There is exciting news in the world of bike parking! Along with the newly completed parking lot at the Billings Public Library, there is now tons of extra bike parking on the south side of the building.

Employee bike parking

The employee bike parking marks one of the most innovative bike parking features at the library. Library employees can park their bikes inside the building and out of the weather. With hooks mounted on a cork board wall, employees can “walk” their bikes up the wall and hook the front tire in so the bike hangs securely from the wall. With a shower in the employee-only bathroom, they have truly shown their commitment to supporting active transportation.

The bike parking and employee shower are only a few of the Library’s green features,   which should help the building achieve LEED platinum certification. Under LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, building projects must meet certain sustainability guidelines. Other green features that you may notice at the Library are the beautiful native plants in the ‘parking garden’ and day-lighting, the process of allowing natural light into the building.

Assistant Director Dee Ann Redman said that part of the reason for having bike racks at the new library was to help achieve LEED platinum certification. However, Dee Ann explained that they “had bike racks at the old library too and they were used more than we thought they would be so we really see people being interested in being able to ride their bikes places and have them safe and secured.”

Bike parking on south side of building

So far, response to the bike racks has been very positive. Before the bike parking opened up on the south side of the building, the racks on the north side often got pretty packed. Now that there’s 18 more racks on the south side, bikes don’t have to be quite as squished together but Dee Ann said that they’ve been getting filled up too.

Congratulations to the Library on its new bike parking and parking garden! We are looking forward to seeing more bike parking around town in the future!