How to Put this Tool into Action in Your
Community:
Implementation Techniques
Let's get started! Bike stations are often started by one key person or one local advocacy group taking charge and lobbying their local transit agency to begin the bike station program. Once established in a new community, the transit agency, transportation department, or a bike advocacy group is often the most appropriate organization to manage and expand the local network of bike stations over the long term. The national
BikeStation Coalition
is an excellent initial contact to get valuable advice, as well as help with administering and setting up the program.
Make a plan. A bike station can be up and running quickly if there is a preexisting area within the transit system to store the bicycles. Otherwise, to build a facility involves various stages of planning.
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First, a
service plan is necessary to determine the location of the facility, the hours of operation, the storage size of the facility, and whether there will be a need for additional space for bicycle rentals, bicycle repairs, retail sales, or any other service that would fit into the community. |
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A
security plan must also be developed for overnight parking. Since there will be bike station and transit agency personnel present during the day, it is overnight parking that requires particular attention: a combination of a secured facility, a camera system, or a cable/kryptonite lock system in place. |
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A
marketing plan should be developed to lay out how the facility will be publicized: for example, advertisements at bike stores, bike events, on bicycles, at transit hubs, and stations can help generate attention and support for the new bike station. There might also be local bicycle advocacy organizations in the area that can help spread the information about the new facility. |
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Finally, the
mobilization plan can begin about 3 weeks before the grand opening: hiring and training, designing signage, and installing equipment. Employee training is very critical to help prevent injuries to attendants constantly handling and perhaps lifting bicycles that can sometimes be fairly heavy. Additional mobilization tasks include installation of a telephone line and a computer hookup if necessary for the bike station. In addition to a 5% contingency reserve, insurance is also required at the station. For example, as of August 2003, insurance in the Bay Area for general liability (for $1 million operations aggregate and transportation liability plus $1 million in worker's compensation) costs $2,000 for one year. |
Study up. To help you develop your plans for a new bike station, look into other bike stations that seem applicable to your city and
get in touch with their sponsoring organizations to find out what lessons they learned and how that experience can help you. For case studies of existing bike stations, jump to the next section 'Who Else is Doing It' or to the
Internet Resources section. If there are existing bike stations in your region, make a visit and meet with the founders.
Make your pitch. Based on your research, develop a presentation of why a bike station at the location you have selected is a good idea. Use photos of the bad conditions for bicyclists at the area that you are proposing, such as the remaining parts of a bicycle locked to a rack. Integrate ridership numbers as well as the numbers of daily users at existing bike stations (i.e., 100 a day at Berkeley, CA). Then meet with the appropriate representatives of your local transit agency, city or county elected officials, and community groups.
An important selling point for a transit agency or a potential organization providing grant money is that bike stations provide benefits to other groups of commuters in addition to bicyclists. The bike station can benefit transit riders, by keeping bicycles off the transit system's vehicles and stations (in stations with no adequate bike parking, locked bikes often obstruct station entrances, stairs, and adjacent sidewalks), freeing up parking spaces that might be taken if the new bicyclists were to drive, reducing traffic during commute periods, and potentially leading to increased transit service (more riders can lead to more frequent service).
Sign here, please. In order to build community support for the bike station, you can put postcards on bikes in your community explaining the bike station concept and asking bicyclists to mail the postcard in asking the local transit agency. You can also distribute postcards to local bicycle and transit advocacy organizations.
Meet the press. Issue press releases, invite a local reporter to ride a bike with you to the potential bike station site (to experience firsthand how bad conditions are for bicyclists), and contrast existing conditions with all the services and amenities that are provided at bike stations.
Patience, patience.
Your efforts to bring a bike station to your community may take a while, so be patient. Focus on building visibility and support for the bike station concept among community stakeholders and developing a long-term strategy for persuading key transit agency decision makers of the benefits of bike stations.
  
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