This past Friday, after considerable haggling, some crossed wires and some interesting negotiations with the City of Minneapolis, the Northbound received their encroachment permit and installed their on-street bike corral. I hope this second on-street bike corral in Minneapolis helps set the tone for a better city approvals process so the next corral and the one after that are easier to put in use.

As my post from March indicates, I’ve spent a little time on this. One year, to be exact. My efforts with Public Works to secure the encroachment permit on behalf of the Northbound led to a formal request to Minneapolis councilmember Sandy Colvin Roy. She helped shepherd it through final approval, and I thank her for her assistance on this. As you can see below, it was immediately popular from day one.

As well, I wanted to ensure the Northbound was in favor of this. They were the whole way. After all, getting 10 bike spaces for the price of one car space, and putting it right by the front door, is a sound business decision. However, another benefit is it can calm traffic, and in fact as I was watching the four folks in the photo above lock their bikes, I witnessed that very thing, as a couple passing cars slowed down somewhat in recognition that the public right of way was being used for more than one thing. How nice!

The Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee is working on initial language for a formal application process for businesses to install bike corrals. The process in Portland is a pretty good starting point. I recommend some sort of cost sharing program by the city, but businesses should be required to pay something. After all, parking isn’t free, right? And by the way, when I posted in March, Portland had 97 bicycle corrals on their streets. They now have 99, so we have actually fallen farther behind them. Time to catch up!