There isn't much brainstorming required on this one, since the City of LA already allows properties with over 10,000 active square feet of Commercial or Manufacturing uses to substitute 2% of their required car parking with bike parking (and has published an okay set of standards for bike parking facilities too). This is from Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 12.21 A.4(c) and 12.21 A.16.

If you're building a shopping center, 98% of your required parking will have to be for cars only - which is a lot of land (and money) to dedicate to free car parking.

When I worked for a developer, the costs of providing enough legally mandated car parking were enourmous, and killed a great many infill projects we wanted to do within the urban core. I'm not talking about 8 story condo projects either. Two and three story conversions of a building into ground floor commercial with upstairs residential (just what most community and specific plans call for) were impossible to build due to stringent requirements to provide lots of car parking for both uses.

So, bicycle access issues aside, mandated car parking is keeping prices high at your local market and keeping quality development (and affordable units) out of the inner city. There is a reason most developments are so big - the only people who can pony up the cash and the connections to build are the big boys. Small, community-based, developers are shut out due to the high capital costs of providing car parking for any new development.

<b>We need to amend the municipal code to alllow a smaller square foot requirement (say, 500 square feet of active use) and to any and all zones (C, M, A, O, R, and others) to take part in this bike swap. We also need to allow the car parking to be reduced by a larger percentage - say, 70% or 90%, or why not 100%?</b>

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Would you be interested in attending/participating in a potential break out session at the Summit focused on bike research? I know there are many people who have and are conducting important research on bike topics. A break out session could be a way to foster dialogue about a bike research agenda, including what research exists, what is being done, and what you would like to see in terms of more research. Please let me know if you would be interested in attending/participating in a research session or if you think a survey would be a more appropriate way of eliciting information and recommendations that could potentially lead to a funded research project conducted by graduate students. Thank you.

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