College Station currently requires business by law to provide a certain number of parking spaces for cars based on the size of a business. Very often, this means businesses need to dedicated more land area for parking lots than for the actual business itself. But despite the massive amounts of space being dedicated to parking, cyclists are still often forced to lock their bikes onto stop signs, poles, and trees. Not only does this increase theft risk and encourages more people to choose adding another car into traffic and a parking space, but it is also unsightly and makes the area less cohesive and more unkempt. Additionally, the space required to park 1 car can be used to securely lock up 10 bicycles, so this can be a net positive when it comes to parking spaces

In the recent city 10 year plan the local government with public input decided among 10 themes to guide development. Among these themes are Creating a stronger sense of place, Focusing on Quality of Life, Building a more complete transportation system, and Addressing green initiatives. Requiring secure bike parking alongside current requirements would address all of these, all while not increasing taxpayer spending on expensive infrastructure projects.

This petition proposes that while we have parking requirements for commercial areas, those requirements be made to serve all citizens, like many bike friendly American cities already do.