BIKESTATION DC GRAND OPENING!
October 2, 2009 at 2:13 pmDC
Today I had the pleasure of attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for the grand opening of “bikestation DC”. Bikestation DC is located at Union Station in NE DC and will help to make Union Station a true intermodal transportation hub; adding cycling to Union Station’s Train, Metro, and Bus capacity (streetcars eventually).
The bikestation will provide secured indoor bike parking for over 130 bikes (tripling the current capacity at Union Station), will have a changing room, locker rental, and a maintenance/service shop which will be managed by Bike the Sights. This bikestation is the 1st on the east coast (7th in the nation) and the largest in the nation. According to Mayor Fenty it also has the “coolest” design. The design is inspired by the shape of a bike helmet. The shop will be open from 7-7 during the week and 9-5 on the weekends, members will have 24hr fob access. Membership comes in at $96 per year.
It will eventually be the southern end of the Met Branch trail that will connect downtown DC to Silver Spring MD via a “rail to trail” path. The station cost $4MM to build, 80% of this funding came from the Federal Highway Admin the remaining 20% came through local funds.
Very cool stuff, exciting to see DC take more steps towards becoming a more cycle friendly city.
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October 2nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
That sounds awesome!
October 2nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Beautiful shot!
October 6th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I dunno if its just me, but $4 million dollars for a measly 130 bike parking spots? Seems to me in a city of 591,000 (more or less) people more spots would be necessary. Besides cost analysis of the project comes to $30769 for one bike parking spot. Thats an awful lot. Either it is fuzzy math or its just me.
I mean the idea/concept is great don’t get me wrong. Lets get more people walking/biking by all means. But 130 spots for a city the size of DC is just a drop in the bucket. And for that price, sheesh!?! Anyone agree/disagree?