How to solve downtown parking problems and…
…get healthier, save the planet, put more money in your pocket, never get a parking ticket or pay for parking ever again
Of course, adding a bike share program would help too.
But, alas, we’re going to waste $4 million on paddle boats on the river.
Dayton- get out and ride.
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Just speculating here – and I’m all for a more bike friendly city – but aren’t most metropolitan areas that are famous for being bike friendly operating out of more of a position of necessity? I mean – Dayton’s still pretty easy to get around by car and no matter what anyone thinks, parking isn’t a problem (coming from someone who lives downtown and parks on the street year-round). As long as that’s the case, I just wonder how successful we’re going to be at converting folks to cycling. Sure, it makes us look nice (much like the river run project) and we should keep working at it, I just wonder how many eggs we should dump into that basket. Maybe dollars are better spent by connecting downtown’s many assets with more walkable sidewalks as in the canal project on Patterson?
@Dave- welcome. But- if we had bikeshare- kids from Sinclair wouldn’t be stuck on campus- unable to leave because there isn’t in and out at the garage- and spaces become a hot commodity later in the day.
Same goes for giving UD students mobility- many of them never even make it to the Oregon District.
Now- let’s add the impact of walking out of office tower- that you just filled (Premier Health Partners) and being able to grab a bike and ride down to the Trolley Stop- or Coco’s at lunch- and not have to go get your car- and then go park it again-
or- down the bike path for a nice lunchtime ride.
Yep- BikeShare changes EVERYTHING.
I guess it’s more difficult for Dayton’s drug zombies to haul a paddle boat off to the local metal recycler. How long did those yellow bikes last?
shout out to vanity plate “Rover1”, the Range Rover who almost ran me off the road today. Share the Road buddy!
I experienced the B-Cycle program firsthand in Madison, WI and it was really convenient! They had stations all over downtown, UW’s campus, and some of the surrounding neighborhoods and most of those stations were connected via dedicated bike paths. I got so much use out of them for $5/day. Incredibly, an annual pass for UW students, staff, and faculty is $20. That’s about a week of gasoline for me.
I’d like to see Dayton prioritize a convenient and cheap bike rental system that safely connected downtown, riverscape, and the oregon district to UD’s campus. It might help retain UD grads if they had cheap and easy transportation throughout the city. I have a few friends living in Chicago that graduated from UD and they have no idea what the Oregon District is.
Ron- thanks for sharing and welcome to the site.
There are plenty of posts on this site talking about the potential impact of a proper bike share system-
the environmental, the health issues, parking, friendliness, accessibility etc.
But what is most important is it gets people out on the streets- and starts creating vibrancy.
Paddle boating on the river does nothing.
Man – I don’t understand all the slights on Riverscape. I think all of the services they offer are great for downtown and as a twenty-something business professional that’s supposed to be impressed and attracted by the River Run project, mission accomplished! I think it sounds great.
Dave- it’s dollars for benefits. More people will use bike share in a day than will use the river in a month.
What a joke. Downtown will never change and will always struggle. Enormous amounts of money spent on riverscape, fountains, and Tech Town and now 4 million on paddle boats. Everything is done backwards. Look at the struggles of tech town in 4 years and now the main tenant will be Midmark, which isn’t even a technology company. Unless certain things are addressed, downtown will become stagnant.
Welcome John Smithley- What “certain things” need to be addressed in your opinion?
I’ve always thought that our tax dollars invested in bricks and mortar were a bad idea- unfortunately, Kettering was “successful” with Governors Square- and since then- politicians have had a license to play developer.
I’m a little confused about the Midmark deal as well- but, empty buildings need filled – and the way I see it- we’ve got a ton of empty buildings thanks to subsidies being handed out to suburban developers….
for a more in-depth article on a solution: http://esrati.com/how-does-downtown-dayton-hope-to-compete/8821/
David, heres the solution, Get rid of the current administration/officials and replace with business minded people/entrepreneurs.
Hi David–
This is one of the more recent posts I can find re: bikes so I’m leaving the comment here. I’ve noticed that they’ve put dozens of blue bike racks around at most street corners throughout downtown Dayton. On a personal basis this removes a major impediment to me biking around – which was not having a place to secure it while I go inside a building to do whatever business I had in mind.
I’m a bit worried about the effectiveness of a bike share simply because a lot of them would get stolen (short of putting a lojack on them, which would rapidly inflate the cost of such a program). But bike parking, especially since these racks were donated… Effective bang for the buck?
@Auston – The bikes in a proper bikeshare program are all checked out and accounted for by the system. They do have GPS trackers in them as well, but, you can’t check one out without taking personal responsibility for it.
They also come with their own locks- for when you can’t make it back to a hub.
Yes- the new bike racks are good- except they only handle 2 bikes at a time- :-(