Caryn
I can talk to you more about this if you would like. We are working on this too. We have a pretty extensive Safety Precautions document and we are open for appointment-only bike repair with our Bike Shop.
In short, we do do these steps below for safety in the Bike Shop (with some other steps for other areas of our org) We closed everything to the public in early March in an 'abundance of caution' to figure out what is going on with the COVID situation and last week 're-opened' with appointment only services, an ecommerce store and we have been doing a bunch of posting of special parts, frames, and bikes on eBay. Also we are still doing bike giveaways to low-income individuals by appointment-only or through community partners that are providing essential services. (FYI Seattle as of March 25 is in a "Stay-at-Home" mandate and a limited list of things have been deemed 'essential services)
*BIKE SHOP SAFETY PRACTICES*
Bike Works Bike Shop is CLOSED to the public- No entry into our facilities is allowed by members of the public
Repair service(s) are offered by appointment only. Customers can email or phone to schedule their appointment and discuss the services they think are in need. Payment will be taken over the phone when work is completed or through our website. We are giving 50% discounts on repairs ( parts and labor) for grocery store workers, medical staff and social services professionals providing other essential services.
We will follow these steps for safety precautions:
1.) Customers will drop their bicycles at the porch and lock up using the provided combination word lock. Locks will be sanitized each time a staff person uses it. Word locks will have their combination changed at the start of each day with a record kept of each word used and on which day.
2.) Mechanics will disinfect the bikes before bringing them into the shop, assess the best service for the bicycle and call the customer to confirm service needed
3.) Once repairs are completed the bikes will be disinfected again, customers will be called to arrange pick up and we will return to the porch and lock up with combo lock. *Point person for this process: Lead Mechanic
4.) Mechanics will use gloves at all times while working on bicycles
5.) Physical Distancing *must *be used in the workplace of at least 6 feet at all times. One mechanic will work using the stands on the sales floor while a second will occupy the upper level Sun Room. Mechanics can access the shop through separate doorways to mitigate exposure (porch entrance and side door to Blue Room).
6.) Shared spaces such as the bathroom and office will be cleaned with each use. The office computer will be used *only* for business-related needs. Personal use while on break, etc. will be prohibited. Please refrain from using the kitchenette to prepare food.
7.) Clean AND disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces such as workstations, keyboards, telephones, handrails, phones and doorknobs. Dirty surfaces should be cleaned with soap and water prior to disinfection.
8.) Avoid using other employees’ phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment, when possible. If necessary, clean and disinfect them before and after use.
Here is an article from the Seattle Bike Blog about this https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2020/03/30/bike-works-reopens-shop-by-appoin...
I hope this helps. Also, I should say- our Safety Precaution document is a working document and will change as the CDC or state or local public health or government officials recommend more / different things... like masks-- or whatever might come next and will also continue to incorporate any changes that staff think we should make to our practices to make them more safe.
Thanks
Deb
http://www.bikeworks.org/ Deb Salls *Executive Director* she/her pronouns what's this? https://uwm.edu/lgbtrc/support/gender-pronouns/ 206.695.2607 https://www.facebook.com/BikeWorksSeattle https://twitter.com/bikeworks206 https://www.instagram.com/bikeworks206/ bikeworks.org
*Bike Works promotes the bicycleas a vehicle for change to empoweryouth and build resilient communities.* *Bike Shop: *3709 S Ferdinand St, Seattle, WA 98118 https://www.google.com/maps/place/3709+S+Ferdinand+St,+Seattle,+WA+98118/@47.5576203,-122.2879379,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x54906a0c217011bf:0x636bcae5fac16123!8m2!3d47.5576203!4d-122.2857492 *Office, Warehouse & Classrooms: *3715 S Hudson St #111, Seattle, WA 98118 https://www.google.com/maps/place/3715+S+Hudson+St,+Seattle,+WA+98118/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x54906a0ea2b3bb1d:0xc31eaefbc937e82d?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjRv7KImaHiAhVM-lQKHWhJC4UQ8gEwAHoECAoQAQ
On Thu, Apr 2, 2020 at 3:48 PM BICAS bicas@bicas.org wrote:
Thanks everybody. I know many of us have had to make a new decision every two days with the changing world around us so quickly.
