I expect that as these spots become more well-known, they will see even more use.
Posted in locations, visual example
Thanks for the photo Chivespa! More thoughts later, but I thought this was worthy of its own post.
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.
So the rumors were true. I wish I could take off of work to go watch this, it’s at 10 AM today (Wednesday)! Exciting!! If you have news from the unveiling, please leave a comment.
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.
Posted in locations, news coverage
I heard a rumor that there will be some sort of motorcycle parking dedication this week… in Gay Street of all place. Can anyone confirm or deny this? If you are around there and notice something going on, please report back! Thanks
Posted in rumors
(yes, imagine that deep-voiced announcer speaking) I have an idea for a great event. I am unveiling it here, for Columbus to consider. (Disclaimer: It is not solely my unique idea. Like all great ideas, it was created organically with many people brainstorming. And yes I realize this overlaps with other things going on in Columbus, we can work together on this, or at least share ideas.)
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:
Posted in help, visual example
I’ll be responding to the comments shortly, if you haven’t already gotten an email from me. Didn’t mean to be so slow about it. I went on vacation, so I was out of town and out of touch. Thank you all for reading and commenting! More frequent updates…. starting NOW!
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!
Posted in admin
Unfortunately those of us writing for this site have gotten very busy. It didn’t help that just about the biggest weekend of the whole summer was last weekend. (Comfest, Pride, PodCamp, Social Media Cafe stuff….. and that’s just the high high highlights.) Nevertheless, the quest for scooter parking here in Columbus continues. Based on the Cutters forum, several Cutters met with the City of Columbus and some things are moving along on that front. That is good news.
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!
Posted in admin
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Whether you call it sales or marketing or education, the best efforts involve communicating a vision. Having a visual example of what we want would help people understand it. (As an example – think of all the sketches and renderings that surround new developments.) Please leave a comment if you can help with this sort of thing. (No money to pay you, but we could give you credit for your work, maybe provide a link to your portfolio site.) Whether hand-drawn or built with a design program, I think we could use some good examples. Thanks!
Posted in help, visual example
Jeff over at Urban Infill has a good recap of our first meeting, held last week. His post also does a good job of summarizing the problem. As he explains, this presents an opportunity. http://urbaninfill.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/columbus-scooter-parking-debate/
Posted in discussion
Leave a comment if you have a website for local motorcycle clubs. I myself don’t belong to any (don’t own a motorcycle) so chime in so we can add them to the links. To be clear – while many of us are coming at this from the scooter perspective, we recognize that motorcycles need designated parking as well. We can work together!
Columbus Scooter Parking 