Japan Bike Storage

Heard about these underground bicycle parking cylinders but never seen on in action until yesterday - was impressed. A very cute girl came along to park her bicycle and let me take some pics - love those knee-down garnments.

These 'Gates' is where bicycles are parked and retrieved.

At each gate there is a simple card reader. One has to take out a monthly contract to use these ones but there are some around Tokyo where anybody can park their bicycle.

The young lady swipes her card and a few seconds later the doors open. She docks the front wheel of her bicycle...

...and it gets pulled in to the dock. Doors close swiftly after. Took a video of the bicycle park in action - but the young lady had gone by then so you will have to make do with two kind men instead.

This is what the bicycle park looks like underground.

The Eco Cycle can store up to 144 bicycles underground - retrieval and storage in seconds. The longest it takes is 10 seconds.

The company who makes this is Giken who also make stuff like tidal and flood defense systems @.@

The Eco Cycle caters for bicycles which are less than 1,950mm in length and less than 1,250mm in height. Tyre size has to be less than 28 inches. Interesting how the Japanese use a mixture of mm, cm and inches.

It costs 2,600 yen for a monthly ticket to use the park. Students pay 1,300 yen.

A few rules of what needs to be removed before using the park.

Info and guidance on the display. The video clip below shows what these parking units looks like underground.

And this is what other areas of Jiyu ga oka looked like yesterday without Eco Cycle parks. As the bicycle is a main form of transport in Japan, parking them is a major problem.

Here is an example of how problematic parking can be. Folks end up leaving their bicycles everywhere.