Bike Valet! It's simple, it's cheap, it keeps your bike safe.

How does a fleet of cyclists lobby City Hall at a meeting where there's no bike parking? BCCC Bike Valet Grant Administrator Sam Holland explains how that bike parking gap in San Francisco in the 1970s led to an explosion of bike valet parking around North America. He explains how bike valets change the way people get to festivals, sporting events, town hall meetings and shopping destinations, including a couple who ride from Saanich to downtown Victoria to shop just because their bikes are protected by a bike valet.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

Welcome to Bike Six, the BC Cycling Coalition's podcast where we talk about all things related to cycling advocacy, education, and safety. I'm your host, Peter Ladkin, chair of the board of the BC Cycling Coalition. I hope you enjoy the show. My guest today is Sam Holland, who is the Bike Valet Grant Administrator for the BC Cycling Coalition. But I'm bringing him on the podcast because he is very knowledgeable about bike valets. So we're going to ask him about what are they, when do they work, what do they actually do? Are they effective in getting people to change their way of moving around? And what are some great examples? And if you want to put one together yourself, what do you need to know? So that's the general drift. Sam, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. Sam, how did bike valets get started?

SPEAKER_00: 1:11

So, I mean, with every origin story, right, there's a little bit of uh urban myth involved, but we're good with that. The best, the best that I've seen is that about 1994 in San Francisco, as part of the pro-cycling infrastructure, critical mass um type protests, people would ride to City Hall. Um, but then they would they would get there for the hearings, for the discussions on like uh public funding, um, cycling infrastructure. They couldn't go in because there was nowhere to park their bike, uh, which is such a classic, like, of course we need infrastructure, but we can't even go to city hall to complain about it. Uh so what they did, one guy was like, Well, you guys all need to go inside. I don't need to go inside. So I'll stay and guard your bikes. Uh, you just leave them out here with me, I'll make sure no one takes them, and you can go in and talk. And that was the the story of the first bike ballet. And I actually, that's one of the things that's really fun for me about bike valet, is it it really feels like part of that um you know, 70s, 80s, 90s cycling counterculture that you sometimes find at like really funky bike shops and uh the cycling anarchist collectives. I I just I find those very fun. Um and bicycle valet fits in that because it's something you can just do. It doesn't require a lot of comp it's not complicated, it's not expensive, it's just uh a simple solution for a simple problem. Uh and that just really fits with the that kind of part of the cycling culture, but it just benefits everyone.

SPEAKER_01: 2:42

Uh so I love how it can be as simple as one person standing there beside a whole bunch of bikes, making sure nobody comes and steals anything. That's pretty basic.

SPEAKER_00: 2:54

It is. I mean, that's that's the at its most basic, that's what bike valet is, right? Everything else is just refinement, efficiency, uh, extra security, but it's just making sure no one steals your bike, and I think everyone can get behind that. Absolutely. So just to keep things really clear, uh today when we're discussing bike valet, um, I'm meaning something more like a coat check for bikes. So you bring your bike, um, you get a tag, someone whisks your bike away and parks it, um, as opposed to something like uh a security guard watching over bicycle racks or um some hybrid system that you might have already seen somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01: 3:34

Okay, we'll get into that, but I want to cut to the chase here. Do they work? And if they work, what are they supposed to do? I I would assume that they're supposed to encourage someone to bring a bike who would otherwise not bring a bike. Is that actually the case?

SPEAKER_00: 3:49

It's very hard to measure like specific drivers of mode shift, but in my experience, uh bike valets are really successful in driving particularly two kinds of riders. So that's um young families and older folks with e-bikes. Um so looking at, for example, uh Victoria, where we have uh a bike valet that has now been pretty much year-round uh for a couple years now. Where is it? Um it's right in the downtown core, so it's hosted at Victoria City Hall.

SPEAKER_01: 4:19

Um, so it's just a general parking parking area for anybody who shows up.

