It's a Strike! Uptown's Best Bike Rack

Above: Bowling pin bike rack at Bryant-Lake Bowl

I’ve recently started paying attention to bike racks, and have become mildly obsessed. Not obsessed with using the racks, ironically, as I don’t own a bike, but fascinated with them for both their utilitarian and artistic values. Minneapolis (including Uptown) is a pretty bike-friendly place, and it’s great to see so many businesses – and even some apartment buildings – offering bike rack parking.

Uptown has many great examples of the sheer variety of bike racks available, but so far my all-time favorite is the one at Bryant-Lake Bowl (photo above). It’s the perfect blend of form and function, and further serves to establish a unique sense of place. The design is eclectic, fun, distinctive, and relates to the nature of the business. It livens up the streetscape on a stretch of Lake Street that has historically been rather drab and utilitarian.

While in some commercial districts or streets a more elegant, or at lesat subdued and uniform, look might be more appropriate, but Uptown – especially the area closer to Hennepin and Lake – is often criticized as having long since lost its artistic vibe. Lyn-Lake still has more independent spirit, but with its growing population and name-recognition it’s going to risk running into the same issues as the core Uptown commercial area. Interesting, unique, functional bike racks are a great way to restore some of that bohemian flavor. When done right, as at Bryant Lake Bowl, they add to the pedestrian experience, make it easy for people to choose biking over driving, and overall make a street more enjoyable and a neighborhood more interesting.

If you, too, want a unique piece of commercial-quality bike racks, Midtown Greenway-adjacent Dero Bike Rack is a local supplier. The company has seen sales skyrocket in the last four years; their customer-base is national, but people here in Uptown, business owners or otherwise, can just hop on a bike and head up the Greenway to discuss their business or building's needs. Check out some of Dero's custom designs for inspiration, or dream up your own vision. They sell the basic versions, too.

Did I miss any other creative Uptown-area bike racks?

HOURCAR in Uptown

Car-sharing has been in the Twin Cities for nearly five years now, yet there are still people out there who aren’t familiar with the concept. The only place in town – for now, anyway – is locally-based HOURCAR, a company started by the Saint Paul nonprofit Neighborhood Energy Consortium. And while car sharing is a useful resource for any neighborhood, it works especially well in a densely populated, urban neighborhood such as Uptown.

How car-sharing works, in a nutshell: Cars are parked in permanent locations, or “hubs.” You first become a member of HOURCAR. When you need to access a car you simply go online, make a reservation, then walk to your local hub, pick up the car, and go. Members pay monthly for hours, gas, and mileage based on usage.

Where are HOURCAR cars located in Uptown? Core Uptown locations include the YWCA at 29th and Hennepin and 31st and Girard (behind Calhoun Square). Also within walking distance of manyUptowners is the “Wedge Hub,” at 22nd and Garfield.

Cost: There are different plans available, but for the “Freedom” plan you pay just $5 per month in dues. Hourly rentals go for $8 an hour and 25 cents per mile. You can rent the cars by the day or weekend, too.

Hub Sponsorship: HOURCAR is currently soliciting applications from businesses, organizations, or individuals who are interested in their property serving as an HOURCAR hub. Sponsors pay between $12,000 and $15,000, depending on type of vehicle; in return HOURCAR promises to locate the car there for at least two years. The sponsorship will be matched 1:1 by the McKnight Foundation. I don’t know who currently is or has submitted a recent application, but am hoping that the future hubs will better serve some of the residents of the greater Uptown area who don’t live within close distance of the current hubs (although there are vast swaths of the city not currently served by HOURCAR; these people deserve access, too). Eventually maybe we’ll be lucky enough to have these dotted across the Uptown (and city as a whole) landscape, which in turn will give more and more people the opportunity to get rid of their cars as an unnecessary expense. HOURCAR's website specifically cites neighborhood organizations as potential sponsors; I'm not sure if any of the Uptown-area neighborhood organizations (I know the Uptown Association is a supporter) are current or potentially future sponsors, but this is certainly something arguably worthy of neighborhood funds.

What makes a good HOURCAR hub (according to website):

• Low to moderate income neighborhood
• High density neighborhood
• “Strategically positioned to enhance the existing HOURCAR network”
• Sponsor should be committed to supporting the hub, through marketing, maintenance, or other endeavors

I think car share programs are a great idea, but have a couple of questions and possible concerns about the way HOURCAR works in Minneapolis. First, the existing fleet of 19 cars is pretty small. What happens if someone has rented one of the only few cars in the neighborhood for the entire day or weekend? You can go pick up another one elsewhere, but if that’s the case it won’t be long before the convenience benefit of the program starts to erode. The coming expansion (ten new cars in ten new locations) will help a great deal, and eventually (with luck) there will be enough cars in enough locations that few people will ever be seriously inconvenienced. My second, and biggest, question relates to the cars themselves. HOURCAR is very proud of their energy efficient cars; options include the Toyota Prius and the Toyota Yaris. These are obviously great cars from an environmental standpoint, but do they really serve the needs of HOURSHARE customers? Take a look at this (unscientific survey) of some of the top trips for San Francisco’s City CarShare, one of the models for the Twin Cities’ HOURCAR:

