Bike corral battle brews in Wellington West

CTV Ottawa: Bike corral hurts business CTV's John Hua on the west business angry about a bike parking station in front of his shop, driving away business.

A bike corral pilot project is causing pain for one Ottawa business.

“When you can't find a spot you're going to say the hell with it, I'm going to go to the suburbs where there is ample parking,” says Joel Diener, owner of Saslove’s Meat Market.

Diener is worried the corral that has been set up on Wellington St. near Grange Ave. could be costing him customers. The corral is one of three taking up parking spots previously designated for cars in Westboro, Hintonburg and the Glebe neighbourhoods.

“The corral takes up one spot and it’s 12 bike parking spots in the place of one vehicle,” says Zach Dayler of the Wellington West BIA.

Dayler says he believes the corrals are actually benefitting businesses.

“The spending is about the same, but we’re finding that cyclists are doing more return trip,” Dayler adds.

Many people admit that car parking has always been at a premium in the area.

“It probably doesn’t make sense to use prime parking spots for bikes,” says driver Tim Davis.

Others say there is already quite of bit of bike parking on the sidewalks along the stretch and having the bike corral at that location might be redundant.

Tall Tree Cycles manager Grant Burke says the demand for bike parking is only growing.

“Frankly I've seen that space full on the weekends and on good nights,” says Burke.

The pilot project is set to last up to six months or the duration of the cycling season.

The Wellington Street West BIA says it will wait for the report from staff, but isn’t against relocating the corrals.

With a report from CTV’s John Hua.