An organized bike room compliments Downtown living

Gateway Towers, one of downtown’s classic condominium high-rises,  just got even classier. For several years now most building residents have stored their bikes in a room in the basement, but the number of condo owners looking to store their bikes has been steadily on the rise. Prudential Property Manager Cindy Clifton oversees the operations. She knew she had to do something. The original room was bursting at the seams with bicycles. She commanded her troops to open an adjacent room to handle the overflow. In no time that room began to fill up. Cindy was running out of space. No real strategy was in place and the bikes in both rooms appeared like sets of dominoes just waiting to tumble.

One of the residents suggested Cindy call BikePGH to help evaluate the situation. We met with her to take the measurements of the room and coordinate a plan with our partners at Dero. They proposed the Ultra Space Saver. Cindy liked that it would provide organization and security to the bike room.  It also would allow her to organize and house a greater number of bikes, while providing owners with the option of locking their bike. The Board liked the plan and signed off. The new system was recently installed.

Enhanced bike parking facilities reflects the values of building managers and owners

Cindy sees the upgrade as beneficial in a number of ways. For starters it made the building more professional and polished. Not only does it help her better meet the needs of the building’s residents, but it is also an opportunity to encourage residents to use their bicycles more, whether it be for transportation, recreation, or a change in lifestyle. She’s ordered inspiring bicycle art for the walls of the rooms.

“More and more people are using bicycles for recreation in the downtown area.” she points out. “From our [Downtown] location we can access many of the trails throughout the city. Many people ride to the Strip to pick up fresh veggies and fruit.” Cindy makes Pittsburgh Bike Maps and Commuting 101 guides readily available along with an air compressor and hand pumps for residents to keep their tires properly inflated. An investment in bike amenities shows that building owners and managers understand the changing needs of the typical urban dweller. It means they know that people who regularly use their bicycles want convenient and secure access to them. One of the reasons people are choosing to move to the city is convenient access to everything and the desire to go to places by bike is the natural inclination of a growing number of them.

Property developers and managers have a lot to gain by making it convenient and easy for their residents and tenants to choose a bicycle as their primary form of transportation, and encourage transit and car share services like Zipcar to compliment it. Bicycle use would benefit all concerned just from a cost savings perspective. Take the high cost of car parking as an example. According to bicyclinginfo.org the cost to purchase and install bike racks that parks two bikes is $150 to $300 each. The cost to purchase and install bike lockers that fit two bikes is $1000 to $4000 each. Estimates of the average cost to provide a single surface car parking space is $5000 and between $20,000 and $30,000 for structured above ground parking. Underground parking can reach upwards of $30,000 to $50,000 per space! Whereas the cost to renovate the Gateway Towers bike rooms that accommodates over 100 bikes cost half what it would have cost to build one car parking space in an above ground garage. Not everyone will choose to be car free, but if a building in a central location, like Downtown, has excellent bike facilities more people would consider it and reduce the demand for car parking. You could fit 10 to 12 bikes in the space allotted for cars. These figures do not even take into account what people are charged to lease the car parking space, which in some places can be like paying rent.

Bike Pittsburgh is pleased to count Gateway Towers Condominiums among our business members.Partnerships like this help Bike Pittsburgh carry out our mission and helps our partners raise the bar for the people most important to them.

Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership