It's a pretty good tie-in, since quite a few of the 22 Celebration Stations (PDF map) in town are located at or near grocery stores: Sehome Village, the Public Market on Cornwall, Haggen on Meridian, Haggen at Barkley, Community Food Co-op at Cordata, and near The Market at Fairhaven. If you're biking past a grocery store on your commute, then you could pretty easily stop for groceries, too!
Bike to Shop day has three locations this year:
The Market at Fairhaven
3125 Old Fairhaven Parkway, Bellingham
(at the I-5 exit for Fairhaven Parkway)
Terra Organica
1530 Cornwall Avenue, Bellingham
(at the corner of Cornwall and Flora)
Haggen Food and Pharmacy
2814 Guide Meridian Street, Bellingham
(at the corner of Illinois and Meridian)
The 'event' part of it is that a Celebration Station will be in front of each store from 10 am to 5 pm (the other Celebration Stations are scheduled for 6:30 - 9:30 am).
In preparation for this event, I decided to take a look at each store's bike parking facilities. See what I found on my ride after the jump.
The Market at Fairhaven has one long wave rack. It is without a doubt the lowest wave rack I've ever seen. It barely comes up to my knees. I think it was shortened -- note the welds on each upright. As odd as it is, it still works with u-locks.
Other notes: The rack's not covered. There is a curb-cut on the end of the sidewalk away from the main entrance, which is convenient for anyone entering the parking lot from the uphill end of Fairhaven Parkway -- but I have a feeling most cyclists enter from 30th, on the downhill end of the lot.
The sidewalk between the rack and the entrance to the store has too much stuff on it to be able to walk on it between the two places.
It'd be good to have another curb-cut in a slightly more convenient location. And it feels like the rack should be on the left of the doors instead of the right, particularly to avoid cars turning into the parking lot from Fairhaven Parkway heading downhill -- it looks like cars can bring a lot of speed into the lot. But it's workable where it is.
Terra Organica (at the Public Market) has two bike parking options -- one bad, one weird but wonderful.
Fortunately there's a second locking option that is a bit more subtle and possibly more flexible. Off to the left side of the entrance they've anchored a cable (it's pretty long) to the curb. There's some slack in the line so you can pull a bike up to the curb, pull the cable up to your bike, and lock to the cable. Both parking places are easy to access, have a little bit of cover, and from each it's a safe walk to the entrance. If the wheel-bender rack was the only option I'd be displeased. The cable option improves things quite a bit.
Haggen (on Meridian) also has two racks, but BOTH are wheel-benders. The location and access is nearly perfect, but the racks themselves are pretty sad.
One is a double-sided wheel-bender, but only one side is accessible -- one side is dramatically bent, and it's also placed up against the wall. The other is a single-sided wheel-bender. Neither is anchored to the sidewalk, and they move around as you try to lock to them.
The maximum theoretical u-lock capacity is therefore 4, but the double-sided rack is jammed up against grocery carts on one side, subtracting one. Meanwhile, both racks frame a little passageway for carts (for drive-through grocery pickup), so parking on those inside ends means you may be in the way of the carts. It's probably ok if there's only one bike parked there, but two would block it. So that gives a maximum usable u-lock capacity of 2 for the two racks.
But the location.... The area is protected by massive zebra crossings. There's a roof. The whole sidewalk is ramped so you can roll right up. After you lock-up, the walk to the entrance is short and entirely on the sidewalk. It would be an all-around wonderful experience if it wasn't for the awful racks.
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I think this Bike to Shop event should be a great opportunity to help the store managers learn about the parking needs of cyclists. It's wonderful that they're hosting these events and it suggests they may be amenable to improving their facilities in ways that encourage their customers to walk or bike instead of driving. So if you stop by the any of the three Bike To Shop Celebration Stations, please share with the store any parking suggestions you may have.
The 'event' part of it is that a Celebration Station will be in front of each store from 10 am to 5 pm (the other Celebration Stations are scheduled for 6:30 - 9:30 am).
In preparation for this event, I decided to take a look at each store's bike parking facilities. See what I found on my ride after the jump.
The Market at Fairhaven has one long wave rack. It is without a doubt the lowest wave rack I've ever seen. It barely comes up to my knees. I think it was shortened -- note the welds on each upright. As odd as it is, it still works with u-locks.Other notes: The rack's not covered. There is a curb-cut on the end of the sidewalk away from the main entrance, which is convenient for anyone entering the parking lot from the uphill end of Fairhaven Parkway -- but I have a feeling most cyclists enter from 30th, on the downhill end of the lot.
The sidewalk between the rack and the entrance to the store has too much stuff on it to be able to walk on it between the two places.
It'd be good to have another curb-cut in a slightly more convenient location. And it feels like the rack should be on the left of the doors instead of the right, particularly to avoid cars turning into the parking lot from Fairhaven Parkway heading downhill -- it looks like cars can bring a lot of speed into the lot. But it's workable where it is.
Terra Organica (at the Public Market) has two bike parking options -- one bad, one weird but wonderful.
There's a rack front-and-center, with no curb so you can ride right up to it. But it's a wheel-bender. It's the double-sided kind, but is close enough to the wall that only one side is usable. Of course the maximum capacity for u-locks is 2.
Fortunately there's a second locking option that is a bit more subtle and possibly more flexible. Off to the left side of the entrance they've anchored a cable (it's pretty long) to the curb. There's some slack in the line so you can pull a bike up to the curb, pull the cable up to your bike, and lock to the cable. 
Haggen (on Meridian) also has two racks, but BOTH are wheel-benders. The location and access is nearly perfect, but the racks themselves are pretty sad.One is a double-sided wheel-bender, but only one side is accessible -- one side is dramatically bent, and it's also placed up against the wall. The other is a single-sided wheel-bender. Neither is anchored to the sidewalk, and they move around as you try to lock to them.
The maximum theoretical u-lock capacity is therefore 4, but the double-sided rack is jammed up against grocery carts on one side, subtracting one. Meanwhile, both racks frame a little passageway for carts (for drive-through grocery pickup), so parking on those inside ends means you may be in the way of the carts. It's probably ok if there's only one bike parked there, but two would block it. So that gives a maximum usable u-lock capacity of 2 for the two racks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think this Bike to Shop event should be a great opportunity to help the store managers learn about the parking needs of cyclists. It's wonderful that they're hosting these events and it suggests they may be amenable to improving their facilities in ways that encourage their customers to walk or bike instead of driving. So if you stop by the any of the three Bike To Shop Celebration Stations, please share with the store any parking suggestions you may have.
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