Is the answer more bike parking or paid bike parking? If it were cars, we'd be suggesting parking tolls in a millisecond.

I noticed this a couple of months ago and snapped some cell phone photos (which didn't turn out well or I would have posted about it) -- bikes have outnumbered cars down there on some workdays when I've visited, and yes, I'm aware of the underground garages and the shuttle lots.

- Bob R.

Is the answer more bike parking or paid bike parking? If it were cars, we'd be suggesting parking tolls in a millisecond.>

Again, an uninformed equation between bikes and cars. We tax cars to help reimburse us for the high costs (what's the cost of creating a single parking space down there, Chris?), including greenhouse gases and other pollution, they impose on society. By contrast, we should be subsidizing bikes and bike infrastructure, like parking, because every biker who doesn't drive reduces the cost to society -- healthier people, less pollution, lower costs in parking spaces not built, etc. etc.

I'm really tired of these simple minded, false equations (e.g. taxing bikes for road construction costs when bikes don't degrade roads the way cars and trucks do) that sound superficially rational (enough for the simpletons who listen to right wing talk radio) but which evaporate with about five seconds of actual thinking and facts. These facts have been repeated here and elsewhere often enough that such continuing provocative posts must amount to deliberate disinformation, rather than ignorance.

Paid bike parking only makes sense if it's premium parking in some way ... secure bike lockers, for example. Otherwise, people will just chain their bike to a streetlight or whatever else in convenient. But if demand for secure parking is high, absolutely consider a reasonable pay-to-store bike parking arrangement.

For unsecured bike parking, what on earth would we charge?

You can park 20 bikes in the space occupied by one car parking space (witness the new in-street bike parking across from Zupan's on Belmont, which is usually full by the way).

Where car parking isn't available "free", we currently charge 1.25/hour for that real estate. (Which is below the market price for private surface and structured parking.)

Divide that by 20 bikes and you've got a rate of 6.25 cents per hour. Now, what will it cost to collect and enforce 6.25 cents an hour? A heck of a lot more money than it would cost simply to have the bike parking be available for free.

You can barely print the receipt for that kind of money.

- Bob R.

These facts have been repeated here and elsewhere often enough that such continuing provocative posts must amount to deliberate disinformation, rather than ignorance.

I agree. But sometimes they do force a discussion that is helpful. I think the idea of providing secure bike lockers at the tram is a good one.

Or maybe something like a bike tree

I have a suggestion:

Anytime the discussion centers on costs, that's when things tend to get out of hand and all I hear is how this subsizes that, etc.. From a 10,000 foot level, it's easy to see why a 25 pound bike that travels at an easily avoidable 15-20 mph "costs" less than a 4,000 lb high speed gas powered automobile. But still, I think the debate is a silly one.

To me, it's really simple. I want my government to make a variety of transportation options available to me in a away that allows me to get around safely and affordably without being pushed into a single alternative. And to me that's why we need to focus on pedestrians, bikes, buses, street cars, light rail, heavy rail, and yes cars too.

Costs are not only individualized but highly changeable over a long period of time, and we don't know what will happen. Maybe the oil wells will dry up. Maybe cheap, clean, hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles will become a reality. Maybe our country will become so obese that the government will mandate walking and cycling to prevent a health care crisis. I don't know.

But what I do know is that I want options. Is that too much to ask?

Oh, and I was at OHSU the other day, and I was completely floored at how many bikes were parked there. That's a nice problem to have and a good sign that people want alternatives if they can be made feasible. And hey, OHSU'ers? Don't give up on Hillsboro. It is flat after all. ;)