes parked in the corral.
NICE!!!
Who is the engineer and/or coordinator for this project??
Awesome! I think a big thank you is deserved to all the people working behind the scenes that made this possible. Question regarding the current bike racks installed on the sidewalk, are they going to remove the bike racks from the sidewalk and who is going to repair the concrete? – C
[…] more important things than signing in for a meeting. L.A. will soon get its first bike corral in Highland Park. Rick Risemberg, who appears to be everywhere these days, writes about taking part in last […]
Yea for Bike Corrals!!! As a former LACBC Board member it’s GREAT to see a corral going in.
We just installed one this past fall 1,000 miles north of you here in Bend, Oregon where I am now advocating for bikes in our community.
In the months we’ve had ours installed, we’ve learned a few key things I wanted to share. 1-keep it clean and maintained so the car drivers won’t think of it as a trashed nuisance 2-install a wheel stop so cars don’t run over it. 3-Have the adjacent business keep a count on use so you can justify the installation.
Here’s info on our corral:
http://www.bikearoundbend.com/2010/09/yeehaw-bends-first-bike-corral/
Portland, as you probably know has about 60 of these and businesses are clamoring to get new ones permitted and installed in front of their businesses. Our small community of 80,000 has just this one, but bike culture is big here and we hope to install more once we demonstrate success on this one.
Thanks for the comment, Chuck! Cafe de Leche has already signed an MOU with the City to provide maintenance for the corral, so it will hopefully stay a pristine success.
[…] This is turning out to be a great week for LA’s bicyclists, isn’t it? First bike corrals, and now this: One more tool for bicyclists to protect […]
[…] Neighborhood Council, Flying Pigeon, LACBC, Ramon Martinez, and Joe Linton—the first ever bike corral in Los Angeles will finally be open for public […]
[…] seems so distant, but February 18th, 2011, just two and a half years ago, was when the city’s first bike corral was installed on York Boulevard in Northeast […]
[…] overcrowding of our much needed Abbot Kinney corrals. We have also tested and modified designs, beginning with U-racks, moving to the Dero Cyclestall Elite, and now a modified version of the Cyclestall that better […]