Find the Bike Parking at Chavez Ravine

Last week, during a City Council hearing on adding a bus option for travelers to Dodger’s Stadium, Councilmember Tom LaBonge interrupted a Dodger executive to ask if there is bike parking at Dodger Stadium. When the executive replied that there was, LaBonge, an avid baseball fan, commented that he would lead a bike tour later in the summer.

I left my notebook at my seat when I went up to testify on the bus plan and didn’t write down the directions to the bike facilities. This is unfortunate, because it seems that the only person who knows where these racks are is the executive who testified.

The first place I looked for the bike racks was on the Dodgers’ official website. There’s a F.A.Q. for parking at the stadium, but no mention of bikes. The parking map(above) has no directions to bike racks. Nowhere on the website is there a mention of bike racks. Interestingly, the site does say that the parking lot can fill up for certain games, but doesn’t mention an alternative way to get to the game besides driving.

Second, I searched online for any stories or mention of bike racks at Dodger Stadium, figuring that if the racks have been there in years past that someone would have used them and written about them. I found two articles bemoaning the lack of bike options at the stadium. The more recent article was by David Pulsipher for C.I.C.L.E. and was written last September.  The other article was written in 2004 by Paul Dorn of the California Bike Coalition.

Pulsipher’s article focuses on his own experience trying to find a place to park his bike at the stadium and the confused, unhelpful efforts of stadium staff help him. It’s a story cyclists in LA are all too familiar with; first you bike to where you want to go, then you have to chain your bike to some sort of sign or poll and hope that the government doesn’t take your bike. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that the former Trolley Dodgers of Brooklyn don’t have adequate bicycle parking given that the team moved to LA in 1957, "in part to build a larger facility with more parking," according to Dorn.

As a last resort, I picked up the phone and asked the Dodgers if they had bike racks. So far, I haven’t heard from them. Even if the racks do exist, they don’t do anyone any good if nobody (including parking staff) knows where they are. Either way, I’ll report back if I hear from the Dodgers.

Image: LA Dodgers