BICAS has 14 hourly wage staff, all of whom can still be paid by coming in to refurbish bikes at the shop that will eventually be for sale after all this is over, as long as they work far away from each other and clean and disinfect everything after. Our Community Tools, classes, and retails spaces have been shut down since mid-March, which is a heavy financial burden. We are applying for local emergency grants and probably also for the CARES Act loan.
We have also decided to re-open mid-April for extremely limited services - no members of the public will be allowed into the building, but staff will provide sliding scale repairs to make bikes safe and rideable (no needless changes and upgrades), prioritizing frontliners whose bike is their main mode of transportation and/or people who cannot afford repairs at retail shops (many of which never closed here in Arizona because our governor has declared almost everything "essential" *eye roll emoji*.)
I am still concerned about the prospect of people congregating outside the building, but we have said if it becomes an issue, we will have to close the shop completely again and disband everyone.
Can anyone else who is staying open/providing some services respond about your safety protocols? How do you space folks apart? Do you wipe down bikes that come in? Do you cover the handlebars with something? Do you use DIY masks? We would love to benefit from everyone's collective creativity on "risk management." Thank you.
~Carlyn
On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 11:26 AM Audrey Wiedemeier audrey@bikelibrary.org wrote:
Pardon, but that last link is not the correct one. Here is the link to the folder with all our covid 19 docs:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hPWES96NDNkez7TsgonqkklEzwQ6mTCV?usp...
Peace & grease,
*Audrey Wiedemeier* (She/her/hers) Iowa City Bike Library, Director
700 S. Dubuque St, Iowa City *Hours: *Sat. 10-3, Mon. 5-7, Tues. 6-8, Wed. 6-8, Thurs. 6-8, Fri. 4:30-6:30
BikeLibrary.org C: (515) 450-1651
On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 1:23 PM Audrey Wiedemeier audrey@bikelibrary.org wrote:
Carlyn: I appreciate you asking for folks to respond kindly. I'll be asking this of our volunteers and patrons who've been somewhat gruff.
Bob: Opening stronger than ever is right!
As of right now the Bike Library is closed, however, pending approval from our board, we would like to start offering a "curbside bike checkout" that is by appointment only.
Here is the link to those documents. Check out the one titled: Proposal for Curbside Checkout.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rZFtSJlY01X9gPCc_jT5vf8ayk5i2oeTJXuBlhay...
Peace & grease,
*Audrey Wiedemeier* (She/her/hers) Iowa City Bike Library, Director
700 S. Dubuque St, Iowa City *Hours: *Sat. 10-3, Mon. 5-7, Tues. 6-8, Wed. 6-8, Thurs. 6-8, Fri. 4:30-6:30
BikeLibrary.org C: (515) 450-1651
On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 5:49 PM Cyclista Nicholas < cyclista@inventati.org> wrote:
I've been worried about our workstation becoming a contamination depot, of course. All public surfaces, even if they are decontaminated regularly, will be to some extent.
However, there is a significant percentage of our target demographic that relies on us for daily survival, and mainly I refer to the homeless. These are people who, if they didn't have our workstation, would just be doing some other sketchy thing contamination-wise to stay operational.
The other sectors of our demographic don't need this kind of help, and probably have their own air pumps and remedial tools at home. I'm at the shop alone several times a week, and have a good idea who uses the station and when. Honestly, I don't think it's really being used except by a handful of solitary people, and they're mostly using the air pump.
As for other public-facing activities, we're open for retail, and customers are instructed not to touch anything except bikes that are being testridden. This is another area that we don't face significant traffic, we get possibly one or two customers per day at most in these times.
As for decontaminating bikes, I wipe down the seat, controls, grips, and top tube after each test ride, and when doing intake on a customer bike.
Speaking of customer bikes, we are not a shop that does repair for people, we only teach people how to do repairs themselves. However, recently we got a typical misguided question via Facebook about how much we charged for a given repair, and it occurred to me that since we weren't allowing people to repair the bikes themselves, and had a decrease in things to do as a result of closing open shop, we might as well accept bikes for repair during this period. This is not something we advertise anywhere other than in direct response to a spontaneous request, and we make it clear to each customer that this is not a regular thing. We've had three customers of this type thus far. I feel that this transactional dynamic is one that's very easy create as a controlled process, and decontaminating bikes under this circumstance is trivial. Just another technical thing to do to a bike among the usual array of procedures.