SPEAKER_00: 4:23

It's not like tied to an event or a no, it's uh it's permanent, uh, it's year-round. Um and I think that like when we're talking about driving mode shift over like at a city level, that's the kind of changes and and programs we need to be thinking about. Something that's reliable, uh, that can be used for the daily driver, daily commute. Um and that's kind of more distinct from looking at mode shift at an event level where you're dealing with like parking issues uh for you know festivals or markets. Um and yeah, I've I've worked that valet, uh, and we look at our feedback and and our metrics, we've seen steadily increasing usage year over year, even in the winter time where you know people are like, oh, you wouldn't cycle in the winter. I mean, we're blessed in Victoria that our weather is pretty good most of the time in the winter. Um but and there is some correlation between you know weather and people cycling, but there's lots of people cycling in the winter too. And the thing is that over the years we've seen more and more e-bikes. Um and generally when we're talking about um bicycle parking, people are way more insecure about parking. They're really expensive e-bikes uh downtown. Like we're looking at e-bikes that cost the same as a car, even if it's a cheap car. Um and e-bikes are driving this huge shift to bicycling, especially for older riders and families, because they uh they can get you up hills that you might not be able to do. Uh, and they can get you into town much faster than the average rider uh pedaling by themselves.

SPEAKER_01: 6:02

So is that why you say the usage has been growing because of families and e-bikes? Are these families with e-bikes as well as seniors with e-bikes? So it's basically about e-bikes.

SPEAKER_00: 6:14

Um we've seen like a big increase in the share of e-bikes. Um it is it is really about 50-50 in terms of um of who is using the service at event, both events and at the permanent installation. Um but the the riders who I think most benefit from the uh from the service are the ones that have those uh those e-bikes and cargo bikes, uh, not least for families, because families have not just e-bikes, they have so much stuff they need to bring. So if you've ever seen like you know, the cycling, cycling mom, cycling dad with their uh their cargo bikes, they're usually loaded up. Uh all the stuff for the kids, right? You have you know whatever activities you have, you might have their sheet music, if they're a musician, or a ball if they're a you know, and they're cleats if they're going to play soccer. And that that stuff is traditionally what you know uh you might carry in your minivan, right? Uh and I like the term you hear now and Victoria. I don't know if it's elsewhere in in BC, but the millennial minivan. Okay. Good one. And that's that's what uh we that's what we see uh for a lot of these, you know, they're sometimes called bucket bikes, where's the big buckets in the front, you have the kids riding, you have the stuff. Uh and those those uh families, even if they don't make a huge, like an enormous share of all of the bikes that are coming in, I think they benefit some of the most from these services.

SPEAKER_01: 7:38

So you're offering security not just for the bike, but all the gear that's in it. They don't have to have that all locked up too. I I went to a sporting event at BC Place and uh used the bike valet, and it was a rainy day. So I had all my my wet weather gear, but you're not allowed to carry a bag into the stadium. So I was very happy I could just leave that at the bike valet and not worry about it. But tell me, people presumably are motivated by a fear of their bike getting stolen. Do you know anything about is that a real fear or just an imagined fear? Are there a lot of e-bikes being stolen in downtown Victoria without that aren't in the bike valet compound?

SPEAKER_00: 8:16

Well, we have seen a decline in overall bike theft uh since the opening of that bike valet downtown in Victoria. Um and yes, e-bikes do get stolen. Um the batteries, especially, off get stolen off them. So people will steal them, and then you'll just see the frame lying by the side of the road with the more expensive parts ripped off of them. Um and so there's there's other things you can do with a bike valet. For example, bike registration systems like Project 529 make an excellent pairing with bike ballet.

SPEAKER_01: 8:44

Um just tell us for a second, Project 529. I know that's available in Victoria and Vancouver. Is it available throughout the province?

