Floyd A. O'Reilly Blog: Portlander uses free beer to illustrate bike parking demand at brewery

Monday, May 23, 2016

Portlander uses free beer to illustrate bike parking demand at brewery

Last Friday night the lack of bike parking at Base Camp Brewing was readily apparent.
(All photos by Ross Putnam.)

Our bike parking coverage is sponsored by Huntco.

There are two things you can never have enough of in Portland: bike parking and great beer. Especially great beer that’s free.

On Friday we saw just how much Portlanders love both of those things when Base Camp Brewing Company co-founder Ross Putnam made an unusual request to his friends on Facebook:

Dearest Facebook friends, I come to you in a time of need. We are trying to convince the city of Portland to let us install more bicycle parking at the brewery. We need photographic evidence that this is needed.

Tonight between 19:00-20:00 PST (7:00-8:00 pm) at Base Camp Brewing Company I will be buying each bike 1 beer. 1 bike = 1 beer. (strap an extra to your back, double wheelie, etc.) The more bikes you bring the more beer you get, within the legal limit. I would like to see a pile of bikes on the sidewalk.

Meet on the patio. Brown plaid shirt guy (me) will give you wooden coin to be redeemed for beer.

Please share. Cheers!

And it worked! 50-plus people showed up on two wheels and the trees and signposts all around the brewery at SE 9th and Oak. Here are few more photos:

In case you’re wondering, asking for photographic evidence of bike parking demand is standard operating procedure from the Bureau of Transportation. It’s part of the application process and it helps PBOT prioritize locations. Their bike parking corral program has been so successful that even with 140 corrals installed there are still businesses on the waiting list. It’s unlikely PBOT needed to see that many bikes to realize this is a good location for a bike corral; but we’re sure it won’t hurt Base Camp’s application.

Putnam says PBOT has been great to work with so far, he just didn’t want to wait to get the perfect photos for his application. “As inner SE continues to grow and be developed,” he shared with us in a follow up message. “It only makes sense from both a business perspective as well as personally to have as much bike parking as possible.”

Putnam wants to swap two auto parking spots for the new corral, which will have about 20 spaces for bikes. The new corral will also be located right outside the patio so customers can keep and eye on them and ward off potential thieves.

“The support was overwhelming Friday night and everyone that showed up was stoked that we are nearing closer to more bike parking,” Putnam added. “Props to PBOT for their involvement in Portland’s bike community.”

This whole episode reminds us of what north Portland eatery ¿Por Que No? did back in 2007. After making their own on-street bike parking they urged people to park bikes in the street to make the case for their new corral and gave everyone who showed up a free taco.

We’ll let you know when Base Camp’s new corral shows up.

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

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