HALIFAX – In early January, Spacing Atlantic teamed up with the Halifax Cycling Coalition and launched a poll of the best and worst bike parking spots in Halifax and Dartmouth. After over a month of voting, we’re ready to announce the winners of the Best and Worst of Bike Parking in the HRM for 2009!
Winner of Best Bike Parking: The Dickson Centre Entrance at the Victoria General Hospital
This spot really blew all other nominees out of the water. With its high capacity, sheltered parking area, multiple bike rack designs and the security of the commissionaires office nearby, the Dickson Centre Entrance at the Victoria General Hospital site was the clear winner with 69% of votes.
We met up with John Gillis (Media Relations Advisor), Laura Smith (Workplace Health Promotion Planner) , Jeffery Horne (Supervisor Maintenance & Operations) and John Mason (Supervisor Maintenance & Operations) to pass on the HCC/Spacing certificate of recognition to the Capital District Health Authority (CDHA) for their leadership in making bike parking a priority for staff, students and families of patients.
When asked what prompted the investment in bike parking infrastructure, Laura Smith indicated that the CDHA had been receiving requests for improvements to their bike parking services by staff and guests. In response, the CDHA reached out to the Ecology Action Centre to help them design quality bike parking facilities. What we have now is a sheltered and safe parking area for everyone working or visiting the Victoria General complex.
With a strong focus on improving the health of their staff through uses of public space like this, it is no wonder that CDHA ranks among the top 100 best employers in Canada.
Winner of Worst Bike Parking: The Halifax Ferry Terminal
Probably one of the most exciting poll results since the Gore-Bush election! Every single nominee in this category was able to hold on to the lead for a couple days at a time, but we’re sure we’ve found our clear winner (and no, the poll results weren’t skewed by FOX News, and we didn’t have to go to the supreme court to figure this one out).
With its middle of the road rack design, impaired capacity and unusual execution, the bike rack at the Halifax Ferry Terminal has won this category with 35% of the vote. This is truly disappointing as this area could encourage multi-modal transportation (ie. a blend of cycling, walking and the ferry to get where you need to go) if only cyclists were catered to more thoroughly.
Unfortunately we have been unable to find a representative of the Halifax Terminal to deliver this award to.
Photos courtesy of Mark Teo. Certificates courtesy of Steve Bedard.
One comment
Nice work Spacing and HCC, and thanks for rewarding those who do well in addition to finger-wagging at those who do poorly.