Fabled Abbot Kinney Boulevard, on Los Angeles' Westside, is the first street in the city to have two bike corrals installed. Councilmember Mike Bonin alerted Streetsblog to their installation this morning and I was able to bike over and catch one of the installations as it was being finished and another corral in action.
These are the third and fourth corrals in the entire city. Bike corrals are dedicated bicycle parking areas created with the removal of one or two parking spaces. As shown above, a city can create safe and attractive parking for twelve bicycles in the space that used to park one car.
If you're interested in seeing some bike corrals added to your neighborhood, the People St program at LADOT is accepting applications through April 30, with a second project submission period coming up in October. While People St will be working with community-based organizations for future corrals, parklets and plazas, these two corrals were already in the project pipeline.
The first corral is in front of Gjelina Take Away (1427 Abbot Kinney). When I arrived the corral was partly in-use with a handful of bicycles already tethered in the twelve bike parking spaces. Of course, the three bicycles are an improvement over the one car that would have fit into the same space last night. As I shot the pictures, a happy cyclist was handed a sandwich in a bag, hopped on his bike and was on his way.
Bike corrals: good for bikes, good for business.
Two blocks up the street, LADOT staff was putting the finishing touches on another corral at 1205 Abbot Kinney Blvd. in front of Local 1205, another local restaurant. Amusingly, you can still see the car parking restriction signs that remind us of the inefficient use of space that preceded the corral's installation.
"One of the coolest streets in LA just got a lot cooler thanks to two new bike corrals that will let dozens of people safely park their bikes as they visit businesses in the area," said Councilmember Bonin. "Bike corrals are a great use of space and an excellent reminder that our streets belong to everyone - including those who travel on two wheels."
The design of the Abbot Kinney corrals is identical to the Atwater Village corral installed last fall. Four other corrals are planned in addition to the ones that will be built later this year as part of People St.
LADOT covered the entire cost of purchasing hardware for the corrals, as well as design and installation. The only cost to the property owner is the cost of maintaining the corral, including checking for vandalism and graffiti.
