November 21, 2013 · Exit133

Bikes & Business

Tomorrow morning the City of Tacoma hosts a workshop titled "Bikes Mean Business."

City of Tacoma staff invite business owners and business district leaders to a workshop to learn how welcoming bicyclists can be a profitable marketing angle.

The conversation over coffee and a light breakfast will include examples of what other communities examples of what similar-sized communities around the U.S. are doing to leverage the growth of bicycling for their business districts.

We often see the on-street bike corral at The Red Hot full in the warmer, drier months, and a number of Tacoma businesses have started hosting bike-oriented events. If you're a cyclist, what have you seen businesses do here or elsewhere that you liked? What else could Tacoma businesses and business districts do to win your business?

Filed under: Transportation, Biking, Tacoma Business, Events

8 comments

Carl J November 23, 2013

I ride everywhere. The only business that allows me to come by bike is the Lucky Silver on S Tacoma Way. Everywhere downtown is off limits. Being originally from Seattle and moving here from Portland, I'd say forget even trying to create a culture. You'll need to repave the entire city to at least 2nd world standards before you try to convince anyone that bikes are a good idea. Tacoma is extremely dangerous to ride.. even more so to commute.
- talus November 23, 2013
  
  Moving here from other larger cities, including Seattle, known for decent bike infrastructure, I disagree. North, central, and even to some degree downtown Tacoma are quite bikeable -- some other neighbhorhoods, principally the area around Tacoma Mall, are not. Tacoma's relative lack of traffic and abundant quiet side streets somewhat make up for a lack of dedicated bike infrastructure. Anyhow, in spite of the need to fix our streets, there is a decent (and increasing) number of bicyclists in my neighborhood.
Carl J November 25, 2013

Hey that's great that your affluent neighborhood is bikeable. I'm too fast for sidestreets, so a single route from the south would be nice before we paint any more cute slogans on trains and start awareness campaigns is all I'm saying. Or I could crash and get a quarter million like that guy did recently. Whatever. The upside is that it's rather easy to take Strava KOMs in this town because there is no infrastructure; thus no serious bike culture. See you out there.
- talus November 25, 2013
  
  My neighborhood would be a "bad" neighborhood in Seattle, but whatever. Congrats on being "fast." When I think of a biking culture, I think of using bikes to get around at what ever speed, which more and more people are doing in Tacoma.
  - Carl J November 27, 2013
    
    Portland and Denver have what they have because of racers. Cycling over 20mph is a completely different game. When you build lanes and roads to accommodate people who ride at the speed limit, others feel empowered to come out and ride in those safer roadways.
Susanne Marten November 25, 2013

Riding in the south end is dangerous but I see many more bicyclists trying to do so. Perhaps it is time to identify a side street in the south end as a dedicated bicycle track? Also, since you can hear a "pin drop" in Tacoma on Sundays maybe the business districts could sponsor Sunday biking events to test out different track possibilities?
- Stu November 25, 2013
  
  [quote]Perhaps it is time to identify a side street in the south end as a dedicated bicycle track? [/quote] Sounds fine, as long as we can do the same for cars. No bikes allowed on certain streets, motorized vehicles only. Best on arterials that have little or no shoulder for bikes to ride on.
thackerspeed November 25, 2013

"City of Tacoma staff invite business owners and business district leaders to a workshop to learn how welcoming bicyclists can be a profitable marketing angle." Right. This is the highly lucrative hidden market that will cause the next spike in consumer spending.