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LEED requirements for bike parking are pretty weak. The parking can be as far away from the building as 200 feet, and requirements for type of rack must be weak as well if VDOT can get away with using wave racks instead of a more functional rack like the U rack. The new VDOT building in Fairfax is an example of poor rack placement. There are no curb ramps leading to the racks which are located a long walk from the building. When we asked that some U racks be placed closer to the building where there is plenty of room, we were told they were not acceptable. The LEED bike parking requirements need to be more along the lines of Arlington's.

See the FABB blog post about the VDOT building bike parking.

It's a tradeoff. The very features that made it palatable for builders, and thereby the industry norm when it might have been the exceptions, are also the flaws. Recall that market embrace of LEED was by no means a sure thing.

My own experience with LEED and bike parking are that you need to get a seat at the table during the design phase for parking and then press as hard as possible to get the most you can using whichever is better on any specific point, LEED or, in the case of DC, zoning. Rack design is an issue--those responsible for ordering have no clue what works and doesn't, and they generally suspect that your suggestion will be more expensive, even though that's not the case. Frankly, the rack industry needs to stop making and marketing useless designs.

LEED does not define anywhere in their reference guide what a "bicycle space" is. The only requirements they have are that the rack is secure (which is subjective) and within 200 yards of the building entrance.

The type of rack, the quantity of bikes that can fit on the rack, and whether or not it's secure...all that is up to the design team.

If the owner just wants the point without meeting the actual intent of the credit, you're going to get a wheel bender type rack in the bottom of the parking garage.

In DC, it has to be on the first parking level. That is the single best provision in the DC zoning code when it comes to bike parking. It means that most of the time, the bike parking will be in view of a parking attendant. Don't forget to give that person a little something at Christmas time, and greet them every day. It may save your bike from being stolen.

Interesting...the bike rack in the building I work is on the 3rd parking level.

District of Columbia Municipal Regulations Title 18, Chapter 21: 2119 BICYCLE PARKING SPACES:

2119.3 Bicycle facilities shall have convenient access from the building or structure and street or other bicycle right-of-way, be clean, secure and well lit and shall be located within a building or structure, either on the ground floor, basement, or first cellar level.

Do you know if title 11 was ever amended as proposed a few years back with the more in depth regulations than what you've quoted here?

The proposed amendment: http://app.dcoz.dc.gov/content/schedule/ViewFile.aspx?fileId=206&fileName=PHN08

I don't. The DC website has a DDOT Bicycle Program listed at (202) 671-2331.

It should be more focued on the buildings and the USE of the building; leaving the lights on all night doesn't help. Bike-parkng and fuel efficient parking spots - less helpful.

Perhaps an integration of bike-share in the future, or one of Alpert's magic transit screens....

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