The Chainlink

disappearing parking meters and the local economy

In recent media coverage about the city of Chicago's parking meter fiasco, an issue has arisen that needs our vocal attention. Howard created a thread months ago about local pet peeves, mentioning disappearing parking meters creating a shortage of bike parking in some neighborhoods.

The latest bit of news is that, due to pressure on the new parking meter companies to make up for their screw-ups so far, parking meters will be phased out quickly to ensure more accurate metering and reduce the number of erroneously issued parking tickets. The plan discussed on Chicago Tonight was for 3,000 of the 3,600 existing meters throughout the city to be replaced by pay boxes by year-end.

How does this affect us? It creates a fairly urgent need to get a LOT of bike racks installed really soon. IMO, I think it's critical to emphasize to the powers that be that many of us shop and dine by bike, supporting neighborhood businesses, thus supporting the city's tax base. In light of stories like this, asking for bike racks so that we can help support local business may improve the odds of our message being heard sooner rather than later.

** NOTE: I got a correction on the numbers. It's 30,000 of 36,000 remaining meters.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on July 29, 2009 at 9:33am
The day has come for the meters at my office to say goodbye and go to meter heaven (West side of 1800 block of Clark). I saw the green baggies they put over the meters yesterday. What am I gonna do????? There is no room in my office for my bike. We keep talking about getting a rack, have requested it time and time again and I havent heard a thing. I will have someone talk to the alderman again. Was thinking of maybe doing a fundraiser in the neighborhood to just buy/install a private rack but I wish it wouldn't have to come to that.
Permalink Reply by vxla on July 29, 2009 at 11:17am
Julie Hochstadter said:
The day has come for the meters at my office to say goodbye and go to meter heaven (West side of 1800 block of Clark). I saw the green baggies they put over the meters yesterday. What am I gonna do????? There is no room in my office for my bike. We keep talking about getting a rack, have requested it time and time again and I havent heard a thing. I will have someone talk to the alderman again. Was thinking of maybe doing a fundraiser in the neighborhood to just buy/install a private rack but I wish it wouldn't have to come to that.

In the interim, how about a Krypto chain that you can leave in place around a light pole, tree or something else? They make 3-foot and 5-foot versions and can be had for cheap on eBay.
Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on July 29, 2009 at 12:26pm
I did what CDOT told me to do (flyer from a MBAC meeting). I believe I sent an email and posted a request on the CDOT's website.

h3 said:
Julie,
I'd be interested to hear exactly how and when the rack was requested.
Thanks!

Julie Hochstadter said:
The day has come for the meters at my office to say goodbye and go to meter heaven (West side of 1800 block of Clark). I saw the green baggies they put over the meters yesterday. What am I gonna do????? There is no room in my office for my bike. We keep talking about getting a rack, have requested it time and time again and I havent heard a thing. I will have someone talk to the alderman again. Was thinking of maybe doing a fundraiser in the neighborhood to just buy/install a private rack but I wish it wouldn't have to come to that.
Permalink Reply by vxla on July 29, 2009 at 12:50pm
ERCHLVRSN said:
How important is this to you really…to be able to lock your bike to a parking meter!? I use a mini NYC lock and it won’t go around most parking meter poles also I don’t have to lock my bike right in front of where I’m at…a few buildings away it’s that far to walk and in reality you can lock your bike up to almost anything and not worry about it missing when you come back if you have a good lock…more parking meters to me seems like more cars in the city and on the city streets – we have enough already!!! How about more bike lanes…maybe one on Ashland Ave. or Western…this to me seems like a much better argument to make or complain about. Parking meters…not!

Actually with no meters, now there is room for more cars (by quantity) to be on the street. Technically.
Permalink Reply by heather s on July 29, 2009 at 2:09pm
Gonna go ahead and assume you haven't read all eight pages of this thread... A) it's important to have parking meters because it's important for people to pay for the space they're taking up on the street. "How about more bike lanes" (instead of meters) is a false dichotomy. The needs for bike parking and bike lanes are not in competition with one another. B) it's important to be able to lock our bikes to something... right now parking meters are the only secure options in many areas. Your statement "in reality you can lock your bike up to almost anything and not worry about it missing when you come back if you have a good lock" is quite wrong. A good lock won't do you much good if whatever you're locking to is not secure. The bike parking program is backed up and can't replace all the parking meters with real bike racks quickly enough to meet demand.

ERCHLVRSN said:
How important is this to you really…to be able to lock your bike to a parking meter!? I use a mini NYC lock and it won’t go around most parking meter poles also I don’t have to lock my bike right in front of where I’m at…a few buildings away it’s that far to walk and in reality you can lock your bike up to almost anything and not worry about it missing when you come back if you have a good lock…more parking meters to me seems like more cars in the city and on the city streets – we have enough already!!! How about more bike lanes…maybe one on Ashland Ave. or Western…this to me seems like a much better argument to make or complain about. Parking meters…not!
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on July 29, 2009 at 2:59pm
Exactly. Bikes become less practical as transportation if we can't secure them at our destinations.

heather stratton said:
Gonna go ahead and assume you haven't read all eight pages of this thread... A) it's important to have parking meters because it's important for people to pay for the space they're taking up on the street. "How about more bike lanes" (instead of meters) is a false dichotomy. The needs for bike parking and bike lanes are not in competition with one another. B) it's important to be able to lock our bikes to something... right now parking meters are the only secure options in many areas. Your statement "in reality you can lock your bike up to almost anything and not worry about it missing when you come back if you have a good lock" is quite wrong. A good lock won't do you much good if whatever you're locking to is not secure. The bike parking program is backed up and can't replace all the parking meters with real bike racks quickly enough to meet demand.

ERCHLVRSN said:
How important is this to you really…to be able to lock your bike to a parking meter!? I use a mini NYC lock and it won’t go around most parking meter poles also I don’t have to lock my bike right in front of where I’m at…a few buildings away it’s that far to walk and in reality you can lock your bike up to almost anything and not worry about it missing when you come back if you have a good lock…more parking meters to me seems like more cars in the city and on the city streets – we have enough already!!! How about more bike lanes…maybe one on Ashland Ave. or Western…this to me seems like a much better argument to make or complain about. Parking meters…not!
Permalink Reply by yaj 7.4 on August 3, 2009 at 11:50am
I parked my bike at a meter in Logan Square over the weekend and the top part was covered in a big black sticker which said "This meter remains as a courtesy to cyclists" or something along those lines. Have other people seen this? I'm curious to learn how common this is.
Permalink Reply by Michael on August 3, 2009 at 6:25pm

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