• Picking up friends or relatives at the airport
• Dropping off donations at Goodwill
• Helping friends move
• First date
• Meeting a client on the Peninsula (Minneapolis equivalent would be anywhere in the ‘burbs)
• IKEA visit
• Grocery store trip

A Toyota Yaris is a four-door sedan. It fits five people and has a spacious trunk. The Toyota Prius is a sedan with a hatchback. It can fit a lot in the back, but is it big enough to handle a trip to IKEA? Maybe, maybe not. I suppose there are always regular rental options, or the traditional cheap U-Haul truck, but it would be nice if HOURCAR could consider expanding its fleet options as it expands its bases. On the other hand, a Prius could well impress a first date, and both of these cars would be fine for a trip to the store or for a jaunt out to Maple Grove.

I’m not (currently) a member of HOURCAR. My transportation options are bus, feet, and the occasional ride from family or friends (too scared to brave city streets with a bike; a weakness, I admit.). In the future, though, should I join the ranks of licensed drivers, I will definitely consider HOURCAR as an option. Programs like this one make it easy for many people to give up their cars. Why go through the hassles and expense of maintaining a car if you mostly use it just to go to the grocery store or run occasional errands? Car shares are an increasingly common part of urban life, and it’s encouraging to see the concept growing in popularity in Minneapolis. With each new location, and perhaps with each new type of car option, it becomes easier and easier to eliminate some of the cars on our streets.

Are you a member of HOURCAR? If not, what’s stopping you? Where would you like to see the next HOURCAR hubs located?

The Traffic Issue in Uptown's Own Backyard (or Garage)

One of the complaints we all frequently hear about Uptown is that there’s too much traffic. I agree that the cars speeding through Lake or other major thoroughfares are a source of frustration. There are also many people driving to Uptown, and I do wish that more of those people would consider taking the bus, biking, or, when possible, walking. That said, too much of the traffic focus tends to be on the problem of “outsiders,” whether it’s the people coming to Uptown to shop or dine, those who drive to their Uptown jobs, or the people who are driving through Uptown on their way from and to places elsewhere. These groups of people are admittedly a major component of any traffic “problem,” but we can’t forget the group of people most likely to be on Uptown streets on a daily basis: Uptown residents themselves.

The 2000 census sheds some interesting light on Uptown residents’ commuting patterns (“Uptown” in this case defined as CARAG, ECCO, LHENA, and East Isles, with the numbers based on “workers 16 years and over). Some highlights:

• 52 percent of Uptown residents drove to work alone, a five percent increase over 1990.
• Six percent of Uptowners carpooled to work, the same percentage as in 1990.
• A mere 17 percent took public transportation to work, a decrease from 22 percent in 1990.
• Four percent walked to work in 2000; five percent walked to work in 1990.
• Two percent of workers took “other means” (I’m assuming this means bicycles, plus perhaps the occasional skateboard or set of roller blades thrown in for good measure) versus less than one percent in 1990.
• Two percent of Uptowners worked at home in 1990, three percent worked at home in 2000.

There were, of course, statistical differences between neighborhoods. The percentage of local workers commuting alone by car (in 2000) broken down by neighborhood are:

• 58 percent in the Wedge
• 61 percent in CARAG
• 64 percent in East Isles
• 72 percent in ECCO

I realize that not everyone can bike, walk, or take the bus to work. Still, these numbers leave a lot of room for improvement. The majority of those people - and we're talking thousands of Uptown residents - are driving to and from work five days a week, many of them in the same general morning and evening timeframe. Instead of focusing our energies on parking permits and battling new developments we can and should identify the most efficient ways to get people out of their cars and onto the sidewalks, onto bikes, or on the bus (and at some point, I hope, LRT). Some worthwhile potential goals:

• Cut down number of cars per household. Not every adult member of every family needs a car, and some households can live without any car.
• Decrease the use of each car. If even a relatively small number of current residents switched to, say, biking to work one day a week in the summer it would have an impact. So, too, would be if some current drivers switched to taking the bus to work one or two days a week instead of driving. And once at home, if more residents walked to local stores for their errands (including grocery store runs) we’d decrease local traffic even further.
• Provide support for residents to get by without owning a car. Uptown has a car share service (HOURCAR); with time and increased usage we could expand the locations, making it an even more convenient option for those who don’t want a car yet still want to have access to one from time to time. And, of course, an Uptown LRT alignment, good (and affordable) bus service, and a bike- and pedestrian-friendly environment are also essential.

Traffic and parking are always going to be issues facing Uptown; it’s part and parcel with urban living. An equally important element of urban neighborhood life should be the ready availability – and embrace – of a car-free lifestyle. By all means continue to address through traffic and parking, but don’t forget the simple fact that in many cases the traffic problem is not just “them” – it is “us.”