Bike Parking Article in Slate
Interesting article on the quandry of bike parking in Slate, featuring a mention of Chicago's parking meter/bike parking.
From Slate.com:
"The spatial and aesthetic challenges of having too many parked bikes attached to every last lamppost and historic building has prompted some wonderfully innovative design and market responses. The underground "Bicycle Parking Tower"—actually a series of 36 towers—at the Kasai Station in Edogawa, Tokyo, holds more than 9,000 bicycles, any of which can be retrieved within 23 seconds via an automated mechanism. In Zaragoza and a few other Spanish cities, meanwhile, the Biceberg, a small kiosk beneath which sits a storage bay, creates spots for 92 bicycles in the same space that four cars would occupy. Another approach is to combine guarded bicycle parking in a one-stop facility with mechanics, bike stores, education, and other services, as with Brazil's ASCOBIKE. Muenster's "Radstation" comes complete with a bicycle wash—for $4. In the United States, the for-profit Bikestation sells secure parking ("valet and controlled access") and provides air for tires as well as showers and Wi-Fi in its "bike-transit centers," in cities ranging from Santa Barbara, Calif., to Seattle. At Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, a similar concept — with everything from rentals to repairs — is scheduled to open in August, a swooping shell of glass and tubes, designed by KPG and at least partially inspired by the arc of a bicycle wheel."
From Slate.com:
"The spatial and aesthetic challenges of having too many parked bikes attached to every last lamppost and historic building has prompted some wonderfully innovative design and market responses. The underground "Bicycle Parking Tower"—actually a series of 36 towers—at the Kasai Station in Edogawa, Tokyo, holds more than 9,000 bicycles, any of which can be retrieved within 23 seconds via an automated mechanism. In Zaragoza and a few other Spanish cities, meanwhile, the Biceberg, a small kiosk beneath which sits a storage bay, creates spots for 92 bicycles in the same space that four cars would occupy. Another approach is to combine guarded bicycle parking in a one-stop facility with mechanics, bike stores, education, and other services, as with Brazil's ASCOBIKE. Muenster's "Radstation" comes complete with a bicycle wash—for $4. In the United States, the for-profit Bikestation sells secure parking ("valet and controlled access") and provides air for tires as well as showers and Wi-Fi in its "bike-transit centers," in cities ranging from Santa Barbara, Calif., to Seattle. At Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, a similar concept — with everything from rentals to repairs — is scheduled to open in August, a swooping shell of glass and tubes, designed by KPG and at least partially inspired by the arc of a bicycle wheel."
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Duppie on
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The article doesn't mention the high initial cost of the bike parking infrastructure. As an example, the famous Fietsflat (English: Bikecondo) in Amsterdam holds some 2500 bicycles (officially. But I see references that the number appears to be upwards of 4000). The city had plans to build a second, identical flat on the other side of Central Station but was not ready to spend the expected 4 million Euros (about $5.5 million). That translates to a cost of $1375 per bicycle parking spot (assuming 4000 spots).
While I have no immediate numbers available, I doubt that the other examples mentioned in the story are much cheaper on a per bike basis.
A bike rack in Chicago cost far less to install (I read the cost somewhere on Chainlink, but cannot find it right now).
Some of the reasons that this works in Europe are that local governments have a much more active say in public works developments; and there appears to be an attitude that government action can shape societies' behavior.
Duppie
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