Bicycle parking station

Complex: Chicago's McDonald's Cycle Center has been described as "the ultimate in bicycle centers".[1]
Simple: A Parkiteer e-card-accessible bike cage at Sunshine railway station, Melbourne, Australia

A bicycle parking station is a building or structure designed for use as a bicycle parking facility. Such a facility can be as simple as a lockable bike cage or shed or as complex as a purpose-built multi-level building: the common purpose is that they provide secure bicycle parking. Bicycle parking stations also go by names such as bike stations, bicycle centers and cycle centers, among many others.

Bicycle parking stations can offer additional facilities such as bicycle repairs, and customer facilities such as showers or lockers. Some are staffed while others are not. Some require users to join as members while others are on a per use basis or completely free of charge. Some are based at railway stations to facilitate "bike and ride" multi-modal transport, while others are situated at the end of the commute and as such are located in town or city centres, universities, and workplaces.

Operation

Bicycle parking stations are often operated by local governments or municipalities or they can be private businesses run by bike shops or non-profit bicycle advocacy organizations. More than half of them in the U.S. are operated (usually in partnership with a local business or nonprofit) by Bikestation. Some are fully automated.[2]

Attributes

A bicycle parking station almost always has the following basic attributes:

They can also additionally have any of the following.

Security: In terms of secure access to prevent theft or vandalism, a bike station could have:

Customer facilities: For the customer there may be additional services, such as:

Bike services: Some bike stations (such as at many railway stations in the Netherlands) have staff who are able to carry out simple or complex repairs for a fee. This is very handy for commuters who can leave their bike there in the morning and pick it up fully repaired at the end of the day when on the way home. Regardless of whether repairs are available at a station or not, the station may also provide:

Business models: As for pricing, bike stations can be completely free-of-charge, pay per use (usually a daily rate or per hour) or by membership/subscription only, or indeed by any other financial model. To reiterate, bicycle parking stations can be:

Bicycle parking stations around the world

Radstation at Münster railway station, Germany.
Interior of Radstation in Münster, Germany.
Underground bicycle parking next to Groningen railway station.

The following is a list of selected bicycle parking stations located in several countries around the world, often at train stations.

Construction costs

References

  1. Brettman, Allan (2005-06-23). "Official Recruits Portland To Build Bike Center". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  2. Ogrodnik, Irene (4 December 2013). "A closer look inside Tokyo’s underground bicycle parking". Global News. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  3. "Registration and Locations". Bicycle Network Victoria. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  4. 1 2 cycle2city, accessed 11 May 2010.
  5. RBWH Cycle Centre, accessed 11 May 2010.
  6. Deutsche Bahn/ Bahnhofssuche, accessed 29 May 2011.
  7. City of Düren/ Fahrradparkhaus, accessed 29 May 2011.
  8. Zweirad-Buelke/ Fahrradparkhaus, accessed 29 May 2011.
  9. See: Utrecht to build world's biggest bike park - for 12,500 bikes, DutchNews.nl, Sunday 27 April 2014. Accessed on 28 April 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Biceberg photo gallery
  11. Free Wheelin'
  12. 1 2 Queensland Transport Cycle Network Program: Completed Projects, accessed 11 May 2010.
  13. See: Utrecht to build world's biggest bike park - for 12,500 bikes, DutchNews.nl, Sunday 27 April 2014. Accessed on 28 April 2014.
  14. Australian Cyclist magazine, accessed 11 May 2010.
  15. "Annals of Cycling – 55". Price Tags website. Retrieved 27 November 2013.

External links

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