Rack em up!

Overview:

Our school needs new bicycle racks to replace the rusty, obsolete and destructive ones we have currently.

Background

The students of Merivale High School, in Ottawa, like to ride their bicycles to school. In fact, about forty to sixty students ride to school each day! Like other schools, the students lock their bikes up at racks located at the front of our building. Unfortunately, we have to admit that our bicycle racks are terrible!

They are old, rusty and poorly designed. In the forty years since these racks were purchased there have been many advances in bicycle technology as well. Generally speaking, bicycles have become more purposeful over the years. To keep bikes secure, u-locks and quick-release tires have become the standard. These are just two features which render the obsolete racks at MHS all but useless. Fat tires, like those found on all mountain bikes, won’t even fit in the racks. Skinny road tires which do fit are at considerable risk of sustaining damage when they “taco” in the racks - which is precisely what happens! There is no argument that the bicycle racks are poorly designed and obsolete relics.

We want to encourage our students and community members who use our school facilities during the evening and on weekends to cycle to our school. Cycling is a great lifestyle choice – conscientiously promoting environmental and healthy-living standards for students and for the community members at large. So, we want to give them bike-safe, dependable and modern racks which are compatible with u-locks and keep kids bikes upright, safe, and undamaged.

The problem is that funding pressures force tough choices between new bicycle racks and other items like technology and text books which are, of course, more essential to the delivery of core curriculum. So, while the racks are desperately needed, they are perpetually shuffled to the bottom of the deck at budget time.

Our proposal is to purchase a minimum of ten (six-ring) racks at a cost of roughly $500 each. A six-ring rack will hold nine bicycles each. This would accommodate the existing demand. Twelve racks would provide the capacity to attract and sustain an increase in the number of cyclists which is ultimately our goal. The total cost therefore, would be (minimum) $5000 to a maximum of $7000.