Action alert: San José cyclists - speak up on bike parking

Do you ride a bike in the City of San José? Wouldn’t you like to see more buildings in San José with quality bike parking for employees and visitors? Now’s your chance!

Let the San José City Council know you support the proposed new standards for more and better bike parking when new buildings are constructed in the City. Email the Mayor and City Council with a subject line like “Support 10-26-10 Council item 4.1 – Better Bike Parking."

Find their email contact info here - http://www.sanjoseca.gov/council.asp. See the staff report by clicking on the link in council item 4.1 here http://www.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/Agenda/20101026/20101026a.pdf.

These recommended updates were spurred by new state requirements called CALGreen. The San José Planning Commission has recommended that bike parking updates go beyond the state requirements and require additional quantities in some contexts. Key to these changes is a decoupling of car parking and bike parking requirements. Currently, bike parking is calculated as a percentage of car parking. However, with long-term goals to reduce car trips, this would inadvertently decrease bike parking too. The recommended changes address this shortcoming by basing bike parking requirements on building size, number of employees, or other factors unrelated to number of car parking spaces.

Act now - the meeting is in less than a week! Send a short, polite email to the San Jose mayor and council members. In the subject line, put something like “Support 10-26-10 Council item 4.1 – Better Bike Parking”