Saturday, April 4, 2015

From The Coastal Star—Delray Beach: Bike valet makes GreenMarket shopping wheel convenient

From the story by Rich Pollack:
     Seasonal resident Bill Bannon had just ridden his bike to Delray Beach’s GreenMarket when he discovered not only an abundance of bike rack space available but also free valet parking — for his bicycle.
     “I never heard of valet parking for a bicycle,” he said. “I thought it was a joke.”
     But valet parking for bicycles is serious business to the folks at Human Powered Delray — the nonprofit organization providing the service at the Saturday morning market since the season began in October.
     “People weren’t riding their bikes to the GreenMarket because there were only limited bike racks,” says Jim Chard, chairman of Human Powered Delray and strong advocate of seeing more pedestrians and bicycle riders in the city’s downtown area. “Many people didn’t even know there were bike racks.”
     Now, thanks to Human Powered Delray’s free bike valet service, riders don’t have to worry about finding a bike rack. They don’t even have to worry about locking their bikes.
The folks at Human Powered Delray have this quote from H. G. Wells on their website: "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race."