Fri Jul 6, 2012
Places

Station to station

The City of Toronto has recently opened its second Bicycle Station to provide safe, supervised parking for cyclists. Here’s how they work.

BY: Chris Riddell

If our tips on how to foil bike thieves weren’t enough to give you peace of mind when leaving your two-wheeled transport unattended, perhaps a place where you can store your bike under 24/7 video surveillance—with members-only key-card access—would put you at ease? It’s called a Bicycle Station, and there are now two of them in Toronto.

The first was built at Union Station in the summer of 2009; it’s currently at a temporary location near 25 York St. (#HAR), just north of Bremner, but a more accessible space closer to Front will be open next year as part of the Union Station Revitalization plan. (The new space will be larger and feature bathrooms and change rooms.) Last May, a second, smaller Bicycle Station opened at Victoria Park station (#SCR), with plans for additional stations at the redesigned Pape Station in 2013, and Finch West station once it’s completed in 2015. A City Hall Bicycle Station is also in the works.

To date, membership numbers haven’t exactly been booming, but it takes time for these sorts of initiatives to grow.

“It’s starting fairly slowly,” admits Daniel Egan, Manager of Cycling Infrastructure and Programs at the City of Toronto. “Typically, it takes about a year to start building up memberships. We don’t have a huge promotional budget, so it’s all about getting the word out to different residences and business around there.”

To become a member, fill out an application form and submit it to a clerk at the Union Station location during staff hours, from 8 a.m.-noon. (There is no online sign-up available yet.) Members pay a $26.91 registration fee, and then $21.53 for one month or $64.57 for four months. One-day parking is also available for $2.15 with no registration fee required.

Users are subject to a 48-hour parking limit, not including weekends and holidays—meaning that, for a regular weekend, members can park their bikes on Friday and have until Tuesday to pick them up. The 48-hour rule is in effect to deter people from using the stations as garages.

“We’re not in the business of long-term storage,” says Egan. “We’re just here to support commuters.”

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Jim

The monthly costs are too high for the average user, so the uptake is slow, and the program is doomed.
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12:24 pm on July 19, 2012

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Mark

Interesting idea … but clearly the station(s) downtown aren’t located to keep everyone happy. I think an obvious solution might be to also pair them with TTC/transit locations at the ends of the lines.

Locate some stations downtown at the obvious initial locations (Union, Yonge/Bloor, Yonge/College, etc.) AND at the ends of the subway/LRT lines. This way you’ll aid both the urban downtown riders (who ride into the core from areas fairly close to downtown) and those folks who live in the outer areas and feel they can’t handle the longer commute (both because of distance or any perceived problem with riding in heavy urban traffic). Imagine comfortably riding from a suburban home though quiet neighbourhoods to a regional bike station. Securely park your bike and jump on the subway to go downtown.

Riding to a local outlying stations is a great way to reduce the dependence on cars in areas where there isn’t good local transit. Think of it as a similar concept to promoting parking at ends of the subway lines.

A further step might be to cross market with the TTC – perhaps offer a break on TTC fares with multi month bike station packages.

Add a few bike stations at appropriate locations and you will remove many of the barriers a lot of folks have to riding to work (rather than just helping those who ride in the downtown core).
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9:45 am on July 19, 2012

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RM

That’s not exactly the priciest fee when it comes to parking and with the extra assurances that come with it. As someone who commutes into the city on a daily basis from northwest Etobicoke by bicycle, I’d like to see something like this set up in the west end (if we’re covering the north with Finch eventually, and we have something in the south with this location, and the east with Victoria Pk, it would make sense to set something up in the west) Somewhere off of the Humber River trail around Old Mill, or near Dundas West so that The Junction & Roncesvalles have something nearby) But considering it’s relatively new, I’m not surprised with some of the difficulties people are encountering with prompt and efficient customer service. I’d also like to see the funds go towards some kind of municipal project (oh I don’t know, like a few more separated bicycle lanes?) Still, I like the idea.
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1:04 pm on July 9, 2012

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Bikor

Obviously, these cannot be placed everywhere that is convenient for everyone. Some people will benefit from the, no doubt, but it’s certainly not an ultimate solution to the problem.

