Japan Bike Storage

Even though I'm in a city people tend to drive alot. I walk like most students on campus, but if I had a bike I would try this type of parking no matter the price.

That's crazy o.o
Everyone around here drives, you hardly see any bicycles, mostly because there's snow on the ground for half the year.

whoa...it feels like I'm living in the future lol

lol @ the video
all your base are belong to us?

I think that bike storage is a great idea because it takes away the fear of someone stealing your bike

that's really nice. I would really like to see that in singapore =D

I really like this way of parking bikes. It's so efficient usage of space. I do wonder about queues during rush our to park the bikes. It would suck to miss the train because somebody in front of you spent ages parking. It's also good in the way that your bike will be kept safe from thieves and vandals.

Here bikes are parked everywhere which can even block traffic. It's a major problem here that people leave bikes where they are suppoed to be parked and then they never come back. It's presumed that it happens with stolen bikes but some of them aren't reported stolen. The solution is whenever the bike parking is out of room, some public worker shows up and puts tape on all the bikes. It's placed so it sticks to the wheel and some non-moving part, meaning if the bike is used, the tape will either fall off or break. Two weeks later they show up with a lorry and picks up all the bikes with unbroken tape. If the bikes aren't reported stolen, then they are sold at auction. Since the bike might be broken or have hidden defects you can get really cheap bikes that way. You also get documentation that you bought it legally in case somebody decides to report it stolen later. I think the unsold ones are sold as scap metal. They are usually in a bad condition anyway if nobody wants to buy them.

Genius!
Bicycle are fifth most common form of transport used in my region (next to motorcycle and moped). I don't think I'll be seeing this type of bicycle parking in my region anytime in the future.

Holy crap! Thats cool!! Downtown Toronto is hectic to get around in. Due to the traffic in the downtown core area, traveling by bicycle is quite common. Thief of bicycles are also quite common too... my uni just opened a bicycle storage room for students. I think it was $90 for one semester... its not as cool and more expensive than this.

That's pretty nice and I wish that there is something like this here in Canada...
Better then locking it outside...I feel this system is a lot safer...

that's really convenient. once again japan pulls it off.
i'm guessing only japan has this at the moment right?

I remember reading about this. This seem very efficient in conserving space especially for japan

ALL YOUR BIKES ARE BELONG TO US.

Well, again, we don't have much people who bike here. So this thing might as well be utilized for cars. Man.. I appreciate those kind men, but where did the kind lady go T^T

Amazing innovation. Japan, you never cease to impress. Now where is my maid robot?

I can't live without my bike. My methods of transportation is either bike or subway. Anywhere within bus distance I use my bike. Since a bus ticket is like equivalent to a bottle of paint XD

lol, did you just flash us a "all your bases are belong to us"? anyway it is increadible that such a small spot on the sidewalk was really a giant bicycle parking storage underground.

>the young lady had gone by then so you will have to make do with two kind gentlemen instead.
lol that almost sounded yaoi. ^^;

Amazing bicycle storage!!

haha looks so much more futuristic than what we have in canada... for the most part people in canada drive (little bikers, even in the summer at least in my city). ummm... especially in the prairies, we have tons of space, so we don't have any kinda high tech car parking thing like they do in SG... we just use like huge parking lots (haha... sometimes i have to walk for like 10 minutes across the parking lot before i finally get to my car).

Whoa! That's a nice storage! Lots of space! :D
We mostly use cars. >< if no cars available, walking is our alternative then the bus.

WHOA!~
I'm amazed again at this. 10 secs tops on retrieval on your bike is really neat.
Wish this would be available here in Clovisland.

Omg underground bicycle silos. This sounds awesome.. but what if there's a quake =/

Wow, this is something else! But I don't think there are enough cyclists where I live to have such a setup. Everyone tends to drive around here.

Once again, I'm amazed by Japan...

Wow, so futuristic. In Japan, I walk pretty much everywhere. Too much base hastle to own a bike. In America, everywhere is rediculously spaced out requiring a car all the time. Heck, they don't even have sidewalks in Houston, just drainage ditches.

cool parking idea. buses, cars bikes and autos (a three passenger three wheeler) are major part of transport (only next to trains) here. there are people who do rife bicycles, but they are at a risk since most of the people drive like morons at high speeds here.
something like this coming here is just a fantasy.

People usual either walk or take the bus but where my Grandparents live, I see alot of people riding bicycles...

Wow this is pretty awesome, totally reminds me of that one scene from IRobot where they had something just likes this just with cars. But how much do theses things cost to maintain let alone build.

Bikes are pretty common where I live, but then, I live on a college campus.

