Article 6.100 of Cambridge, Massachusetts’s Zoning Ordinance was designed to expand bicycle parking requirements to promote bicycle use within the city. Bicycle transportation provides economic, environmental, and human health benefits by promoting a smaller carbon footprint, a more diverse consumer market, cardiovascular exercise, and reduced street congestion.

Article 6 of the Zoning Ordinance includes a table of metrics which designates the number of bicycle parking spaces that must be available in correlation with the type of structure (e.g. residential or commercial), the number of people expected to be using that structure, and the average length of stay for users. The average length of stay of the user designates whether the bicycle parking will be a long-term or short-term rack; long-term racks are more securely designed to protect from precipitation and theft.

The Ordinance also states that bicycle racks must be reassessed and expanded under the following conditions: (1) The construction of a new building or establishment of a new open-air use on a lot; (2) an increase of at least fifteen percent (15%) in the number of residential dwelling units or in the amount of non-residential Gross Floor Area on an existing lot; or (3) the conversion of existing Gross Floor Area to a new category of non-residential use, where such conversion results in at least a fifteen percent (15%) increase in the total number of bicycle parking spaces that would be required to meet the guidelines of the aforementioned metrics table.