SPEAKER_00: 8:51

I think they did just get funding to offer that throughout uh with police departments across the whole province. Um, so yes, uh, I believe while it might not be in your municipality right now, um, you can definitely register it. Uh the question is whether your local police departments are already um using it. So that's something to check on the 529 website. Let's just or with your local police department.

SPEAKER_01: 9:14

Just do a little sidetrack on project 529. When you register your bike, what do you get? How is it how does it protect your bike?

SPEAKER_00: 9:22

So it's the bike registry that uh police departments use to check um like if a bike is stolen uh or who the owner of a bike. So there's a couple components to that. One is the registration. So you basically take a picture of your bike, you take uh the identifying information like uh serial number, any special things about the bike, like its color, its make, um, maybe what year it is, depending on how much information you have on your bike. And you put this into their database using their app, it's pretty quick. Um doesn't take more than a couple minutes. And then uh when if your bike is stolen, you can report it stolen on the app. So uh or online. And so when police are looking around, if they see a bike they think is stolen, they'll do a check on uh there's there's stickers you can put on the bike that have a really clear identifying number, or they can check the serial number against that database to see if that bike or something they can search by description to um just just to really try and track that bike down.

SPEAKER_01: 10:23

So it gives you a really much higher chance of getting your bike back if it's stolen, but it's it's not and maybe a sh a smart thief would see the sticker and go, I better not steal this bike because the police will find me. So let's talk about um you're administering some grants for the BC Cycling Coalition that were uh the Ministry of Transportation Information and Infrastructure set up. And you've received applications from all over the province, so you've got a pretty good view of who's doing bike valets, who is doing bike valets, what organizations are doing them around the province.

SPEAKER_00: 10:57

So I can't speak too much about applications because we haven't uh announced uh any of that information. But in terms of who is currently doing bike valets, um it's actually a very diverse uh set of people. So in Victoria, for example, we have Capital Bike, um, which is like the local cycling group. We have uh more coalition like cycling coalitions across the province, so member organizations of the BC Cycling Coalition, um, including uh like the Comox Valley Cycling Coalition up Island, uh River City Cycles in Campbell River. Um we even see private companies like uh I think Whistler Bike Valley uh does a contract with the City of Whistler, uh the resort municipality of Whistler, uh to be uh pedantic about it. Um there's there's some larger players like the nonprofit Best, that's better environmentally sound transportation, I think, in Vancouver. Uh and then you start to see like really smaller players and municipalities. Um cycling coalitions, municipalities, a few private companies, and then maybe pop up things like their own, like nonprofits that do festivals, they might have their own bicycle valet solution. Um, like I think even in Victoria, our local jazz festival has like their bike parking solution. It's uh I think it's just raffle tickets that they, you know, they'll put it on your bike, and uh it's kind of like you check your bike in, you check your bike out. It's not the same, like it's uh not a traditional bike valet as I described at the beginning, but you have that full range across BC of services from individual small nonprofits to even municipalities offering these services. In terms of event bicycle parking, which is I think where the the bicycle valet really shines, um, even in long term, like if you say, like, let's throw money at this bicycle parking problem, what can we do? Um, I don't actually see a better long-term solution for events than bicycle valet. And that's because you have events in places that don't it doesn't necessarily make sense to put in like a multi-million dollar bike parking solution. You have one or two days where you have huge demand and huge you know, huge need. And bicycle valets fill that niche of secure bike parking over a period of time, uh like a shorter period of time, uh, and then it doesn't require like huge investment.

SPEAKER_01: 13:31

Um much investment does it require to do a reasonable size bike valet? Do you have a like a working number? Is it gonna be at least whatever it is?

SPEAKER_00: 13:42

Um it really depends on what kind of group you're working with, uh and what part of the province, because labor costs vary quite a lot. If you're doing a volunteer-run service, like quite a few markets do, uh, with the local cycling coalitions, your costs are gonna be really low. Like um, even your upfront costs, racks are somewhere in between you know$100 and$500 each, depending on how you get them, what the shipping is, where you get them.

