Great news from Mobile, Alabama.
Mobile's first on-street bike racks installed
Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 6:32 AM Updated: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 7:43 AM
View full sizeTwo of Mobile's first ever on-street parking facilities for bicycles are seen in this photo taken Monday Nov. 21, 2011 on the north side of Bienville Square in Mobile, Ala. (Press-Register/G.M. Andrews)MOBILE, Alabama -- The first on-street parking facility for bicycles in Mobile’s modern era has been installed downtown, and the city is already eyeing space for more, said Jennifer White, the city’s traffic engineer.
The new racks reflect an increase in the number of people cycling in Mobile, White said.
As the cyclists participated in the creation of the Mobile Metropolitan Planning Organization’s bicycle and pedestrian plan, they raised the issue of a lack of cycling infrastructure, including a place to park on the street, White said.
When the city recently restriped the parking spaces on Bienville Square, it had one stub-space that was not quite large enough for an extra car, White said, so the city set it aside for a potential bike parking space.
The city did not have money set aside in its budget for the racks, so it partnered with the Downtown Mobile Alliance, which selected the design and supplied the money, White said.
Each of the two inverted-U shaped racks cost $400, said Carol Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Alliance. “If they are as popular as we hope, and people use them, we’d like to add more,” she said.
“I think it’s a positive move in the right direction,” said Niklas Hallberg, a member of Mobilians on Bikes, a group of cycling enthusiasts who advocate for cycling as a means of transportation.
Hallberg said that the city may also need to shore up the ones it installed on Bienville Square last week, as the concrete seemed to be
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