Nice! That's really cool- makes me wish America would look at things like this. Then again- nevermind. lol. Some of us don't even know what a bicycle looks like anymore. ><;

woaa, that's neat o_O

not much people riding bikes in indonesia, maybe years ago when there are lots of them. But then, motorcycle becomes cheaper and more affordable to buy, people tends to ride motorcycle everywhere.

Some of our folks has been campaigning people to start riding bikes again to works/school. They are called "Bike2Work". Yep, the same b2w campaign in all around the world. Their site in bahasa, http://www.b2w-indonesia.or.id/

Can anyone say "Disguised missile silo"?

*goes watches apocalyptic movie*

Bicycles are more popular in some towns here, I think.

Thinking, what if a kid when in instead of a bicycle?
Or if a kid went in on his bicycle?

An excellent way to maximize space, it seems to me a very good system

one probably will get skin cancer if cycling under the sun and rain here daily, but i guess it's really good for environment. and lol@ the bg music of that clip, it's cute.

No room for bikes at my place T_T God, I miss Holland

all the bikes here are mostly sport bikes with gears etc. hence most bikes are used for sport/ exercise rather then transport~

omg that is too cool, Oh man I never seen one of these things and am sure that I won't be seeing them outside of Japan anytime soon.

But it does make me think wtf would happen if theres a ssmall jam or something, like a vending machine that eats your dollar but doesnt give you ur soda. WTF do you do?!? Waiting there to get your bike back would suck if that happened.

I don't know if the japanese mix measurement system in other uses, but tyre/wheel size is one of the few things that's always measured in inches, no matter were you are (the other thing that comes to mind is screen size). Sometimes, in countries that use metric system, the metric size is stated between brackets.

don't see many people using bicycles now.. usually see primary and secondary school students using them. the school's should implement this system.. definitely will give the discipline teachers something else to fuss about

that's so cool!

There's something like this for cars too. Of course it's way bigger ^^;
http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/projects/cesena/

It's great to store bikes like this, definitely more secure. I wonder when someone will try riding it themselves though haha.

I would love to have these around here but we don't use our bikes as often as other people. Everything here is spaced too far to walk or bike to. We have to bus or drive all the time.

You see a lot of bicyclers around here. Even unicyclists. Every now and then there's a segway user but they are very rare.

Coolest thing I've seen all day. At first I thought it was just a concept. Amazing.

I'm really impressed with this technology. I truly do wish bicycling was as common in America as it is in other Eastern countries. It makes a huge difference, but it was in Japan that I became more afraid of being run over by a cyclist than a car, haha.

that's very space saving, and neat too

Wow - I had no idea they went that far down. When I read underground bike storage I thought it'd just be a story or two. When I was reading this I was reminded of all those cheesy slogans: "The Future is Now".

Of course, it's more like "Canada's distant FUTURE IS available in Japan NOW." >< Here in Toronto most people are still trying to wrap their heads around the idea of using a bike as a viable mode of transportation. It has to a lot to do with the fact that most of the city is suburban and commuting distance is much longer though.

it totally reminds me of iRobot where the movie showed the car parking lot! Its efficient but perhaps one was foolish enough to fall in the pit of bicycles...

There are underground car storage too just like the bikes. Of course the underground cyclinder is way more bigger than bikes one.

I think this would be a viable solution to the park and ride system. By park I was talking about bike.
I mean if there is a good way to store the bike near downtown or work location and provide a good mass transport system to that location, I think people might try switching to bikes.

However the above does not apply in Hong Kong, since I know a lot of people don't know how to ride and some should stay off from riding for the rider and pedestrian safety. Also we are used to walking from the nearest bus or MTR station (underground metro train system in HK) to work. We have a vast network of public transport and rarely would require to head to place that could not be access this way. (Beside we properly would take the taxi there if that's the case. =P)

I'm all for adding bikes into the transportation equation, but the city and the people are not interested.
So I guess it's not going to happen anytime soon.

More cities need things like these D: Vancouver has a wee problem with theft. Just a bit.

Wish we had these...>w<''

I saw a video of this on <a href="http://web-japan.org/jvt/">Japan Video Topics</a> a few years ago. It's really interesting, and I think they're planning to do (or have done?) something similar for cars.

BTW, that show is fun to watch hehe.

Woo. That's uber cool. And the monthly rates are quite affordable too.
Ingenious space saving ideas.

Yeah over here in summer many people lost their bikes thanks to thieves.

did you wait long for her to come along? ^^

That's wonderful.

It's great to see cycling as a form of transportation rather than as a sport as viewed here in the US. Wish they had these around here so that bike parking is made easier.

wow those things are amazing. NY city just now started making parking spaces for bikes, probably a few more decades before they use that idea.

Mmm leg warmers... x3

Sadly, bicycles are more of a sport here in California. But I've seen these machines in action in Japan. WAY COOL!