SPEAKER_01: 14:07

How many bikes would that would that park?

SPEAKER_00: 14:09

About 10. 500 bucks. About 10 uh bikes. Um 500 is much very much on the high end, but and and you have to remember that about half the bikes we're parking don't require those racks because they're e-bikes and they stand themselves up. So if you're thinking each rack, you know, for each rack, you're actually buying about double that capacity essentially. Um you get some fencing, you can rent that, or the event provides it. Uh, because most most large events already have big fencing orders, so they can just throw a couple fences on that. Um and then you're looking at just things like tents and chairs and tables that you can usually borrow or you already have lying around. So uh like tag systems, if you just really need to get something started, you can use raffle tickets, and those those are really cheap. Um so like just getting started at the most basic level, very low barrier to entry. Um, and in fact, you might not need to buy racks because triathlons already are gonna have some if you have a triathlon or a uh like bicycle races in your city, they're going to have the kinds of racks you can use for bike valet. Uh and in fact, uh we collaborate with the uh the Tor de Vic in Victoria um to provide larger numbers of racks when we don't have the the number that we want uh or need for an event. How many how many people do you need? Can you do it with two people? Definitely. Um so you should generally have at at least two people, like two people is the minimum so that someone can take a break, but someone's guarding the bikes. Um and then the the any increased numbers is really about dealing with large numbers of people coming all at once. So if you're tidy and orderly in how you put the bikes away, like it's all in sequential order, so you can find them really quickly based on the number or the color, however your system works. There's you can look at the bicycle valet toolkit uh on the BC website, uh BC Cycling website to see more about that. Um but uh yeah, having those having those staff members uh or volunteers just allows you to process huge like large numbers of people. So, for example, at the um South Island Pow Wow, there was a Truth and Real Reconciliation ride um on like the on Truth and Reconciliation Day in 2023. Um I was working that event, and I think we handled something like 200 riders arriving in the space of about 20 minutes. I mean, people had to people had to wait a little bit of time, and we had about 10, 15 people running back and forth with bikes. Um, but as long as you have a good system, you can scale it up really effectively to handle pretty much any number of people. That day we parked over 600 bicycles uh in a pretty short time frame. It was there was not many opportunities to sit down that day. Um and then the I would say the previous month at we have a pretty big music festival. We parked over 2,000 bikes across two weekends. Uh, and that was that was really kind of inspiring to see because that music festival was able to run with basically no parking. Um so everyone came by active transportation or they came by bus uh or maybe taxi.

SPEAKER_01: 17:22

Do you think that having a bike valet will attract some people to an event who would otherwise not come?

SPEAKER_00: 17:29

Definitely. And I think that applies to downtowns as well. So uh we've actually I had a really nice conversation last year with um a couple of uh a night a very nice older couple who said, you know, we live out in Saanich, that's a municipality just outside Victoria, um, not very far. Um, you know, we used to shop in Saanich, but now that the bike valet is downtown, we don't really feel comfortable like leaving and locking our bikes up in Saanich relative to that. So we just come down here for brunch now, every Saturday, every Sunday, instead of uh instead of going out to eat in Saanich, um, because we just feel so much safer. So those kinds of those kinds of small changes um definitely add up. And in fact, in the downtown core, you see a lot of people coming back to shopping.

SPEAKER_01: 18:16

Uh putting the lie to that myth that you can't shop with a bicycle. But we're that's a whole other podcast, too. So in your in your view, looking at the growth of these things and all the different kinds, um where would you like to see what's your dream for bike valets? You know, one at every event or every downtown has one, or every public library has one, or I don't know what schools.

