Capital Crossroads Announces New Biking Facilities
Image Courtesy Giles Clement
Another big announcement coming out of the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District annual meeting this afternoon is that a $490,000 grant was received from the Department of Energy for the addition of new bike facilities throughout Downtown. The grant will fund the development of new bike shelters, bike lockers, and additional bike parking within existing parking garage structures. These new facilities will be spread out to around dozen locations where workers are likely to benefit for commuting purposes and residents are likely to benefit for recreational riding.
“The increases in bike commuters demands better facilities downtown, and better facilities will undoubtedly increase the number of bikers,” said said Cleve Ricksecker, Executive Director of Capital Crossroads, in a press release issued earlier today. “This is a needed and welcomed addition to our downtown fabric as we continue to maintain our role as one of the most sustainable districts in the region.”
More information about the new program will be available online soon at DowntownColumbus.com.
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Related Tags: biking • capital crossroads • cleve ricksecker • Development • downtown • Transit • transportation
November 18th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Awesome, awesome news!
November 18th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Great news. This will help more people decide to ride their bikes more often.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Wow! Great! Didn’t see this one coming.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
!
November 18th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Absolutely fabulous, no more locking my bike to a trash can downtown!
November 18th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
^ That is the one thing the parking meters are good for.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Excellent! Now Capital Crossroads, please take note: The best way to ruin a bike locker program is to assign one user per locker with a key system. www.bikelink.org has a great program on the West coast. You pay $20 for a smart card and you can use bike lockers among different transit agencies. The rates are ridiculously low like free for the first 5 hours and 3 to 5 cents afterwards with a 5 day max. This forces locker turnover and increased utilization and encourages casual riders. The problem with the old system is that there were waiting lists for lockers that never cleared and casual bike riders don’t want to lock their bike all day on a rack.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Another solution would be a commuter station with shower stalls, clothes lockers and bike storage.
Maybe I need to change to a business major and scope out some downtown real estate.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:08 am
490,000 dollars is a lot of money …. I’d like to see the breakdown on where it goes.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:23 am
That’s good to hear, but I’d rather see $$$ spent on developing safer bike LANES and designated bike ROUTES through town (on streets that make sense…with good signage). This is the one area where, from a biking perspective, I still feel other cities trump Columbus.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:28 am
This is great news!
Now OSU needs to take some steps to make campus a more bike friendly place, especially for their faculty and staff that commute.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I’m with JedThorp. I’ve never had a problem locking up my bike, but every time I ride I have a problem with the road - anything from drivers not paying attention to people opening car doors to pedestrians not looking for me. I don’t understand why streets like High, 4th and Summit don’t have bike lanes when so many people use them every day to commute by bike. This is why people often ride their bikes on sidewalks, sometimes the wrong way, which is illegal and super dangerous.
What’s the hold up?
November 19th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Guys, the Bicentennial Bikeways Plan is already in the process of adding new bike lanes, bike paths, bike routes, along with signage and other safety and educational components. There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t have both of these separate biking initiatives moving forward simultaneously.
If you want to know more about the delay with the Bikeways plan, check out our recent podcast with Jeff Stephens who specifically addresses the budgetary issues earlier this year and how they delayed getting the program started.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Well said, Walker. It’s a slow process and can be frustrating to sit by and watch. The key thing is that the wheels are finally moving on these initiatives.
In the mean time, consider sending us an email [info@yaybikes.com] about future LAB courses to help gain confidence on the road ways. We are working hard to support the efforts of our local LCIs.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:31 am
I was real happy to open up my email earlier this week and read about the SID grant for bike amenities. However, frustration continues to overwhelm me just b/c like Walker stated, for some reason biking initiatives can’t seem to more forward, simultaneously.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:43 am
jmathews5 Says: like Walker stated, for some reason biking initiatives can’t seem to more forward, simultaneously.
That’s not what I said. Or at least not what I meant. We’ve got the Bicentennial Bikeways Plan and this new Downtown Facilities plan that are both moving forward simultaneously. Some of the folks earlier in this conversation are stated that they’d rather see one before the other. I’m saying that we are getting both.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:36 am
Nice!
I would still like the creation of a bike trail that goes from the existing one off of Eurika and then follows the flood wall to meet up with the one at souder. ( would als be nice if this one would also meet up with grandview ave.)
December 14th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Downtown bicycle facilities considered
Monday, December 14, 2009
BY DAVE HENDRICKS
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The drive to make Columbus more bicycle-friendly is shifting into gear as enthusiasts and officials decide how to use a $490,000 federal grant from a program aimed at improving energy efficiency and conservation.
A proposal by the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District calls for four shelters and three “secure parking” areas for bicycles Downtown. Bike lockers and parking areas in five Downtown garages also are under consideration.
READ MORE
