If the Guinness Book of World Records had a category for “bicycles parked by volunteer valets,” the Washington Area Bicycle Association would surely top the list.
The group set up free bike valet parking for the Barack Obama inauguration in the frigid temperatures on Tuesday and racked 2,040 bicycles.
Most importantly, no one lost a bike. Even a missing helmet was eventually recovered.
Of the two lots, the one at 16th Street was by far the busiest. Volunteers parked 1,127 bicycles at that location, which required them to create an overflow lot with crowd-control fencing. The Jefferson Memorial lot stored 827 bikes.
If you're doing the math, these numbers don't include the volunteers' bicycles, which brought the total to more than 2,000.
While freezing weather made things uncomfortable for spectators, it might have limited the number of cyclists. A WABA press release at The Wash Cycle said:
“Had it been 10 degrees warmer I think we would have been overwhelmed.”
Congratulations to WABA for carrying out such a great public service with so few problems.
Photo by the Washington Area Bicycle Association at flickr.com.
Also, see The Examiner.
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