SPEAKER_00: 18:43

Really, my dream for this is that when we're talking about parking, that we talk about bicycle parking as a serious component. Active transportation parking, really, because bike valets park scooters, they park skateboards, uh, they park strollers, which are all part of the mobility um equation and solution. Um I I really think that whenever we consider parking, we consider bike we should consider bike, you know, bike valet, attended bicycle parking, good bike racks, they should all be part of that solution that um and and every problem will have its own solution. Uh there's no one size fits all for bike parking. Uh, and that's that's one of the reasons that I'm trying to develop these materials is to provide more context on that. I I really don't feel that planners actually have a very good toolkit um for those kinds of bicycle parking solutions, especially in BC.

SPEAKER_01: 19:43

So other than planners knowing how to do them better and uh some policies where people planning events in cities and infrastructure always think about bike parking. What would it take to roll out more of these? Is it just a matter of money?

SPEAKER_00: 20:00

Um it's a matter of money and a matter of interest. And bike valets work really well in combination with infrastructure because the the I mean, always that the first thing that's gonna stop people from riding is not feeling safe on the road. And then after that, they need to feel safe off the road, right? They need to feel safe that their bike is secure, that their stuff is secure. Um, so I think like it's kind of the second step. Um safety first on the roads, then safety second, or safety first after, uh, if that makes sense. And perfect sense. Uh I think the there's a couple a couple things there, because I mentioned that bicycle valley is part of a continuum of bicycle parking solutions. Uh one of the things that I really think we should be talking about is that municipalities should include um bike parking as part of event permitting. So one of the things when big events, they already do have to consider parking. Um, for example, if you want to shut down roads or have a big event in a park in pretty much any municipality in BC, they need to consider the effect on the surrounding neighborhoods and roads. Uh so they need to have traffic plans, they need to have parking plans for cars and deal with the disruption that entails. But most municipalities don't require any kind of serious look into how to get there by active transportation. Uh, and I think that's what we really need to be talking about here is if you're going to be, especially in urban areas or areas close to bicycling infrastructure, cycling infrastructure, um, you should be required to consider what kinds of services you should be offering uh so that it's a safe and inviting place for people to arrive in a sustainable and healthy way.

SPEAKER_01: 21:47

Wonderful. I love that. So if if you if I were a potential sponsor, do these bike valets themselves get sponsored? And is that a value for some, I don't know, corporation or group that wants to sponsor them and make them more available?

SPEAKER_00: 22:04

I mean, especially the fixed location ones, yes. Um, so I think uh the downtown Vancouver one, for example, is sponsored, and Translink in uh in Vancouver sponsors quite a few bike valets, uh, although their name isn't always on the bike valet, like they're a big supporter of uh better environmentally sound transportation, and that's one of the reasons they can have bike valets in so many places and at so many Translink stations. Um if you're looking at uh event valets, uh that's really gonna come down to the event too. Um I think that having a branded service that's like, you know, this is the River City Cycling Club, or you know, the this this is a bike valet with its own brand, that's gonna really help with people finding the service. So if you have um so it if you're going to sponsor your service, you should make sure that it's very clear year to year that it's the same thing. Um because people you'll you'll have have to be able to build that trust over the over that time with your uh your clients, the people coming to you with their bike. Uh because it's a it's a big trust thing. Um you're giving someone your little baby that you got uh you got there, um and it's your way back home as well.

SPEAKER_01: 23:31

So do you have to pay do they have to be free or do people are people willing to pay for them? And if so, how much?

SPEAKER_00: 23:38

Uh the most, like the best practice um that I have seen uh and that I have uh that that is pretty standard across industry is that they are free to whoever's bringing their bike. As soon as you introduce a cost, um there's there's actually quite a few issues with that. One, you then have to have infrastructure on site so that people can pay, um which is uh not always the easiest, especially in areas that have like very poor cell reception, which is quite a lot of VC. Um you then also have that delay, so you're much less efficient. Um you have to train staff on how to use that, uh, which if you're doing a volunteer service, uh that adds like a whole nother level of complexity. Um and also people are just gonna be less likely to use it as soon as they have to pay. Like uh that's that's pretty standard. I I've read about, for example, even transit. You know, the moment you make transit free, there's just like something clicks in someone's head, and it's just a way we perceive cost. Uh as soon as you add a charge, it seems way way more expensive, uh, which is one of the reasons, for example, we uh we totally underprice uh the cost of driving uh when you drive a car. Uh it's way it's gonna be way more expensive than you think it is. But we can't you can charge events and you can charge uh provide like uh municipalities to offer those services, and that is a sustainable costing model.

