Frank,
I am writing as a followup to our previous conversation concerning placing the locking rings in the hashed area of the parking area under the pavilion. As I stated earlier, we are concerned with the location you wish to place the rings. We are concerned with the rings being so close to vehicles pulling into the spaces. It is our opinion that this location does present a safety issue with bicycles parked that close to an angle pull in parking space. Our experience tells us that not everyone hits those painted lines every time and there is possibility for damage to the pole/ring and a bicycle parked in that location.
Also, those parking spaces are vendor booth spaces during the Farmer's Market and would not be available for public access during the market. That would be true anytime the pavilion would be rented for other activities. The Market does provide a bike rack each week during there season. We have contacted the Growers Association for their input as well.
We would encourage you to place the rings under the canopy next to the side entrance of the Public Safety Building as previously was discussed. No interference with vehicular traffic and is also under cover. Thank you for taking the time to contact us and hopefully we can easily resolve this issue.
Tom Arnold
----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Gmeindl" fgmeindl@gmail.com To: "Damien Davis" ddavis@cityofmorgantown.org Cc: "Gunnar Shogren" gshogren@gmail.com, "Trevor Lloyd" tlloyd@cityofmorgantown.org, "Tom Arnold" tarnold@cityofmorgantown.org, "Linda Little" llittle@cityofmorgantown.org, "bikeboard@bikemorgantown.com Board" bikeboard@bikemorgantown.com Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 1:57:08 PM Subject: Farmers Market Bicycle Parking
Damien,
Could you please reply-all to this message and attach the photos that you took last week that show the bicycle parking locations in the Morgantown Market Place?
This morning, I spoke with Tom Arnold. He said that installing one post-and-loop device in each of the cross-hatched triangles as planned could interfere with vendors that occupy those spaces when the Farmers Market is operating.
Since each post will be only 18" from the curb that separates the rain gardens from the asphalt, perhaps they won't interfere with the vendors on Farmers Market days. Could someone receiving this message show the photos to the appropriate Farmers association representative and get their take on it? Since we didn't have a post-and-loop rack when we took the photos, I've attached a photo of one for your convenience.
Of course, if bicycles are locked to the post-and-loop racks more space would be used. Traditionally, the Farmers association has provided a small portable comb type bicycle rack at the Market entrance on market days. If they could continue doing so, perhaps a solution would be to install the post-and-loop racks as planned; "bag" them Friday night so bicycles will not be parked at them on Saturday morning; and have the Farmers association continue to provide the comb rack when the farmers market is operating.
Frank D. Gmeindl LCI #1703 491 Wilson Avenue Morgantown, WV 26501 304-376-0446 Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles