The 2023 edition of the Penticton Farmers' Market just got a bit more complete and a lot more compelling with the addition of its "Bike Valet" service, starting tomorrow, May 6.
Granted, current weather conditions aren't exactly ideal for bike riding. But soon enough they will be.
It's the fifth year for the service, which is a product of local cycling advocacy organization PACA (Penticton and Area Cycling Association) and operates much like a coat check. Except instead of checking coats, they check bikes.
From 8:30 am to 1 pm every day of the market, folks can ride their bikes to adjacent Gyro Park, confident that the staffed-by-humans valet will store them and monitor them until they return.
Best of all, the service costs zero dollars to use.
According to a PACA media release dated May 3, its Bike Valet concept began operation in 2018 and has parked 3,567 bikes since then. The 962 bikes it parked last year was a 20% increase over the number from the best previous year.
"When compared with parking cars," continued the release, "parking bikes is extraordinarily inexpensive. PACA urges the City of Penticton to invest in end-of-trip facilities for bicycles and make cheap, inclusive, and sustainable forms of transportation like biking an easier choice for its citizens."
PACA Urban Cycling Director Matt Hopkins had another little tidbit for the folks at City Hall to think about.
"Last summer," he said, "we parked as many bikes on a weekly basis in our 900-square-foot Bike Valet area as City Hall’s 31,000-square-foot parking lot holds in cars.
"We started in 2018 with a mission to show our city leaders that cycling in Penticton will increase if it becomes a safe and easy form of transportation.”
For more info on the Penticton and Area Cycling Association, go here. For more info on the Penticton Farmers' Market, go here.
