Community Corner

BikeAlameda Ends Valet Bike Parking Service

BikeAlameda has provided free valet bike parking at local events for a dozen years. Now it is handing over the reins – or handlebars – to others.

From a BikeAlameda press release:

For the last 12 years, BikeAlameda has provided safe, secure, free valet bike parking at many Alameda events. Over the years we've parked thousands of bikes at hundreds of events throughout Alameda. We've proven there is a need out there for bike parking. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to provide it. BikeAlameda would like to have some enterprising group or individual take over this opportunity.

Over the years our costs (both financial and administrative) associated with valet bike parking have continued to rise, but the fees we charged and time we put into it were not able to keep up. It is a business with income and expenses that BikeAlameda never intended to run for this long.

We are hopeful that event coordinators and other individuals will step up to accommodate bicyclists at Alameda events. The East Bay Bicycle Coalition offers a similar valet bike parking service and we are confident you will still be able to ride your bike to the next big city event and still receive safe and secure valet bike parking. In fact, Earth Day and the Crab Cove concerts are already planning valet bike parking without us.
j
Anyone interested in pursuing valet bike parking as a simple business venture might find the following information helpful.

  • There are approximately 10 large scale events in Alameda ranging from 5 hours to 20 hours (two days).
  • Some events can park as many as 200 bikes in one day.
  • Events larger than 1,000 participants must provide monitored bike parking in Alameda.

We recognize that our valet bike parking was a great service to bikers, as well as being a great outreach opportunity for our organization. BikeAlameda members will continue to spend time making Alameda a more bike-friendly community. We hope our continuing and new members will join in the bicycle revolution and help us do the work needed to keep Alameda a bike-friendly community.

Find out what's happening in Alamedawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Members Lucy and Cyndy spend many hours engaging city staff and developers for a bike and walking-friendly Alameda Landing development and publicizing and monitoring improvements to the Estuary Crossing Shuttle. We work weekly with city staff improving Alameda bike design guidelines and making suggestions for other improvements like bike rack installation along Park Street. Bonnie spends much time teaching bike safety classes and running events and rides and acting as liaison for Safe Routes to Schools opportunities. Jeff and Patty continue to plan Bike To Work Day opportunities to increase the number of new riders on Alameda streets.

We would also like to see bicyclists continue to spread the word about how great bicycling is – it's green, cheap and fun. Continue to ride and help others include riding in their life, every day, once a week or monthly.

We would love for you to stay in touch on our Facebook page, discussion list and website. Share with us what you like about biking in Alameda, and what you want to see improved. We will increase our postings of what we are doing and solicit your comments regularly.  We really want you to be a part of making Alameda more bike-friendly.

We look forward to seeing you biking around town.

L. Gigli (pronounced "jeel-yee")
President, BikeAlameda
http://www.bikealameda.org

Find out what's happening in Alamedawith free, real-time updates from Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here