Seattle City Council passes major bike parking legislation

SEATTLE — Today, the Seattle City Council, by a 7-1 vote, passed major improvements to the city’s requirements for bicycle parking in new buildings.  The improved standards will help ensure people will always have a safe, convenient, and accessible location to park their bicycle, whether it’s in a building or on the sidewalk for a short errand or trip.

In addition to improving the bicycle parking requirements, the legislation, CB 119221, also updated many off-street parking requirements, aiming to reduce the city’s dependence on single-occupancy vehicles and to support transit-oriented development.  In support of CB 119221, Bicycle Security Advisors had joined in coalition with and worked alongside many transportation, housing, and environmental advocacy organizations, including Cascade Bicycle Club, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Capitol Hill Housing, Futurewise, Transportation Choices Coalition, Transit Riders Union, and Sierra Club.

The new legislation brings Seattle’s bicycle parking requirements closer in-line with the other major Cascadia cities of Portland and Vancouver, B.C., as well as other peer cities across the nation.

“There can only be as many people biking as there are safe, convenient, and accessible places to lock-up their bikes,” said Brock Howell, Principal of Bicycle Security Advisors. “Every year, more people are biking in Seattle. The new, better standards will help ensure this growth continues over the next decade.”

A centerpiece criteria for determining how much bike parking would be required was the City of Seattle’s performance target to quadruple bicycle ridership by 2030, the equivalent of one-in-eight trips being by bike.  Here are a few of the key highlights:

• Streamlines the city code’s bicycle parking requirements from three different standards based on location in the city to one table.
• Increases the amount of required bicycle parking for nearly all land uses.  In comparison to eight peer cities, Seattle now has the highest requirements for long-term parking for 13 land use categories, and the highest requirements for short-term parking for 8 land use categories.
• Requires office buildings with more than 100,000 square-feet to provide commuter showers for both genders, and exempts the shower facilities from a new building’s size limits.
• Improves the incentive policy for bicycle parking by allowing developers to trade 1 car stall for two bicycle parking spaces, and increased the cap on this provision to now allow up to 20 percent of the required car parking to be removed.
• Requires bike parking to be accessible without the use of stairs.
• Requires bike rooms to accommodate family, cargo, and electric bikes.
• Adds a new bike valet provision for major event venues.
• Adds more specific rulemaking authority for SDOT to establish guidelines to implement the new code.

The adopted legislation did not include every request of Bicycle Security Advisors.

While the legislation more than quadrupled the amount of required bicycle parking in new apartment and condo buildings, the required amount remains significantly below peer cities — ranking seventh of nine cities for long-term bike parking.  Most of Portland requires nearly double the amount of long-term bike parking and Vancouver, B.C., requires approximately 66% more.

Bicycle Security Advisors does not encourage other cities to follow Seattle’s lead on such low requirements for bike rooms and bike cages in apartment buildings.  Given that most people own a bike and the average household size is approximately two people, every unit should have at least one secure bicycle space available.  In Vancouver, some buildings are required to provide 2.25 spaces for every unit.

More work still needs to be done.  Many of the code’s new provisions, such as definitions of “safe,” “convenient,” and “accessible,” and the new bike valet allowance, will need to be implemented through new guidelines to be adopted by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).

SDOT already drafted bicycle parking guidelines last summer, but much more work remains to be done to ensure the guidelines match the code update and implement best practices.  Finalizing the guidelines will require additional funding from Seattle City Council, smart analysis, and a formal rule by the SDOT director that adopts the guidelines.

The parking reform legislation was stewarded by Councilmember Rob Johnson, chair of the Council’s Planning, Land Use and Zoning (PLUZ) Committee, and his staff.  In addition, Councilmember Mike O’Brien, vice-chair of the PLUZ Committee, also worked tirelessly with bicycle, transit, housing, and environmental stakeholders in helping to shape the final legislation.

“We are indebted to the leadership of Councilmembers Rob Johnson and Mike O’Brien,” said Howell.  “They are passionate advocates for the future of Seattle and the World, and do the work necessary to implement the City’s the big picture values around climate change, affordability, and a great built environment into the minutia of off-street parking requirements.  Thanks to Rob and Mike, Seattle will be a better place to ride and park a bike, for decades to come.”

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Bicycle Security Advisors works to improve bike parking and reduce bike theft. For media inquiries, contact Brock Howell at brock@bicyclesecurityadvocates.org.