St. Albert Could Use a Few More Bike Racks

As part of my "training" for the upcoming MS Mountain Bike Tour, I have set myself a goal of riding my bike everyday.   I have decided to do this I will ride to all my regular places, the library, the pool, the bank, and for some groceries (the days I need to buy 20lbs of dog food I will be driving my car). 

This past Wednesday I decided that I would head down to the Grapevine Deli in the St. Albert Downtown and pick up some stuff for lunch.  When I arrived at the deli I realized there was no where to park my bike. I looked up and down the street figuring I must be missing it. But no, I wasn't missing it, there wasn't one anywhere to be seen.   So, I leaned my bike against the wall and noted that there were several other bikes close by (a family outing to the candy store I think) - leaning, lying on the ground and kickstanded close to the Candy Bouquet.  I tweeted "I wish Perron Street had bike racks", grabbed my lunch stuff from the deli and rode home.  

Nice street - no bike racks? Do I lock to the trees? 

When I got home I was surprised to see some responses to my tweet - one shop owner letting me know that there is a bike rack across the street from where I was (I did remember that rack after she mentioned it, it's not easily viewable from the deli but I will park there next time), and one other person giving me the location of two other racks and letting me know that we have a "bike friendly downtown".

A few thoughts came to mind when I read that, tweet. 

If I have to reach out to social media to help me find racks, are we really all that bike friendly? 

Are we actually bike friendly  and just didn't see them?

and then finally - Hey, those two racks you mentioned aren't on Perron Street. 

 

I decided the next day to walk around downtown and take a look for the bike racks.  

First up - the racks that are actually on Perron Street

This one, across from the Deli and Candy Store, in front of Trendy Home.  It can be hard to see depending on where you are coming from, as there is a large sculpture bench in front of it.  

Super hard to see, but there is one single bike rack in front of Privada, on the corner of Perron and St. Anne. 

There are two awesome bike racks in front of Cranky's on St. Anne Street.  (Cranky's also runs a free bike check in front of their store during the Farmer's Market, allowing market goers the ability to ride down and have somewhere to leave their bikes.) 

Three racks in front of Cerulean Boutique on St. Thomas Street.  I had never noticed these racks before, but love how beautiful they are. 

There are also two sets of bike racks by City Hall,usually both sets of racks are well used and most days when I ride down to the library I end up locking my bike to a tree behind city hall.

 In all that's not really very many, and no, downtown isn't that big,  and yes, I could have locked up in front of Cranky's and walked.   And to be fair the day I walked around looking for the racks the only bikes I saw were locked up at Cerulean Boutique.  

So maybe we don't need more racks.  But then again, maybe we do.  I've been following several forums and facebook posts in regards to the upcoming elections.  Several people have noted that the downtown core in under utilized and ask what the candidates are going to do to encourage people from Edmonton to come and shop in our downtown.  Hold on, why aren't we asking how to get people from ST. ALBERT to head downtown to start with.

Maybe bike racks could help with that.  I think if downtown was a bit easier for families to use that they would spend more time there.  We have a great variety of cafes, small shops, and restaurants located down town.  We just need to start promoting them, and making it easier for people ride down with their families and spend some time.  Wouldn't it be amazing to see some more of the racks like the ones from Cranky's and Cerulean lining Perron Street?  Or if that is not possible, how about in the area behind this statue?  Who even uses this space? 

Ok, I'm off my soap box now.  

Comments

[L. Joberg]

We stopped at City Hall to view the ducks and take a rest break. All racks were full and many other bikes were piled randomly around the patio by the river doors. We used a bench and felt guilty. Yes, it was Market Saturday, but much bike use happens on Saturdays.You have a good point. Oh, and by the way, we love the various artistic designs of bike racks the city is using.