It's all about cars in the U.S. People bike around campuses in schools that are big though. I walk because it's good exercise. Those machines are pretty convenient though. The worth depends on how many places have those storages I guess.

that is really cool, I wish we had something like that here. Bikes are stolen even when locked up, this would prevent theft a lot better than just bike chains. I personally walk or ride bike or use public transportation everywhere I go.

That is so awesome *_* When I was in Japan, I always wondered how people would find their bikes. They were everywhere and looked identical...

It seems like a good idea, wish they'd implement it over here! Eco-friendly, getting people to stop using cars when they dont need to etc.

Very good invention ^^

now...like that...i would ride my bike anywhere. I paid 2000 dollars for it

Awesome!
And I was talking about this just a few days ago too, on a member post about japanese car parkings.

Some people use bikes here in Brazil... and specifically the city where I live, is one of the few that has an extensive bikeway through the city.

But they are not nearly as common as in Japan unfortunately.... I get a lot of ash that comes from heavy traffic everyday on my appartment.

A lot of people use bikes here but not enough to warrant building one of those high tech storage devices! ^^

bike parking is a common problem in the neighbourhood I live in too. I mostly end up shunning the designated bike parks so I can park somewhere else more conveniently (but illegally).

I saw a news report on this a few months ago. Very unique.

It's a nice idea, but they're gonna need a lot more room than that and designated bike parking areas are usually free, so I guess it's a give a take...

No but they sould be , Sadly I live in the part of Texas where everything is so spread out that any alternative form of transportation is near impossible .

This is so cool, I wish they have these where I live.

lol with out car in my place I can't go anywhere, bus wouldn't help at all...

With the oil and gasoline prices sky rocketing here, bicycles are getting the more attention as a healthy, eco-friendly alternative means of transportation here.

And that's what we need here ^____^

Bikes might seem cheap on the surface, but they become significantly less so when you have to another one every 2,3 months. (after they are stolen, you see.) Although having these parking spots might greatly alleviate the problem, getting our rather inept government to actually do it would be next to impossible. /rant

I'm wondering what if during earthquake? One that is not big enough to shake buildings... but all the bicycles underground. They will have a difficult time placing the bicycles back.

If there were those facilities all over the world, bike would become the main form of transport!

Finally a device which will make sure our $6780461023 worth of road bikes can be safely stored! Ingenious!

It's quite dangerous to ride a bicycle here. If you want to get somewhere, you have to go on streets among the cars and they don't care about you. Riding on walkways is prohibited.
Practically the only ones I see riding in the streets are messengers.

*Group of chikan chasing behind*
how much longer? 10-9-8...
lol lame jokes aside, it's a pretty cool system:p

Cool system. It's really rare for bicycles to go on the road here, there's a high risk of getting yourself killed by accident. ^^;;

It's not common right now because it's winter in Sweden, but during the summers it's a common form of transport.

Heh, when I first started reading this article, I was thinking "has he seen that one vid clip of this guy in one of those underground bike parking things." And sure enough, you linked that same vid I saw a few years ago. I forget from where, probably BoingBoing.

mmmmm very trust the Japos to save space, and yet make things look neat and interesting. but what happens when there's a malfunction and you end up with someone elses' bike... or what if there's a short circuit or no electricity.. .

Wow wow wow! Very impressive! I wish we had something like that too here. I'm aware there's actually one that's similar to this for cars too right?

i think i saw that second youtube video on boingboing? at any rate... wish they made a car version of this :P

Wow really impressive. I do see people on bicycles but it's usually kids or old people. Everyone else gets around by car. That might be because people don't feel safe leaving their bikes alone so maybe this is just what we need. :)

Wow... Japan is amazing. Don't think it is necessary for that in Singapore yet but I gathered for countries like China, underground parking of bicycles would be useful.

Bicycles is definitely encouraged in my area but it's not feesible because a everything is far apart. The underground parking for bicycles is definitely something I wouldn't be seeing anytime soon here :-)

don't they have something similar for cars?

oh god, and i just rode 14km at the behest of a certain friend whom i shall not name...
ouch my aching butt....

that aside, i am once again astounded by the ingenuity of the japanese when it comes to stuff like this.

Pretty damnn ingenious, the only similar thing I've seen here is some garbage cans which are built deep underground and the upper part to drop the garbage is a normal tube

Not as much bikes here in the Philippines as there are scooters. Bane of motorists AND Pedestrians everywhere.

very smart, but doesn't seem like it holds enough for a lot of people. you're gonna need these everywhere. i wonder how profitable it is.

wow the same system for the bicycle (the Japanese's parking system is the same ^^'' its very amazing)

Very futuristic. I wonder how deep it is and what was construction like at that spot? The sign doesn't say it seems. You have to pay but, at least you have a peace of mind using this service.

