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CONCEPT drawing of what is believed to be the world's first automatic bike parking station. It has just been opened beside a suburban railway station near Tokyo. Illustration by Central Consultant Inc
Japan goes underground for bike parking space
WHAT would happen in Australian cities if commuting by bicycle really became popular? An extreme example of such as challenge is in Tokyo where hundreds of thousands of workers bike to their nearest railway station for their trip to the CBD.
Few railway stations have been able to meet the demand for bike parking spots - consequently commuters are forced to risk a fine by parking illegally. In Tokyo illegal bike parking can be a nightmare both for cyclists and local authorities. In fact in parts of the city, whole side streets can be jammed with bikes - despite the risk of a $20 fine.
According to one estimate, in the last ten years, Japan has built parking facilities for 92,000 bicycles - but that still leaves 563,000 bikes that are parked illegally every day.
Is there a solution? Rail authorities hope there is. A few kilometres from Tokyo's city centre on the Metro Tozai Line, Nishi-Kasai Station has just opened what is believed to be the world's first fully automated underground bicycle park. (YouTube has a short film clip of the bike park in action.).
For about $1 a day cyclists place their bikes onto a grip, which then slides the bike though a pair of safety doors behind which a robotic arm carries the bike down through a giant cylinder and multi-layers of extending "spokes" each offering a parking spot.
There are 36 giant cylinders in all, each with room to park 180 bikes. Once parked, it takes under 25 seconds for the robot arm to retrieve it.