I certainly don’t like the cost of use, considering one season of secure parking will cost more than the bike i currently own!
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10:56 am on July 9, 2012

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Albin

It’s intriguing, but should focus on what the mission is: do you ride your bike to transit, park and go downtown to work, or do you take transit downtown, pick up your bike and ride it to work? The scheme could work either way or both. I suspect secure bike parking should be located at the peripheral subway and Go Train stations and let commuters use TTC once they are in the core.
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3:37 pm on July 8, 2012

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the lemur

It works best if you just ride to the bike station and park it, provided you work downtown.
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9:09 am on July 9, 2012

FreeThinker

This sounds great but my nearest ttc station is 3 km away so assuming I want to be self sufficient of gas, electricity and ttc, and be CO2 neutral, I’d have to Ride to union, park it, then walk 3 km, not happening. I’m not sure if something already exists but how about setting these up near universities for a start.

If this affects ttc revenue(university students biking instead of ttc) then I understand.

I really want to get a fast, light aluminum/carbon bike as a daily commuter but it’s all about not getting it stolen.

What about, on sidewalk, city built heavy bicycle locks. Bikers pay an access fee for the parking and the heavy lock that we don’t have to carry?
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12:27 am on July 8, 2012

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Ryan

This is a great idea! I stopped riding years ago, was sick of getting my bike stolen each year without fail.

Even though I won’t be using this as I don’t have a bike, I think it’s a great idea and should be expanded further across the city.
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4:50 pm on July 6, 2012

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Elaine

This is awesome – had no idea about it, and it’s very reasonably priced for round the clock security (still way cheaper than the TTC or car parking.)

If anything, it’s suffering from a serious lack of publicity; hopefully more of these will pop up at stations when more people start using them.
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11:36 am on July 6, 2012

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lowrez

“piece of mind” should be “peace of mind”.
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11:33 am on July 6, 2012

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The Grid

Indeed it should! Sorry, we’ve been listening to too much Iron Maiden. The typo has been fixed.
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11:38 am on July 6, 2012

Doug

I tried to get info about the Union Station station and it was impossible. Can’t imagine why takeup is so slow with a whole 4 hours a day, weekdays only, to try to speak to a real person, and nothing online. Another half-assed cycling initiative from the City of Toronto.
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11:30 am on July 6, 2012

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the lemur

That’s true, but it probably indicates the level of funding.

http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/bicycle-station/
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10:43 am on July 11, 2012

Angus

Looks like something for wealthy cyclists only.
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11:15 am on July 6, 2012

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Balance

Are they not people too??
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2:58 pm on July 6, 2012
Ryan

We really need to stop this cry for the poor when a new user-paid service is launched. Sounds like you have the issue here of not being able to afford this. You know what I’m going to tell you? Work hard and make something of yourself, then you should be able to easily afford this. Don’t want to? That’s fine, you don’t have to use it! Don’t expect handouts in life. Be self-sufficient and stop whining.

If I were to make the same argument you did but in my case, I’d be whining that I have a car but can’t afford a Ferrari. Those darn wealthy people that are a result of their success! How dare they be successful on their own merits?
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4:47 pm on July 6, 2012
Jim

@Ryan-the snob. The cost needs to come down so the program will gain wider use, otherwise the only users will be the Carbon-Ffiber & Bamboo Frame crowd who will find their Poser selves paying increasingly higher fees to cover the costs of all the empty racks which the average user could not justify the cost of.

Lowering the cost equals higher uptake & makes biking more attractive, which benefits the city, the country and the world.

Your snobbish stance leads to exclusivity, lower uptake, more cars on the road, more pollution in the air, and harm to the planet. What do you have against the planet you snobbish asshole! Riding a commuter bike in a city does not require a high end bike so while the thousands you spend on a poser bike surely shores up your self-image, it was an unnecessary expense as any old department store bike will do the job in the city.

Try to look at the larger picture, and understand that it’s not all about you. If you want exclusivity then argue for double, triple, or quadruple the storage fees, and perhaps that will weed out even more users, but if you want to make the program succeed & encourage wider bike use, then argue for lower fees.
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12:43 pm on July 19, 2012