Thursday, September 16, 2010

Bike locker.

Thought I’d post a pix of my bike locker. I’ve been renting out this bike locker from our transit authority. Cost is $87/year (although they are going to jack up the price to $200+ due to budget shortfalls). The locker is right on my subway stop. Thus, all I do is ride to my stop, put the bicycle in the locker, lock it up and get on the subway. Also, the space in the locker is like a triangle. You are supposed to “back in” your bike (handlebars will be towards the front).

Great things about a bike locker:
-Bike is protected from the elements
-You can commute in an expensive bike w/o fear of it being stolen
-You can leave expensive lights, speedo, and other pricey accessories on the bike w/o fear of them being ripped off (literally). See my earlier post: http://utilitycyclist.blogspot.com/2008/12/wanton-vandalism.html

Cons:
-Yearly cost. Ok, nothing in life is free.
-My bikes are "average" sized so they fit fine in the locker. However, if you have a large-sized bike I think that they may be too tall for this particular locker style.
-Spiders and other insects seem to like living in adjacent lockers and sometimes hang out in mine.

The first photo is my own bike locker when I rode the brompton one day. The second is a picture I found when I googled the phrase "bike locker". It is the exact same model as mine. I can also fit the brompton (folded) and a regular size bike in one locker.

5 comments:

2whls3spds said...

Interesting about the locker size. All of my bikes are XL due to my height and when you get an upright bike city bike like the Dutch use they are off the scale for "standard" bike anything. We found this out when I wanted to take one on Amtrak, even with the handle bars removed it still wouldn't fit the standard Amtrak box.

Sounds like they may need to re-size the lockers?

Aaron

Yokota Fritz said...

$200/yr seems high to me. What does car parking cost at your Metro station?

pedaling fool said...

Yokota,
This particular station does not offer car parking. It is one of the ones right before you get into urban DC. I know that the "end of the line" stations do offer car parking and it's something like $4-5/day.

I don't think they're heavily utilized b/c it's rare when I see another cyclist locking up his bike in one of the lockers. I hope they don't eliminate for lack of participation.

jim davis said...

Great things about a bike locker

-Bike is protected from the elements
-You can commute in an expensive
bike w/o fear of it being stolen
-You can leave expensive lights, speedo, and other pricey
Bike Locks

Anonymous said...

i love this parking but $200/yr seems very high.But i think if you do that your bike is completely secured.Also your expensive motorcycle clothing.