New Parking on the mall

The National Park Service is going to expand bike parking facilities on the Mall by 100 racks. There are already a few bike racks there; however, they're varied in design and state of repair - for example the racks at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which are old and falling apart. 

After consulting with Eric Gilliland of WABA on rack design,  NPS decided to use the inverted U (or hoop) racks on the mall (with posts as a secondary option) at as many as 20 different locations. NPS will pay for the racks and DDOT is going to install them. This is good news. There's a derth of good parking down there.

The Park Service has already added bike racks at 15th St & Constitution Ave around the Washington Monument and more are planned for the Lincoln Memorial area when construction is finished there.  Some of these will also be replaced in the near future. Other locations for bike racks include Constitution & Independence Avenues and the replacement of some racks in front of the Air and Space Museum.

If you have a locaton you'd like to recomend you may contact Alexa Viets National Capital Parks - Central, Transportation Analyst at (202) 485-9877 with specific questions or locations.

I would love to see NPS add a bike station at the Smithsonian Metro stop. Then you wouldn't have to lock up to a streetsign or expose your bike to the elements (see photo). Commuters could use it. Tourists would definately use it. It may even be capable to get plumbing in - which will not be true of the Bike Station at Union Station.