City Council Approves Bike Parking Ordinance

Options for where and how you can park your bike at commercial and residential developments in Los Angeles could increase following the city council's unanimous approval Wednesday of a bike parking ordinance. It goes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his signature.

"This is a huge milestone in further establishing cycling as a legitimate mode of transportation in this city," said City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, who first proposed the ordinance as chairman of the Transportation Committee. "If you were to travel by car and knew at the end of the trip there was a high probability that your car would be vandalized or stolen you would think twice about making that trip. The same rule applies to those who travel by bicycle."

The ordinance establishes bicycle parking requirements for new industrial, commercial and multi-family development, and it defines two general categories of bicycle parking: short-term for retail type destinations and long-term designed more for employees or residents of multi-family dwellings. Rosendahl said design standards and siting requirements further ensure that bicycle parking will be safe, secure and accessible.

"And just as we have automobile parking standards for private development, we will now have bicycle parking standards for private development," he added. "It's about equity and encouragement. You simply can't expect people to travel by bicycle unless you provide safe, secure and available bicycle parking at the end of the trip."

Where to put bike parking and efforts to increase visibility of bike racks, or corrals, according to the Department of Transportation.

"We are excited about the ordinance and are looking forward to seeing how well it is implemented and received," said spokesman Jonathan Hui.

LADOT will be specifying locations for new developments to install bicycle parking on the public right of way and provided input to the planning department when drafting the ordinance.

"It is unclear how much new developments we'll install," Hui added. "We hope that an ordinance with greater ability to convert parking spaces and more specific criteria for required bicycle parking will facilitate an increase in bicycle parking availability."