Those circular metal objects attached to parking-meter posts in downtown Durango hardly need an explanation.
What else could a 16-inch diameter metal circle with a figure of a bicyclist in the center and “Durango” in cut-out letters on top be but a bicycle tie-up?
You guessed it, Amber Blake, the city’s multi-modal transportation administrator, said Tuesday. City maintenance workers are installing 160 of them in the downtown area.
They’ll be done by Memorial Day weekend, she said.
The whole project was a year in the making, she said. Members of the city’s Transportation Demand Management and Parking Group Advisory Committee get credit for the design.
“We wanted to get the racks made locally, but they were too expensive,” Blake said. “We ended up ordering them from the Steel Belt outside Pittsburgh.”
The tie-ups cost $53 each, compared to local bidders who wanted more than 2½ times as much, she said.
The circular racks lend consistency – there’s one every 25 feet – and each one can accommodate two bicycles, one on the front side of the meter, the other on the back. They leave enough room for vehicle passengers to exit, she said.
“There was too much ‘street furniture’ already to put them elsewhere,” Blake said.
The hoop bicycle racks in the form of an upside-down U will remain, she said.
“The racks have received favorable comment,” she said. “Merchants on Seventh Street and East Second Avenue already have asked for them.”
daler@durangoherald.com
