Springfield City Council Requires Bicycle Racks

Springfield, Missouri bicyclists can look forward to locking up their bikes near more destinations.
An ordinance passed last month by the Springfield City Council requires bicycle racks outside all new buildings — except houses, duplexes and townhouses.

Bicycle racks are also required when use of an existing building changes enough to warrant additional vehicle parking. The requirement is applied to building permits granted after Oct. 18.

The new ordinance comes as a welcome change for bicycle enthusiasts, who anticipate more people will ride bikes if they know there's a place to lock them up.

"The more facilities that exist, the more people will ride bikes, the more visibility they will have and motorists will be more aware of them," said Bruce Abid-Yazdi, a spokesman for Springbike Bicycle Club and a member of the city's Traffic Advisory Board.

"It basically creates awareness and gives people the idea, 'Oh, I could have ridden my bike.'"

Adriana Giraldo, a graduate student at Southwest Missouri State University, rides her bike out of necessity, not choice. She hopes it will help keep her from having to lock her bike to trees and benches.

"The ordinance is going to be very good for people on bikes — especially in the winter, when it's dark and you want something close to the building and safe," she said.

Those in the development community, who will be paying for these bike racks, are more reserved in their enthusiasm.

"It is something I think is good," said Geoffrey Butler, an architect with Butler Rosenbury & Partners, who helped city staff design the ordinance. "We, on the development side, have to be cautious that we don't get loaded down with requirements where it makes development infeasible."

The new ordinance grew out of an April meeting at which the city's Bicycle Policy Committee presented a number of recommendations to the City Council.

At the council's request, city staff drafted a bicycle parking proposal. The proposal was later reviewed and refined by the Development Issues Input Group, a committee including members of the development community.

"At first, they were reaching way too far," said Butler, co-chair of the committee. "There's nothing wrong with bike parking — we endorse that. But if you keep adding requirements, it just costs and costs and gets unreasonable."

Butler said the committee came around after language was added allowing reductions in parking-lot requirements.

The final ordinance states that up to 10 percent of required automobile parking may be substituted with bicycle parking, at a rate of two bicycle spaces for each automobile space. This is only applicable in parking lots with 10 or more spaces.

"Reducing parking requirements saves money," said Butler, adding that building new paved parking costs, on average, about $1,500 per space.

"A bike rack, you might spend $500 to $600," said Bulter. "... Right there, you have more than offset the cost to provide the bike racks.

"It's a pretty fair trade off — it might be more fair to the developer."

Butler said devoting less space to parking lots is also more environmentally friendly.

"It reduces impervious surface," said Butler. "You actually end up with more green space, and a better looking development. ... The more green space, the less storm drainage problems you have."

With the parking space trade-off in place, the committee endorsed the ordinance. The Springfield City Council unanimously approved the ordinance Oct. 18.

Christian Lentz, a senior planner with the city who helped draft the ordinance, said all new developments must follow the same requirements for providing bicycle racks — including retail outlets, restaurants, offices, schools, churches and apartment buildings.

"Communities find it hard to substantiate why one use would be required and another exempted," said Lentz. "Every one of those uses have tenants, employees, customers, users. All of these places, people could drive to, so it's within the realm of possibility that one would ride a bicycle."

Lentz said the city's intent in the ordinance was to help support citizens who can not or choose not to drive an automobile.

"We look at the bicycle system just like we do a pedestrian system," said Lentz. "We need to have a variety of means for people to get around, and not just put all our efforts into automobiles."

U.S. Census figures from 2000 show 8.3 percent of all Missouri households have no vehicles. In Springfield, the number climbs to 9.3 percent.

"We need to be doing something to serve them," said Lentz.

Abid-Yazdi admits the ordinance — limited to new buildings and changed uses to old buildings — is a small step toward making the city more bicycle-friendly.

"I think this is a pretty major success, mainly because it's a first step," said Abid-Yazdi. "...It promotes awareness in the community. The ultimate goal would be for businesses to see the value of having bicycle parking."

That value isn't lost of Giraldo, who has used her bike as her primary mode of transportation for three years.

"It's just the beginning, but it's a good beginning, I think. I'm very pleased, of course."


news tags: springfield missouri bike racks