Businesses To Be Required To Have Parking Spaces For Bikes

EL PASO, TX – City Council passed a new ordinance that will require new businesses to have at least three parking spaces for bikes.

The vote on the measure was split evenly and Mayor John Cook had to break the four-to-four tie. City Representatives Melina Castro, Eddie Holguin, Rachel Quintana and Alexandro Lozano voted against the ordinance.

Some of the representatives who voted against the ordinance expressed concerns that the racks will largely go unused by bicycle riders in the area. Lozano believes it is dangerous to ride a bike in some of El Paso’s busiest streets. “It is very dangerous … we do not have the infrastructure for bikes, he said.

City Representative Beto O’ Rourke hopes the new ordinance will motivate more El Pasoans to ride their bikes to work but insisted there are still measures the city needs to take. “We need to make it very safe and very easy to ride a bike in El Paso … right now, it’s neither … We took a small step today, ” he said.

As a result of the new ordinance, new businesses or businesses seeking new permits will be required to have at least three spaces to park bicycles.

Businesses that have between 61 and 800 parking spaces will need to have three parking spaces set aside for bicycle racks. Those with more than 800 automobile spaces, will need to have at least 40 parking spaces available for bikes.

Before voting on the ordinance, city officials studied the bike rack requirements in more than 60 other cities.

“I guess it would encourage more people to ride bikes because they know they’ll have a safe place to lock it,” said a local bike rider in response to the ordinance.

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Written and reported for broadcast by Darren Hunt

Written for the web by Joe Villasana