Sports

Bike and Walk Morristown Wins Bike Corrals at Kings

The official results were announced Monday. According to Bike and Walk Morristown's Facebook page, they won with 645 votes. The bike corral will be at Kings Food Market

The official results are in with Morristown beating out two other towns for bike corrals near Kings in a national contest. The Facebook voting period for the 2013 Saris Bike Corral Photo Contest ended April 5 with Morristown on top.

"We are excited to announce that Kings Food Market of Morristown, New Jersey won a Saris Branded Bike Corral," said Heather Fortune of Saris. "Their entry showed great need and tremendous public support for increased bicycling parking. Saris is thrilled to work together with Morristown in their effort to become a great place to ride a bike."

The official results were announced April 8. Bike and Walk Morristown posted the following results on their Facebook page:

Find out what's happening in Morristownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Final Score:

645 Morristown, NJ
595 Concord, Ma
112 Wheat Ridge, Co

Find out what's happening in Morristownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I was nervous," said Kendra Arnold, Co-Founder, Bike and Walk Morristown, about the last day of voting. "I had to go into the city and my phone battery was dying and I kept putting it on airplane to save battery for only contest updates.  I think there were about 5 or 10 people who stayed up until 1 a.m. to see how it ended.  it was really close, and Concord really pushed forward at the end, which made us a little crazy and extra annoying, but people really were supportive of this.  We went to Kings for a few hours one day this week to talk to people about it, and every response we got was "that's great!"  The response from people in Morristown and nearby was really fantastic."

Arnold and many others had worked hard to spread the word through Patch blogs and asking everyone to vote for them and tweet to get the word out there. Their hard work has paid off and with the recent planning board approval of the Bike Plan in Morristown, residents are excited about the future. 

"It is also great to see so many towns wanting to have bike corrals in their towns, places like Morristown and Concord, and tons of schools who wanted kids to be able to have a place to store their bikes, to brewpubs and ice cream shops and bookstores.  It really shows a shift in thinking about how people want to get around and experience the places where they are living," said Arnold.

The contest tried to encourage communities to cycle and Saris gave one bike corral to the entry that shows the greatest need, most compelling location and strong public support of a bike corral.

A bike corral converts the space of one car parking stall to parking for 10 bikes. It’s a great use of space and a low cost option for more customer parking, it frees up sidewalk space for pedestrian foot traffic and communicates a commitment to bike-friendliness, according to Saris. For more information, visit www.saris.com

Here's their Winning Entry: 

We would be pretty psyched to have a bike corral at Kings Food Market, in Morristown, New Jersey. Kings is one of two main supermarkets in our town of about 20,000 and giving people who are already riding there a secure and cool place to lock up their bike would be fantastic. A bike corral like this would encourage other people to bring their bikes out on trips around town.

Our town has so many dedicated cyclists, and over the past few years, so many people have been working pretty hard on making it easier for people to ride bikes and get to know the town in a friendlier way. The Morristown council passed a pretty amazing complete streets policy in the last year, and the planning board is set to vote on a bicycle plan that has been five years in the making. The town is constantly striving to improve its efforts toward sustainability and is already certified by Sustainable New Jersey, a statewide program that certifies towns that want to go green and improve their quality of life. Bike and Walk Morristown has stepped up to offer classes on how to ride your bike in New Jersey roads, as well as community events to get people out riding together.

Having a bike corral at Kings, on a large, wide sidewalk, right next to where they put out picnic tables in the summer, would really make this store a hub of community activity. During the hurricanes and blizzards, Kings has kept the community in mind and always stayed open, sometimes with dim lights, but always with a friendly atmosphere. Making this the store the location for Morristown's first impressive bike corral would say a lot about our community's commitment to biking.


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