Over a dozen bike racks in East Liberty helped to keep the adjoining parking lot smaller. Photo: Ryan Deto/Axios
There's actually a good reason parts of Pittsburgh have scores of rarely used bike racks.
🚴 The intrigue: The city passed a zoning code amendment in 2010 to allow for mandatory off-street parking minimums to be decreased if developers install bike racks as a replacement.
Each bike rack removes one parking space from the requirement, but that maxes out at 30% of the total required spaces.
🚘 Between the lines: In most neighborhoods, new developments must build varying amounts of off-street parking, making projects more expensive.
Pittsburgh could soon eliminate these parking mandates, like some others, but until those changes are finalized, it will have to settle for bike parking to reduce superfluous off-street parking.