14 DAY TRIAL // One of the main problems that deter bicyclists from going about their business on their alternative means of transportation is the fact that there are virtually no parking spots for their bikes, not even in major urban sprawls. If people chain them to a lamp post, there's a good chance they'll only find the chain when they return, so the issue is still opened for discussion in most countries in the world, except a select few.
Japan is one of those few nations that found a very elegant solution to the problem of bicycle parking – underground storage. The system it created, dubbed Eco Cycle, is state-of-the-art high-tech, and would leave mid-century SF writers baffled. It has a couple of terminals, where people place their bikes when they arrive at work, to be taken underground.
An automated mechanism then takes up the bikes and carries them to an underground storing facility that can take up as much as 144 bicycles. Retrieving them lasts only a few seconds, and the monthly fee for a membership card is about 2,600 yens. Two terminals mean that the system can serve a lot of people in the minimum amount of time.
The practical use for the Eco Cycle is undeniable, especially seeing how it rids companies of having to supplement their existing parking lots. Larger scale versions of this system are also planned for construction in the next years, but maybe the most important thing about this approach to parking is the fact that cars could soon benefit from similar treatments, though admittedly in much larger facilities.
Constructing this type of devices around the world could mean an increase in the number of people commuting to work on bicycles, as the issue of safety will be solved, seeing how the fully automated system does not require human presence. There are no employees underground, and the sorting and retrieving is done automatically.