Progress (UPDATED)

Early this summer, I wrote to my local town officials asking if they would consider installing bike racks in three of our public parking lots which serve small clusters of shops. One parking lot becomes the site of a farmers market on Wednesdays from spring through fall, which limits parking nearby, so some people (like me) arrive by bike instead. I was surprised to receive an immediate, positive reply, and the bike racks were installed about a month later.

My daughter took the top photo when we parked our bikes in one new rack before picking up our takeout order from the Chinese restaurant across the street. I was disappointed in their choice of location for the bike rack – the furthermost, unlit corner of the large parking lot, as opposed to the central, well-lit walkway leading to the paystation – but it’s progress in this town, and I’m grateful for it.

The bottom photo was taken this past Wednesday by me, with my camera still on my new handlebar mount (hence the slight tilt). This rack has an ideal placement at the entrance to the lot, and is easily visible to inspire visitors to ride their bike next time. I used the trip to the market to test out my new handlebar camera mount for the first time. Here is the video I made:


To market, to market, to find a bike rack from BIKE Lite on Vimeo.

I haven’t visited the third bike rack yet, because that parking lot is currently in use as a temporary firehouse while the old one is rebuilt across the street. On second thought, maybe I should go there to take some photos documenting even bigger progress in this town. Okay, coming soon…

UPDATE – Finally visited the third municipal parking lot to see if the new bike rack has been installed yet. As you can see, there are more important vehicles parked there (temporarily), most likely on the ideal location for the bike rack. Across the street lies the foundation of the new firehouse, with a banner giving us a sneak peek into the future. Progress is looking good. The bike rack can wait.