Where Exactly Are Those 325 Bicycle Racks?

The bike racks that are sprinkled around town have intrigued me since many of them started appearing a couple years ago.

In the spring of 2011, the city of Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University were awarded a grant to improve conditions for local bicyclists. According to stories on this website, a large part of the grant went towards buying 325 bike racks -- 68 for the city and 257 at the University. The reported cost was $108,420, which included installation. That works out to be about $333 per rack.

At the end of December 2013, I did an informal audit of many downtown streets as well as some parks and the two local University campuses and only observed 143 bike racks. Some of those, I'm pretty sure pre-dated this grant, since they weren't in the two most common styles.

The first style is in the shape of the ships wheel from a riverboat, and those are predominantly found on the city streets. The other variety are U-shaped tubular steel set in concrete and typically clustered in groups of 4 or more with river symbolism decorating the end pieces. I only found those at the University.

One of the ships wheel racks was installed on the sidewalk next to Lorimier Street at the back of the Common Pleas Courthouse in the fall of 2011. This is across from the parking lot I use for work. It is a nice bike rack, although I've only seen it used once in the two and a half years it has been there.

It was such a rare sighting I even took a photo on that remarkable afternoon of January 21, 2013. I felt like I had spotted Big Foot or witnessed a session of Congress when something was actually accomplished.

After this rack was installed, I saw no others like it around town for the longest time. My assumption -- which turned out to be correct -- was that the city was waiting for the Broadway Beautification / Lap-Band Reduction a.k.a Casino Speedway project to be completed before more were installed. When that project was finished, a handful of the ships wheel racks did appear on Broadway, but not nearly the quantity I was expecting.

During my unofficial bike rack tally, I counted only 27 racks on the downtown streets including Capaha Park.

As far as the University is concerned, one would surmise that you couldn't walk around either of the local campuses without practically tripping over one of their 257 racks, but that too does not seem to be the case. With the University shut down for business over the Christmas holiday, I spent about an hour driving the nearly vacant grounds looking for bike racks. I found 116.

The University Center seems to have the most at 12 with Scully and the Towers Residence Hall Complex right behind at 11 each, but most buildings around campus tend to have between 4 and 8. I found the eight at the River Campus particularly confusing because they're in the middle of the scooter and motorcycle parking on the west side of the property. The signage makes it appear that the racks are for those vehicles and not bikes at all.

I did think it was interesting that I could find no bike rack anywhere around the newly renovated Academic Hall. I even walked around the building twice looking for one.

I guess if Dr. Dobbins happens to pedal to work he'll have to lock his bike up at the racks outside Serena or across Normal at the University Center.

Or he could do like most people and chain it up to whatever immovable object is closest to where he is going.

So where are all the racks in the city and at the University that this grant paid for? Are they sitting in storage, waiting for some yet to be finished project to be completed? Or did I just overlook them during my informal survey? I did find it odd not to see any of them at the parks. If you know of one that I missed, add a comment to this story about the location.

City
Broadway (West End Blvd to Water Street) -- 18
Water Street -- 0
Independence (Sprigg to Water) -- 2
Themis (Sprigg to Lorimier) -- 0
Themis (Spanish to Water) -- 0
Lorimier (William to Broadway) -- 1
Main (Broadway to William) -- 3
Spanish (William to Broadway) -- 3
Indian Park -- 0
Capaha Park -- 0
Sprigg (William to Bertling) -- 0
Public Works -- 0
Shawnee Park Center -- 1 multi-style

University
River Campus -- 8
Intramural Fields / Tennis Courts by Bertling -- 0
Cheney Hall -- 8
South Rec Center -- 5
Crisp Hall -- 7
Grauel -- 5
University Center -- 12
Myers Hall -- 4
Kent Library -- 5
Dearmont -- 5
Serena -- 5
Academic Hall -- 0
Memorial Hall -- 0
Facilities Management -- 0
Scully -- 5 on the west side, 6 on the south for a total of 11
Parker -- 5
Dempster -- 6
Rhodes -- 1 multi-style
Magill -- 1 multi-style
Polytech -- 5
Rec Center North -- 5
Towers -- 11
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March 9, 2011 - http://www.semissourian.com/story/1708987.html

November 16, 2011 - http://www.semissourian.com/story/1784859.html