Bike Corral / Bioswale Project

 
Pambiche’s bike corral / bioswale project is finally complete. The first of its kind in the City of Portland to combine both streetscape elements together with the bike corral elevated to sidewalk level. An idea spawned by Pambiche chef/owner, John Connell-Maribona, the final design includes custom bike racks (provided by John Fyre of Sellwood Blacksmith) that accentuate the The Apambichao Building’s turn of the century character. There is still ample car parking within a block or two of the restaurant.

We feel that bicycles are important to the future of the City of Portland; they improve the sustainability, livability, accessibility and quality of life for all Portlanders. Bicycle transportation helps decrease the growing automobile traffic congestion of the cities roadways. This becomes increasingly important as our city grows and becomes more densely populated. Bikes reduce the alienation and isolation of automobile-dictated sprawl. Bikes offer people the opportunity to interact with each other in public spaces, roadways, sidewalks, squares, plazas and parks.

Bikes are simple, clean, healthy, cheap and green. Compared to driving a car, bikes are extremely flexible: now I’m a fast-moving vehicle among other vehicles on the road, now I’m a pedestrian walking my bike down the sidewalk, now I’m riding through a park, now I’m tying up right outside a building with a phenomenal Cuban restaurant!!

What is a Bicycle Corral?

On-street Bicycle Parking Corrals make efficient use of the parking strip for bicycle parking in areas with high demand. Corrals typically have 6 to 12 bicycle racks in a row and can park 10 to 20 bicycles. This uses space otherwise occupied by one to two cars.

Most of Portland’s bicycle parking is provided in bike racks on the sidewalk. However, in a growing number of commercial areas the high demand for bicycle parking is too much for the sidewalk. In other cases, local businesses simply prefer bicycles in the parking strip rather than autos in order to attract a customer base that is turning more to the bicycles for transportation. In all cases, corrals are installed at the express request or cooperation of the adjacent businesses.

Why On-Street Bicycle Parking?

On-Street Bicycle Parking provides many benefits where bicycle-use is high and growing:

• Businesses: Corrals provide a 10 to 1 customer to parking space ratio and advertise “bike-friendliness.” They also improve the outdoor café seating environment by removing locked bicycles from the sidewalk.
• Pedestrians: Corrals clear the sidewalks and serve as de facto curb extensions.
• People on bicycles: Corrals increase the visibility of bicycling.
• Motor vehicle drivers: Corrals improve visibility at intersections by eliminating the opportunity for larger vehicles to park at street corners.

For these reasons the design’s popularity is growing.

What is a “Bioswale”?

Bioswales are landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff rainwater. They consist of a swaled drainage course with gently sloped sides filled with vegetation and compost. The water’s flow path, along with a wide and shallow ditch, is designed to maximize the time water spends in the swale, which aids the trapping of pollutants and silt, treating the runoff before releasing it to the watershed or storm sewer.