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Bikestations offer alternative to automobile parking

http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/01/01172002/s_46119.asp

Thursday, January 17, 2002 By Daniel Duart

As the streets and sidewalks of most cities grow increasingly crowded, people are spending more time and energy looking for an easier way to get around. Driving across town takes much longer than it did ten years ago.

Not only are there more cars, but many of the cars are considerably larger than they were only five years ago. Sometimes all it takes is one SUV attempting a creative parking maneuver and voilà: instant traffic jam. Parking lots seem to fill up as soon as they are constructed. So where do we park our vehicles? What options exist for parking-weary commuters and travelers?

For those who are not afraid to ride one of the most efficient vehicles ever, the bicycle, options are currently expanding. One simple solution has occurred to a group of intrepid citizens: bikestations. The trend is spreading like an idea whose time has come.

A bikestation offers secure, personally attended bicycle parking in a central location and a convenient hub of transit-oriented activity.

The look, location, and details differ from city to city and from station to station. For example, one bikestation is in its own building, offering refreshments and a café atmosphere to commuters; another one lies inside a train station, offering free overnight bike storage.

What defines and unites all bikestations is their core focus on safely parking and storing bicycles while the riders walk and shop nearby or take the train or bus to work or play. It's a place where magazine racks supply transit-related literature and a knowledgeable staff is ready to answer questions about cycling and getting around town. It's a parking service for your bicycle and a place to meet like-minded people.

In March 1996, the first bikestation in the United States opened in Long Beach, Calif., offering free valet parking for up to 150 bicycles as well as repairs, a restroom/changing room, and more. In April 1999 Palo Alto opened the first bikestation in Northern California on the Caltrain line that runs from San Francisco to San Jose. The Palo Alto bikestation has a 200-bicycle capacity, bike rentals, and other amenities.

By October 1999 Berkeley, Calif., had opened a bikestation in the downtown station of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). And that little station, according to Amanda Jones, chairperson of the Palo Alto Bikestation and board member of the Bikestation Coalition, parks more bikes per day than either the Long Beach or the Palo Alto bikestations, frequently exceeding its 77-bicycle capacity. Not bad for the new kid on the block.

Jones spoke in San Francisco at December's Rail~Volution, a national conference on building livable communities with transit. "We need to think much bigger than just bike racks on buses, more than just rail-side solutions, more than five more bikes per train car," said Jones, referring to Caltrain's popular train car that accommodates bicycles and commuters. "We need to really embrace mode sharing to avoid gridlock."

The terms mode sharing and intermodal are buzzwords in the transit community that refer to combining modes of transportation to get from one place to the next. For example, combining bicycles and trains is the key to bikestations on rail lines such as California's Caltrain and BART.

BART's senior planner of customer access, Laura Timothy, is busy these days building new bike facilities and answering requests from BART riders, cyclists, and station agents who have seen the Berkeley Bikestation. "[The Bikestation in] Berkeley went up very quickly, almost under the radar, but has been so successful that now BART has other stations saying, 'We want one of those!'" she said.

BART is responding to this challenge. The second bikestation on the BART line at San Francisco's Embarcadero station is in the construction stage. It's due to open in late spring or early summer 2002.

Mark Shandrow, executive director of the Bikestation Coalition in Long Beach, clearly sees the momentum building. "The Embarcadero BART Bikestation is exciting because, with two bikestations on the same line, people can bike to one station, park the bike, ride BART across the bay to another station, and rent a bike to continue a journey," he said. "That is true intermodal transit."

Denver, Colo. will open its first bikestation later this year. As car traffic gets even worse, we might see bikestations popping up from coast to coast. Imagine a nationwide system offering secure bicycle parking, bike rentals, coffee and bagels, classes on bicycle maintenance, and support groups for sufferers of parking anxiety. Certainly that vision beats an endless line of taillights and exhaust pipes. Maybe it's not for everyone, but for cyclists and others looking to avoid traffic jams, it's like a dream coming true.

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