As for classification as an essential service, automobile repair garages are typically classified as essential services. We are a transportation provider and as assist to people who use their bikes to buy groceries and keep medical appointments. Bicycles are not a luxury and they are not primarily a recreational toy, they are a fundamental life utility and in some cases people rely on them to survive.
I queried Claire from Vélorution Paris deliberately here to provide an example to the list of recognition that bicycles are an essential service - the city of Paris recognizes this. As of a few days ago, New York City does now as well.
Of course, this means that if we *are* an essential service, this makes it even more imperative that we create and adhere to strict protocols to protect the community we serve even as we struggle to empower them.
Stay strong, healthy and hopeful cyclistas!
~cyclista Nicholas
On 2020-03-26 22:09, Bob Giordano wrote:
Hi Carlyn,
at Free Cycles Missoula we've closed completely, not even doing emergency bikes/repairs/drop offs, anything. we'll have a good crop of sale bikes when we reopen, and a clean, organized shop.
Not doing outside public repair stands for the reasons you've mentioned.
We aim to reopen june 1st- could be earlier or later- we just wanted a date in our staff of 4's head.
Our staff of 4 are working safely and responsibly together, altho we've taken zones. We even have 4 separate doors, 3 separate bathrooms, each have a tool kit, etc. We're also mentally and physically prepared to stay away from the shop completely, if needed, which it looks more and more like.
Our staff have been making these nimble and quick decisions, keeping our small board up to date as needed, and they are supportive of what we need to do.
As we clean up around here, we're not doing 'free piles' outside (too much public handling of stuff). We're staging trash, thrift store, recycling piles. However we've had a couple trusted folks take scrap steel away.
We plan to reopen stronger than ever, and ultimately we feel that is best for us and the community. Missoula has been very supportive and understanding.
2 of us are also focusing on grants, all 4 of us are taking time to think deeply, to share writings, and slow down.
Bob Giordano, Free Cycles Missoula
Quoting Carlyn Arteaga carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org:
I appreciate you sharing all your thoughts and ideas.
At BICAS in Tucson we had to dismantle our outdoor fix a flat
station.
Staff working alone inside the shop witnessed clumps of people congregating very close to each other and at least one individual who was there
for
3 hours coughing on everything. As much was we wanted to help people out, we couldn't justify the germ spreading station we had created.
We have approved a skeleton plan for opening for limited repair services in a couple weeks. How are others handling this? How do you do intakes? By appointment only or do you take walk ins? How are you protecting
your
people and the public? How are you sanitizing bikes you work on? And in what ways do you see your services as an "essential service,"
keeping
in mind that any interfacing with the public right now involves some amount of risk, for which the ultimate potential consequence is death? Or if
you
have decided to remain closed, how did you arrive at that decision,
knowing
that there are people who need bike help and are not going to be able to access it?
I know these are the Big Questions (esp the last couple) we're all grappling with right now, I just wanted to have some frank conversations about why doing what we're doing right now so we can all chew it
over.
Please be kind with one another as we respond. None of us has the playbook for this crisis or truly even enough data yet to know which
decisions
will end of being the right ones in the end. Thank you all in advance, ~Carlyn
--
*Carlyn Arteaga*
*pronouns: they/them/theirs*
Youth Program Coordinator
*BICAS*
2001 N. 7th Ave. | Tucson, AZ 85701 | Shop: 520-628-7950
carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org | www.bicas.org | Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bicascollective/ | Instagram http://www.instagram.com/bicastucson/
*Through advocacy and bicycle salvage, our mission is to participate in affordable bicycle transportation, education, and creative recycling with our greater Tucson community.*
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--
*BICAS*
2001 N 7th Ave | Tucson, AZ 85705 | Shop: 520-628-7950
bicas@bicas.org | www.bicas.org | Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bicascollective/ | Instagram http://www.instagram.com/bicastucson/
*Through advocacy and bicycle salvage, our mission is to participate in affordable bicycle transportation, education, and creative recycling with our greater Tucson community.* ____________________________________
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