SABA uses a fenced parking compound made up of lightweight plastic materials. The original fenced area was about 20 feet wide and about 35 feet long. The fence is configured in a U shape, where the open end is where we put the check-in table.

The bike parking compound was originally designed to hold 52 bikes (one on each side of a hoop), leaving a center aisle for the maneouvering of the bikes. We have worked out an arrangement with a weekly city event of free concerts in Plaza Park on Friday nights. Depending on who is playing, we might exceed that capacity. Our record is 104 bikes, which was really cramming them into open spaces and using whatever kickstands available.  We have parked more than 900 bikes at the two-day Salmon Festival at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery and parked hunderds more at  the Heritage Festival.

We use two part tickets for claim system (the same as used for raffles). When a bike comes in, we tape one half of the ticket (face down so that the numbers aren't visible) to the the handlebars. The other half of the ticket we give to the bicycle owner. At  that moment, we have the bike owner put his or her name on a list on a clipboard, along with the corresponding last three numbers on the ticket.

When the owner comes back, he/she gives us the ticket and we fetch their bike. They tell us their name and if everything matches up, we hand over the bike and cross the name off the list.

SABA now offers the following size compounds

	Small	Standard	Large
Dimensions	40x20'	60x20'	60x40'
Approx capacity	100	175	300-350

Event organizers

If you are an event organizer and would like to provide valet bike parking, contact SABA via e-mail or (916) 444-6600 for more information and fee schedules.

Valet bike parking provides environmental, public health and convenience benefits to event-goers and other benefits to the whole community. It's evidence of your commitment to your customers and to a sustainable future.

The racks are a simple matter of PVC pipes all cut to the same length of 30 inches. They are made into two components: the "hoops" and the runners. The hoops are glued together with PVC fittings and cement, so as to cut down on the number of loose parts during transport.

The plastic pipe used is Schedule 40 PVC. It comes in 10 foot lengths (120 inches). The fence modules are half of a piece of pipe (60 inches), and the racks are four pieces to a pipe (30 inches).

The surrounding fence is similar in that it uses 60-inch runners and verticals. We then weave a plastic construction fence onto the verticals. The standard size of this is fifty feet, so two of these and wrap the perimeter, leaving a little excess in the front.

The fence is 4 foot tall plastic fencing used frequently at construction sites, and available at home improvement stores. Ususally it is orange in color, but I was able to find white. The check-in table is one of your basic lightweight folding tables.

The rest is minor stuff like masking tape, clipboard, a roll of tickets, paper, pen with a string, etc.