Charleston puts brakes on willy-nilly bicycle parking

Charleston could soon take a hard line against illegally parked bicycles, with proposed regulations that would allow the city to immobilize or seize bikes found locked to traffic signs, street trees and the like.

Just as a motorist might find their illegally parked car with one of the those big yellow "boots" attached to a wheel, rendering the vehicle useless until a fine is paid to remove the device, cyclists could find a city lock on their illegally parked bike until they pay a $45 fine.

City Council will consider the measure at a meeting starting at 5 p.m. today in City Hall.

"I think this probably goes a little bit too far in discouraging the use of bicycles, if it is enforced," said Tom Bradford, director of the cycling advocacy group Charleston Moves.

"We pay so much attention to whether there is sufficient parking for cars, and at the same time, we want people to be more active," he said. "But if you make it very difficult to park a bicycle, then you're cutting off your nose to spite your face."

The parking rules are part of a broader bicycle ordinance that would give the city authority to seize and dispose of abandoned bikes, would eliminate a widely ignored regulation that all bikes must have a one-dollar city license, and spells out when and where people can ride bikes on sidewalks.

Generally, children 12 and under could ride on sidewalks.

"As long as we tell people about the rules and we are fair about enforcing them, then I think it makes sense," said Councilman Mike Seekings, an avid cyclist who was involved in developing the proposed regulations. "One of the things we have noticed downtown, and particularly in my area, are bicycles parked, and often abandoned, where they should not be."

Seekings' council district includes much of the College of Charleston area, where bikes are routinely locked to signs and parking meters along city sidewalks, and where vandalized, abandoned bikes sometimes remain where they were last locked up for months.

The proposed crackdown on bike parking comes at a time when city officials have been working to increase the use of bicycles to reduce the use of cars and improve the fitness of residents. The city has, for example, been designing plans to add a bike lane to the Ashley River bridge, and plans to spend $669,000 improving the West Ashley Greenway.

At the city's Charleston Civic Design Center, where a nine-bicycle storage locker is under construction, mostly for staff use, center Director Michael Maher said city residents should be using bike racks for parking but that there is a shortage of those.

"If we are going to be more strict about where you can park your bike, I think we need to make resources available to encourage people to ride their bikes," he said. "Some people look at bikes as a blight, as it were."

Seekings, who rides his bicycle to City Council meetings, said he agrees that more legal bike parking options are needed.

"If you look around the city, it's difficult to park a bike, and that's why people chain them to trees and poles," he said. "The city also needs to provide facilities, and we don't."

Seekings said he wants to see a plan to provide more bike parking, before the new regulations get approved. City Council could take an initial vote tonight, but it takes at least three votes over the course of two meetings to approve an ordinance.

As written, the ordinance would apply throughout the city, not just on the peninsula. The city limits extend from the Cainhoy peninsula to Johns Island.

"Are we firing up a big howitzer to tackle a problem in a limited part of the city?" Bradford asked. "Are we making a city-wide regulation to solve a downtown problem in the commercial area around King Street?"

Megan Cahill, director of communications for the Washington D.C.-based League of American Bicyclists (and a former College of Charleston student) found the proposed bike-parking regulations unsurprising.

"It's not a new concept - tons of colleges and universities do it," she said. "Nobody enjoys getting their bike confiscated or getting a ticket, but there could be issues with blocking street signs and things like that."