When I was little tacker and regularly caught the train on various outings, I remember seeing bike racks at most of the suburban rail stations. Obviously people would ride their bikes to the station, park them and the catch the train to the city or wherever they were heading to. And popular they were to.
Over the past few decades this trend had decreased as motorcars became cheaper, so over time the bike racks were removed. But the now the cycle is turning, or should that be re-turning! Bicycles have found a renewed life with the hike in oil prices, greenhouse gas fears, and the world economic crisis.
In various parts of world they have always been popular, particularly in India, Asia and South America. In Brasil they are so popular that co-operatives have been formed to provide secure parking for them - and guess what, some of the biggest are at rail stations.
The one in this article caters for more than 1700 bicycles a day, but that is nothing according to the 'feedback', some bike-parks in Holland cater for up to 5,000 bicycles.
This one, an hour or so outside Sao Paulo, charges around $5US per month for parking, which is reasonable for a low pay country.
As bicycles become more popular there is going to be a shortage of suitable parking, especially in office building situations, so perhaps there is a market in large cities such as Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland etc. for something similar. Maybe it could be set-up in carpark dead space, such as under an internal ramp? Perhaps showers, change rooms and lockers could be provided as part of an up-market variation. I could see a well run set-up charging something more like $5-10 per week for a secure lock-up such as this. Could be a nice little earner for someone brave enough to give it a go.
Just a thought.
JP
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