SPEAKER_01: 25:07

I I know that the Better Environmentally Sound Transportation has specialized in this, and they have on their website, I'm sure, some information about how to do a great bike valet or how they could do it for you. Uh thinking of the future, if you think about parking garages, uh they used to always have somebody at an attendant taking your money and checking you in and out. Now it's all automated. Is there an automated future for bike valets? Surveillance cameras or RFID chips or I don't know, automatic payment devices or check-in devices? Or is that too complicated?

SPEAKER_00: 25:42

There's definitely all kinds of solutions for, you know, we we talked about train stations as being that kind of perfect spot for like large-scale investment in permanent bicycling infrastructure. I don't see an automated solution for events uh that would be secure. Uh it's just like the the bike valet model is just kind of perfect for that solution or that problem, I should say. It's a perfect solution to the problem. Um in terms of like downtown bike parking, um, yeah, you have those solutions in like the UK or the Netherlands or Japan where you see these big um cycling garages, or in Japan you actually see the like the automated say this whisk your bike up into a thing. Um there's a couple challenges to that, and one of them is of course e-bikes. It's a lot easier to store a whole bunch of autom like automated storage with um with just kind of standard road bikes, is much simpler than dealing with people's cargo bikes and bucket bikes. Um But having and surveillance cameras are generally less effective than having someone there. I mean, my friend, for example, he got his bike stolen at my university, where we have, I think, pretty much the thing you're talking about, which is uh it's secure bike bicycle storage with uh cameras out the wazoo and an automated door. Um although they did have to take the automation off because the birds kept kept activating the automated door. Uh so in theory, an automated door, yeah. Uh but yeah, he got his bike stolen right out of that, which is like sort of the I don't want to say gold standard, but it's kind of the best we can expect uh for for locking your bike up, which is you know a secure space, lots of cameras. In theory, there's lots of foot traffic. Still got his bike stolen. Um did he get it back? He did not get it back. Uh he he also he didn't have it registered with Project 529, so he might have if he had it registered in registry. But um for so for those kinds of bike um like large infrastructure scale solutions, I think there's a lot of things that we could be looking at. Um, but I'm not sure that cameras and heavier locks are necessarily the solution for that.

SPEAKER_01: 28:00

Sam, are there liability issues with organizations setting these up?

SPEAKER_00: 28:05

I mean, there's there's liability issues with doing anything uh ever. But uh in terms of providing bicycle valet services, it's definitely advisable that your organization should have good liability insurance, um, and that that insurance covers the places that you're doing the bike valet. Um all in all, I mean the the liability is fairly minimal as a service service. Like uh if you think of the kinds of things that, especially like cycling groups do, with group rides um and all that type of stuff, there's some pretty high-risk activities just from a liability perspective, in terms of you know, taking people out in your traffic. And um when you're talking about the liability of a bike valet, like the the number one there was two main things, right? Bike theft and like e-bikes exploding and catching on fire. Uh, neither of which I have ever had to deal with as an issue. In fact, uh we sort of had negative bicycle theft because we recovered a couple stolen bikes. Um fantastic. But in in terms of liability from theft, well, bike valet is much safer than the alternative. So if you're uh if you're an event organizer uh and you're thinking about providing services for cyclists in general, um you're going to bear some of that liability risk. So why not go with the best solution that's going to provide the least risk? Uh in terms of the bike valet model, um, in terms of innovations we can see there, I think one of the biggest issues right now is actually data. Um so in in BC actually has quite poor data collection on things like bicycle parking. Um, most of the efforts that have been done, to my knowledge, have been kind of volunteer driven at the cycling coalition level, often, like local advocacy level, or sometimes municipal level. So the bike valets are actually a great uh way to get data, uh, really great.

