I expect that as these spots become more well-known, they will see even more use.

Care of Walker at Columbus Underground, we have the City of Columbus scooter parking report, as well as this additional tidbit:

The properties controlled by ODOT and CDDC (670 Cap and Rich/High corner) are still being negotiated. The City does not control the properties but is advocating for parking as a use on those spots.

We’ll start striping and signing Gay Street spots today, and the rest will come on line in the next few weeks.

New Scooter Parking In Columbus, originally uploaded by Elephants on Bicycles.

Thanks to Mayor Mike and Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessy as well as everyone involved in Scooterparking.wordpress.com and Columbusunderground.com who pushed for this parking. It amazes me that in just about 2 months time the city was willing and able to react to this issue and produce a very workable solution. Kudos all around!

NBC4 reports: “The city will open its first scooter parking lot on Gay Street between Third and High.”

And from a City Press Release:

Mayor to Announce New Parking Areas for Motorcycles and Scooters

Mayor Michael B. Coleman will team with City Councilmember Maryellen O’Shaughnessy and local scooter enthusiasts Wednesday morning to announce the City’s plan to add new on-street and alley parking Downtown, in the Short North and in the Brewery District specifically designated for motorcycles and scooters.

10:00 a.m. Wednesday, July 16, 2008

61 East Gay Street, On sidewalk in front of Subway

I’m guessing they will unveil the lot on Gay Street, and announce their plans to open similar lots. Yay!!! This weekend I will scope it/them out and post some photos.

hat-tip to Walker of Columbus Underground. CU discussion can be found there too.

From the article:

Urban parking, of course, is sometimes a pain.

Because a scooter is licensed, it can’t share a parking space or meter, nor can it be put in a bike rack.

Parking on the sidewalk, too, is illegal.

Unchained, a scooter becomes an easy target for thieves.

“We’re reaching a more-critical density of bikes,” Miller said. “It’s time for the city to start looking at taking care of the two-wheelers.”

Mike Brown, coordinator of urban ventures for Columbus, recently met with riders.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman, he said, will soon announce details of a scooter- and motorcycle-parking initiative.

{READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE}

I want an event that will highlight how many scooters and bicycles we can fit into one car parking space.  I want an event that will draw attention to better uses of public space than storing cars.  In short, I have a dream.  I call it a plan but I haven’t done much work on it yet, so I think dream is the more apt term.

(Now if you hate green space and you only want motorcycle and scooter parking, then you should stop reading now.  You’ve been warned, this idea might be going a bit off topic from the main subject of this site.)

Now, how to communicate this vision?  (oy, too many terms)  OK.  I previously asked for some graphic design help, and I’m still working on that.  I can not do that work myself, it is just not my skill.  (So yes you can still help!)  So I’m going to use a poor step-child to pretty renderings: photos.  They aren’t even cropped together, so you’ll have to use your imagination.  (I have tried to give all photo credits, please let me know if you want your photo removed.  Just click on the photo to see where it is from.)

What do I want from you, dear reader?  I want your suggestions, your criticisms, your pragmatic comments, your wild-and-visionary comments, your energy, your enthusiasm.  Tell me, what do you think of this idea?

Imagine an already established event that is held here in Columbus, oh – say once a month.  Now imagine it with some slight changes.  Keep these changes in mind as you head out this weekend.  Where, you ask?  Oh I don’t know – maybe Gallery Hop?

    Imagine an area with lots of people walking around.

(cue announcer voice) In a world without parked cars… what do you do with all those parking spaces?

Starting simple you get this:

   You can probably fit 3 – 4 motorcycles in each car space, with parking spaces this wide.  It is important to provide enough space that riders can get on and off without hitting the motorcycles next to them.

Rule of thumb – most scooters are smaller than their motorcycle brethren.  So you can fit more scooters in the same car space.  Here you see similar non-crammed parking, with 5 scooters.

Now imagine that the former-car-parking-spaces are also used by bicycles.

Seems like you can fit 6 – 12 bikes in the parking space created for one car.

And just to reiterate, this is in the space that was formerly a car parking space.

But wait, a big row of parking, albeit motorcycles and scooters and bicycles…. can’t we do better?  Hmmm…. what if there was some green space in between the parking sections?

Ah yes, that’s better. 

In a future post I will give some more reasoning as to why this is a most excellent idea.  But today I just wanted to leave you with the pictures, with the images.

Thank you for reading.  And I repeat - Please share your suggestions, your criticisms, your pragmatic comments, your wild-and-visionary comments, your energy, your enthusiasm.  Tell me, what do you think of this idea?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled business-as-usual day:

Oh yea, some stats.  This site was started June 7th, 2008.  Not even a month old yet.  Shortly after we started, on June 11th, we got 86 views.  Not bad at all!

But that doesn’t mean that I’m just going to sit back and wait.  And I think some of our readers may feel the same way.  My next post will focus on my plan for parking, which involves not only scooters, but also bicycles and green space.  But I didn’t want that plan to overwhelm the good news, that the City of Columbus is supposedly looking into this.

OK, one more thing.  Did you all know that the City of Grandview provides designated scooter and motorcycle parking for Euro Bike Night events?  Sure, it helps that one of the organizers is a Grandview police officer, but still.  They put up signs alerting cars not park there after a certain time.  Go Grandview!