Royal City residents are welcome to use Mayor Jonathan Cote’s prime parking stall if they ride their bikes to city hall.
Cote celebrated Bike to Work Week by having a bike rack installed in his parking stall at the rear entrance to city hall and invites cyclists to park in his spot.
“It’s been well know that the mayor’s parking stall did not get well used very often. I think I have driven to city hall twice since being elected,” Cote told the Record. “I do normally walk up to work.”
Cote had no qualms about giving up his parking spot as a way of encouraging staff and residents to bike to city hall and leaving their single-occupancy vehicles at home. The rack can hold six bikes.
Cote said a few city employees bike to work but there was definitely an uptake during Bike to Work Week, which was May 30 to June 5.
“We want to encourage all forms of sustainable transportation to be more regular forms for getting to city hall, both from employees and residents,” he said. “We thought this would be a neat way to highlight that and provide a nice, safe spot. In the fall we are even looking at potentially putting a cover over the bike rack too.”
New Westminster’s master transportation plan envisions that 50 per cent of all trips in the city will be made by walking, cycling or taking transit by 2031. That’s expected to increase to 60 per cent of all trips by 2041.
Coun. Patrick Johnstone, an avid cyclist and chair of the city’s advisory committee for transit, bicycles and pedestrians, welcomed the bike rack at city hall.
“It’s good to have more bicycle parking, especially here at city hall,” he said. “Visitors are more likely to take their bike somewhere if it can be secured somewhere safe.”
Lisa Leblanc, the city’s transportation planner, said there is another bike rack outside city hall and an indoor bike storage for staff, but the mayor’s stall is in a prominent and convenient place for cyclists. A survey of city staff done in 2014 found that three per cent of respondents cycle to work, a number that’s consistent with the regional average.
Cote, who lives in downtown New West, uses sustainable modes of transportation most days, as he generally walks to work and takes transit to meetings. “I find our family vehicle actually gets parked most days, Monday to Friday.”
Council members get a monthly vehicle allowance, with councillors getting $100 and the mayor getting $200.
“I think obviously there are various forms of transportation to get to all the different meetings and things like that. I think it’s more of a transportation allowance,” Cote said. “It’s always been in place. When you compare us to most other cities in Metro Vancouver, we are by far the lowest amount for transportation allowance in the region. The mayor has always had a transportation allowance, for at least the past 10 years.”
