Accessing secure bike parking with third-party equipment at Tri-Met. Photo courtesy of KTesh (click for original context)
Back in January, we asked for your opinions on how bicyclists could pay and get access to a pilot secure bicycle parking facility at College Park station. Thanks to you all for your great feedback. Planning for the project is actively underway, and we wanted to give a quick update.
Survey Says… The results from the (admittedly non-scientific) survey showed:
- A willingness to pay some small amount for the improved service
- Strong support for using your existing SmarTrip card
- A moderate preference for pay-per-use fees, rather than annual fees Read more…
Secure bike parking at TriMet Sunset Transit Center. Image from TriMet, click for original context.
Metro would like to pilot a secure bicycle parking facility at College Park station, and we want your feedback on some of the particulars related to its operation – namely, how bicyclists should access this “bike garage,” and what it should cost. We want this pilot project to teach us the ins-and-outs for building more similar facilities in the future.
Why are you building secure bike parking? Because we want you to feel safe leaving your bike at a Metro station, and sometimes our existing racks and lockers aren’t sufficient. This is a top request from our riders – since bikes are not allowed on-board trains at busy times, you need a safe place to leave your bike. Also, bike parking is a very cost-effective way for us to give you access to the station, especially compared to the cost of auto parking. Read more…
Metro’s website has a new Bike and Ride section! The rules haven’t changed, but we’ve tried to make our policy about bicycles on Metrorail and Metrobus more clear, and to put the most frequently-requested items on the main page. Hopefully this will reduce confusion and encourage bicyclists! All the nitty-gritty details about bikes and transit are still there, of course.
What do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments below.
As Metro plans for the future, expecting ridership to increase from a current average of about 750,000 trips per day to more than 1 million, the question of how so many new passengers will access our system is a critical one. Our most recent passenger survey estimates that about 39% of our riders arrive by car – either parking or being dropped off; 33% walk to our system; 22% take a bus; 4% by commuter rail and <1% arrive on bike. Accommodating those new riders with the same modal split as we see today could be quite costly for the region. Therefore, Metro decided to take a look at where we could improve our mode share for those modes that require fewer financial resources – namely bicycling and walking. In 2009, we began a study that would provide a framework to help us achieve these higher shares.
Our Metrorail Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Improvements Study has identified strategies that will enhance bicycle and pedestrian access and connectivity in and around Metrorail stations. It provides recommendations for a range of physical infrastructure improvements, as well as policies and programs to encourage more walk and bike trips to stations. These recommendations fall into two main categories – those that Metro can implement alone, and those that require coordination with local partners.
Read more…
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