Giant Comb Bike Rack Gets Big Attention

"In a Tangle" - Roanoke's newest bike rack and piece of public art

Well it’s in.  In a Tangle was dedicated last Friday in the Grandin Village as both the City of Roanoke’s newest piece of public art, as well as its newest piece of bicycle infrastructure.  the 12′ long sculpture can hold 10 bikes easily, and probably more than that with a little creativity.  I was very pleased at the turnout for the dedication, all the great comments made about the piece and the City’s efforts at becoming more bicycle friendly, and even the attention we got for the new Art by Bike route posted over on bikeroanoke.com.  Special thanks to David Tate with WSET for highlighting the route.

In a Tangle was developed by Popup Design in L.A.  After the dedication, I got to ride with the artist, Kagan Taylor, as we toured the eight miles of the Art by Bike route and explored a couple different areas of the city.  Not a bad gig to get to ride your bike for work on a sunny Friday afternoon.

I thought the end of the ride meant the end of the bike-rack related excitement, but it turns out it just got better over the weekend.

First, Popup Design partner Joshua Howell shared that an online design magazine, GOOD, had interviewed them and ran some photos of In a Tangle while it was still in their yard in L.A.  That article and photo has since been picked up by a number of other art and design blogs:  Curbed L.A., The Fox is Black, Colossal Art and Design, Trendhunter, and Incredible Things among them.

Treehugger magazine picked it up on Saturday, and Etsy’s Facebook page shared the article to a flood of positive comments.  Google results for “bike rack comb roanoke” currently return over 18,000 hits (which is, admittedly, an extremely inflated number but a heck of a lot of fun to type).

I’m incredibly proud that RIDE Solutions got to be a part of this, grateful for the immense amount of work the city’s Arts Commission undertook to make it happen, and enormously gratified that the installation seems to be getting Roanoke a lot of good press both for its arts scene as well as its bike culture.

RIDE Solutions Program Director Jeremy Holmes, Roanoke City Vice-Mayor David Trinkle, Arts Commission Chair Nathan Harper, and artist Kagan Taylor cut the ribbon on "In a Tangle"

I wanted to share my comments from the dedication, because I think this piece is not only important for its artistic value and its contribution to safe cycling infrastructure, but also for its economic impact:

RIDE Solutions is thrilled to partner with the Roanoke Arts Commission to bring this new piece to the Grandin Village.   The RIDE Solutions mission is to help people find ways to connect to alternative transportation – to improve air quality, to lead healthier lives, and, ultimately, to save money.  Over the past several years, we have seen bicycling for transportation become an increasingly important part of the region’s transportation picture, as well as a core component of its economic health.

A recent news story reported that economists estimate that for every 10 cent increase in gas prices, 7 million dollars leaves the local economy.  RIDE Solutions believes that encouraging people to ride their bikes by building safe cycling infrastructure and safe bike parking not only helps families take control of their own budgets by avoiding these spikes in fuel costs, it keeps their hard-earned dollars right here in the Roanoke Valley to support our wonderful local businesses and entrepreneurs, people who are working hard and taking risks to make Roanoke a beautiful, vibrant place to live.

We’re particularly excited to see In a Tangle installed in the Grandin Village, one of the bicycle friendliest locations in the Roanoke Valley.  It’s our hope that this major sculptural work will reinforce the Grandin Village as a destination for cyclists as they travel the nearby bike routes and greenways, and its whimsical design will add to the character of this vibrant neighborhood.

I want to thank the businesses and residents of the Grandin area for their support of this project, and the Arts Commission for their partnership in helping bring this piece to fruition.  And I look forward to telling my fellow cyclists, “I’ll meet you at the Comb.”

If Roanoke is already getting a lot of good national attention for the piece, just think what kind of reputation that gives us for, say, attracting the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company to our region, a company who has expressed a deep interest in the outdoors and cycling as part of its corporate values.  (By the way, there’s a very active Facebook effort to bring Sierra Nevada here – go visit the Bring Sierra Nevada to Southwest Virginia page and click ‘like’ to support the cause).  Public art and bicycle infrastructure not only helps Roanoke Valley residents here and now, but are investments in the community that will reap rewards in a business environment that will be increasingly interested in concepts like sustainability.