People Power Offers Valet Bike Parking
Oct 13, 2005
Santa Cruz is a great place for events, fairs, and festivals. Unfortunately many of those events haven't had particularly good places to park bikes. Until now.
People Power now offers valet bike parking at events. Valet bike parking allows people to ride their bicycles to an event and leave them with a People Power volunteer who will park and watch it within an enclosed environment. A claim ticket is stapled to the bike and given to the owner to ensure that only the owner claims their bike. In addition to doing something good for the environment, riders can happily pocket the money that they would otherwise have spent on gas, parking, or parking tickets.
Besides making it easier for people to get around without cars, valet parking is a great opportunity to share information about People Power, our projects and our goals. During valet parking we sign up members, take donations, and, because so many cyclists don't have them, sell lights.
People Power members Gary Milburn and Derek Williams have worked with other volunteers to get this program going and make it a success. So far, we have parked bikes at three events during bike week in May of 2005, four of the Santa Cruz Night Out Events, the Open Studios Preview Show reception, and the UCSC Harvest Festival. Valet parking has been a great success. Thanks to Derek, Gary and all of our other awesome volunteers!
Our inspiration for valet bike parking came from Growing Cycles (which parks bikes at the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market), as well as the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. In San Francisco, large events are required to provide valet bike parking by the city. Hmmmmm, there's an idea.
For more information about valet bicycle parking for events, or to volunteer as a valet bicycle parker, please contact People Power at info@peoplepowersc.org, or (831) 425-0665.