SPEAKER_01: 30:00

What kind of data?

SPEAKER_00: 30:01

Well, for example, in the Victoria we uh bike valet, we've developed a uh system called Tag Tracker. One of our volunteers actually made it, which allows us to check the type of bike and when it comes in and out every day. So we have extremely granular data as to um the types of trips that are being made, when they're being made, like what the weather is that day. Um that kind of data I think would be awesome to have at a provincial-wide level. Um for this, at least the fixed location of LA's, because if you combine them with the cycling counts each day, uh and you look at wider surveys like the census data, you can get a really much better picture of mode shift. Um they're also a really good place for outreach for local cycling groups or just interfacing with normal cyclists. Because with any outreach, um, especially for cities, well actually and outreach for anyone, the you always have the problem of the most engaged people are the ones that are going to engage the most. And those those opinions don't necessarily or or needs they don't necessarily reflect the needs and opinions of the public as a lot at large. Whereas with bike bike valets, you have like this really nice cross-section of everyone who's riding a bike or a scooter or uh got a couple unicycles. Um and that that kind of cross-section and also you like of course it's going to encompass people who don't normally have the time or headspace to engage with um with outreach. So, you know, a classic example is you know, young families, I think, are really underrepresented uh in most cycling outreach because if you if you have like kids and both parents are working, you're busy. Um so that's that's the kind of data as well that we should be looking to collect. And if we had that data, what difference would it make? I mean, I'm a big fan of data for data's sake, but um the that kind of mode shift information, I think, drives funding. Um there was a great comment from I think it was a Camloop city counselor that said, look, I think we spend I mean I'm gonna I think it was a cast in that article, and the quote was something like, we spend sixteen thousand dollars per car parking space um in Camloops. Why are those trips more valuable than bike trips? Shouldn't we be putting a similar amount of funding to all kinds of parking and trips downtown? And that's the kind of thinking that that data enables. Um if you can concretely say this investment has produced you know these this many trips, um, this type of trips, it's benefiting all these different kinds of people, it's way more easy, it's way easier to make a case for funding these kinds of services, funding better infrastructure, um, funding programs that build cities that are more sustainable, that are healthier, uh, and that are more active.

SPEAKER_01: 33:09

So I've run out of questions, Sam. Are is there anything you think the world needs to know about bike valets that that we haven't covered?

SPEAKER_00: 33:18

Oh yes, you mentioned um you did mention looking uh for materials on how to run and run your own bike valet and set it up. Um as throughout the summer, I will be adding to the BC Cycling a coalition bike valet toolkit. And I'm hoping that's gonna be like the place you can go to get that information. Um a lot of the like a couple of I should I shouldn't say a lot, a couple of the groups in BC and in the United States have published small guides that are often older, out of date. Um but I'm just kind of bringing those all together to a place where we can you can just go and see all the resources that are available and um some up-to-date resources, especially. Um so I advise I advise people to go to the BC Cycling Coalition website and check that out.

SPEAKER_01: 34:05

Thanks so much, Sam. I hope people do that, and uh I hope that's helpful in more bike valleys being being brought into existence. And I would expect as the the growth in e-bikes and uh cargo bikes increases, that these will become more necessary and popular. And I hope you're involved in making that happen. Thank you. Thanks so much for being on the podcast. It was great to be here. Thanks, Peter. Thanks for listening to Bike Since and supporting Safe Cycling in BC. Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode. BC Cycling Coalition relies on your support to continue our work. Please consider becoming a member and adding your voice to the call for safer and more accessible cycling at BC. Special thanks to our sponsors, BC Hydro, Richards Buell Sutton, ICBC, Moto, and the Bicycle Pro. Visit us at BCcycling.ca