I was sitting in traffic this morning coming to work; the sun was rising, the birds were singing and I was wishing I was not sitting in traffic. Wouldn’t it be great to simply park my car and hop onto a bike and ride about Hoquiam?
I have two bikes but I have to pull them out from behind a pile of boxes in the garage. Then I have to either ride one of them five miles into town or find a place to store them in town.
I was thinking, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to borrow a bike for 20 minutes or so.
Traffic pulled ahead and I looked at the side walks, the store fronts and the vacant lots. This would be a lot more fun and maybe safer, if I was riding a bike.
I started to notice that our little town really is not all that bike friendly there is nothing that says “bike path” there are no bike racks, only a few kids and adults dodging cars on the main road.
We really do need to get people out of their cars and either walking or biking to increase sales in these small shops and businesses. What to do…. What IF….. time to crank out the Imagination Factory.
- We could cut out card board templates and spray an image of a bike on safe areas to ride.
- We could purchase some metal bike racks so people could park their bikes and shop.
- We can ask a bike company who sells bikes to rent bikes.
OR
We can get really creative What I.F.
- We start a green bike project. We take lost bikes that are unclaimed, get them working, paint them green and just leave them on the street, free to use. Ride them where you want just park them in the rack. If they are “bright flat green” nobody will steal them. It would take a team of bike repair folks who are capable of cannibalizing wrecked bikes to keep the green bikes going. Bikes that are sitting unused in garages could be donated to the green bike project. People would know that bright green bikes were community bikes to be used by anybody, any time, for free!
- Bike racks, I am no fan of the upright bike racks that take up space and collect wind blown trash. Paris France has a novel way of keeping bikes upright and safe. Tire grooves! A simple set of grooves cut into the curbs or wheel bumpers you simply back your bike wheel into the grove and walk away! There is no upkeep there is no wind blown trash collecting and the cost to set them up is much less then the cost of the metal racks!
Traffic started moving and I drove away from the center of the city without stopping or shopping.
Great ideas Mark!!
Just last Thursday at Hoquiam Rotary, James Noggles of Aberdeen Lions, talked with us about an Aberdeen Lions project, “Bikes from Heaven”.
The Lions have partnered with Stafford Creek Correctional Facility to repair bikes donated to the Lions. The Lions pay for the parts the offenders use to repair the bikes and the Lions donate the bikes to worthy adults and children in Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties. This is a multiple win program!!!
What I.F. citizens in the Hoquiam area donated some bikes, both good and in need of repair, and Hoquiam Lions became owners of the “green bike” project. Stafford Creek offender’s could paint and repair the bikes. The City could start marking “bike lanes” on city streets and cutting curbs all over town for these bikes to be parked in (maybe a green curb to match the bike color and perhaps a green sign). Hoquiam Business Association could fund the repairs and some local bikers could help make the project happen.
What I.F. we add a small rack/basket to the bike to allow carrying packages or personal stuff while biking.
Once this became a 2-wheeling success, it could be exported to the rest of Grays Harbor so these bikes could be in use everywhere.
The concept has already been used with umbrellas in malls and it should work for bikes too.
What I.F. we think of other sharing things we could have. Like why not provide umbrellas in small racks in the downtown area for shoppers and walkers to share? Use them and leave them in a rack when you no longer need them. We may be able to get Stafford Creek offenders to build the umbrella racks and local kids to create art for the umbrella racks.
Anybody have more ideas?