Friday, November 5, 2010

Install Bike Parking and They Will Come: CPMC Davies At Max With Year-Old Racks


CPMC Davies bike parking today: 13 racks

Room for expansion: space for another five or ten racks empty and waiting

Install bike racks in San Francisco and they will be used. So many more people are taking to the streets on two wheels that bike parking fills up fast. The Davies Campus of the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) is finding its modest five-rack expansion a year ago is hardly adequate to the demand. In November of 2009 the Davies Engineering Department installed an additional five bike racks at its covered bike station, and now the racks are full, or nearly so, on a regular basis. Fortunately, expanding the facility will be easy with available space adjacent to the current parking.

Last year BIKE NOPA congratulated CPMC Davies for responding to cyclists' requests for more parking with the additional racks. Medical center administrators said at the time they recognized the advantages of providing the extra accommodation. Increasing numbers of staff bicycled to work, and many of the center's outpatient population rode bikes to appointments. The advantages of increased bike parking were pretty clear at the time. In addition to the convenience for staff and clients, hospital directors wanted to keep bikes out of the building for all sorts of other reasons, from reduced liability to safer passage in the hallways. Medical personnel expressed concern about bikes possibly carrying germs on their surfaces. And the benefits of biking fit the health promotion and disease prevention messages of the institution.

Bring on the extra rows of racks, for the near term. An additional five inverted-U racks easily fit along last year's addition for an immediate improvement to the bike parking crunch. And the space accommodates ten racks if the short-term vehicle parking is moved elsewhere. But CPMC wants to enhance the Davies Campus with a new four-story Neuroscience Institute and a new parking garage. Long-range planning should anticipate a steady increase in the number of staff and patients bicycling to the center and provide facilities for them.

The five new racks installed a year ago

4 comments:

  1. Apparently this hospital boasts the highest percent of its employees taking transit to work of all SF hospitals. More bike parking would help further increase employee options for commuting.

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  2. Sprague: Do you have access to data indicating the high proportion of bike use by Davies employees? Please share here or contact me: michael7820@gmail.com

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  3. I work at the PAC campus and commute by bike. This hospital would also benefit from more patient/public and employee bike parking. Thanks for promoting the hospital and its efforts. In your effort let me know how I can help.

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  4. ptjess: Thanks and please contact the administration at the campus about installing more bike parking there. We will all benefit!

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