UPDATE! Bike Rack Design Competition
Jan 25th, 2008 by rlsorbe
As with all things bureaucratic, an idea of this scope takes time. And so, thanks in advance for your patience, as we’ve been working on this for quite a while.
Over the past two months, we’ve been working out the details for the Boulder Bike Rack Design Competition with the City of Boulder. This past Wednesday, January 23, 2008, representatives of Boulderspace met with 12 different individuals from City departments and Boulder affiliations to discuss the bike rack installation options and design guidelines. Overall, the feedback from the different departments was positive and informative.
As expected, this competition will involve extensive discussions, planning, and processes from various City departments. Some guideline and design elements discussed at the meeting include long-term cost-effective maintenance, ‘vandal-proof’ materials, stability, size and positioning requirements (to pedestrian path and road), safety issues, and installment options.
Given the complexities involved, we’ve decided to break the competition into two distinct phases:
Phase One
Participants enter their designs/submissions from now through June 9, 2008. These submissions can be creative, artistic, and unique designs and materials with no boundaries or restrictions. The idea here is to cast a wide net and to generate a wide and varied set of possibilities.
Phase Two
The second phase of the competition will begin in June, after the entries from Phase I have been judged. All designs from Phase I will be entered into Phase 2. The purpose of this phase is to select a bike rack design that will fit into the guidelines to be determined through collaboration with the city. This second set of criteria will challenge designers to use practical guidelines and parameters for potential public installment in the “high need” areas within the city limits. We’re collaborating with the city to come up with a definitive set of these guidelines, and we’ll post them here when they’ve been approved.
As this process will take some time, Phase II of the competition is still in the works.
The design above was submitted designer by Margaret Loperfido. This bike rack encompasses creative thought and practicality in both layout and function. We will keep you updated with sneak previews as more designs are submitted, and guidelines are established.
It’s very important that bike racks be compatible with handicap or limited-mobility people using the sidewalks or parking cars and crossing the curb to the sidewalk. The judging panel should also include one or more handicap advocates to provide expertise in this area.
My wife recently became a limited-mobility person, and right after a snowstorm she tried to park in a kiosk zone. She ended up getting a ticket because it was too hard to get to the kiosk and back before beginning her errand. Add an obstruction in the form of a nifty-looking but overbearing bike rack, and even more people will simply abandon the idea of shopping downtown. That’s why I hope handicap-friendliness will be a significant point-scoring criterion.
Thanks for your input. We have already been discussing handicap-friendliness in our design criteria for the ‘practical’ component of the competition. This will definitely be in the criteria in our judging panel for the bike rack designs to be installed in city’s ‘high need’ areas. If you or your wife are interested in jumping on board regarding our guidelines, please let me know (rl[@]sorbeliving.com), it would be great to have your perspectives. We are still in the process for defining the criteria.