I can see why bikes are common in Japan when it's so crowded and with the transportation seemingly so much more convenient, I don't think many would need cars there.

Here, you could say there's "plenty of space" so main form of transport is by car. Don't see many bikes passing by but there is a cycle lane that stretches for miles passing by the park and school.

This is just awesome stuff! That's another reason why love Japan, they are so inventive when it comes to saving space. And fast too.

yes, where i am staying atm there's bikes everywhere. Turn your head around and you'll see someone riding towards you. Btw I'm in Kyoto now.

In France cities have taken a radically different approach. For a very small price (a few €/year, depending on the cities) you can have unlimited access to a simple bike rental system. It just takes a few seconds to pick a bike or to return it.

Still, I feel we would gain much from these silos since bike vandalism and stealing is a huge problem here.

This is innovation at its best! Who would have thought of storing your bike underground..

Efficiency... I love it!

At first I thought that the bicycle was just stored inside there.
Then I saw how it looks like 'underground'.
Just amazing...

wow, these parking system is so cool. Like the one in Volkswagen HQ.

This is amazing! Brisbane could use some of these for motorcycles (if one exists) as city parking is limited for motorbikes/scooters

Coolio!Bicycles' aren't the main transportation here so I don't think Singapore would need it but its still awesome in its own right.Japanese are really creative to come up with these gizmos and storage devices :x

Seiously wow..... Thats so futuristic... so cool.... just wow.....I mean completely wow!!

Damn.. and this is just 2008. I wonder what will they invent in 2020.

凄い...just could not get enough of Japan's creativity and innovative <3333

amazing urban stuff.

Interesting stuff. Though it wouldn't be as practical here as about no one uses bicycles to go around the city.

Which reminds me, I haven't been riding a bike for quite a long time.

I seriously cannot remember the last time I rode a bicycle and even when I did ride bikes, I never rode it anywhere. Then again, where I live, if you wanted to ride your bike some where, you would need to be a professional rider.

When I walked through Kyoto U during my vacation to Japan, I was surprised at all the bicycles there. I swear, each student rides atleast 2 to school! They were parked 2 or 3 rows deep in some places there.

What a fantastic idea. Japan is always leading the way in utilizing every inch of space possible in the city. Makes sense since there are so many people on such a small area of land.

People use bicycles here frequently, but more for sporting and just riding in the park. They usually use their car to drive to work or to shops.

LOL @ in the video one frame reads "Cats: All yours base are belong to us."

Bicycles are a very popular form of transport in my hometown which is even known as bicycle capital of Germany.
We have underground bicycle parks too, but they aren't fully automatic.

in switzerland they have underground bike parkings but this one is trully amazing

once again, i'm always impressed by Japanese creativity !!!

Very cool but must be very expensive to set up and maintain :(

Would need to be very reliable too. We all know how annoying it is if the elevator or autoteller is out of order but if your bike got trapped 20m underground and you had to wait for someone to come along and do some repairs :(((

Very impressive. Bikes aren't very common in my area, most people commute by car or transit.

Very cool.
When I was in Osaka, these guys definitely needed some sort of parking area:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victor_lee/501245662/in/set-72157600219016742/

Only for a number of months because of the snow and it can cause bikes to deteriorate and deform

Once again, it make me jealous japanese

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get to experience the craziness that is "bike-parking-in-Japan" sometime in the near future.

I guess a bike would be useful here, even with the hills and their 60 to 80 degree grades. Just need extra big brakes and ultra-low-low gears. But that would strictly be for local use. A bike would not make sense for many people because they work too far away, the shops are too far away, or the roads are too narrow and dangerous. As for me, everything is too far away for a bike and it's uphill both ways. (^_^)

Impressive.

I remember seeing something about this. Man, imagine a version of the bike storage buy for cars.

OMG Japan is always amazing! ^^;

When I was in college (Both times) bicycles were used a lot (Especially with Michigan State's draconian parking laws) but elsewhere people drive. Most stuff is too far away.

If you need any pics from Japan "Love Hotels"....let me know;)

I go almost everyday :)

http://www.waikiki2yanai.blogspot.com

its fantastic! o.o so high tech...

we could really use this at our MRT stations in singapore...

This underground bike parking thing is really impressive! I wish we have those in my country. It saves space and you dont have to worry about your bike being stolen :)

...
Singapore hasn't reached that level of needing those yet, but soon... ;/

that's so neat! :D I'm hoping in future we might find a strida bike sometime cos of a friend's recommendation but I guess my worry is I gonna fall on my face a lot cos I'm not the best at balancing and can be clumzy ^^;

That's so awesome!

Japanese are always so innovative. I was impressed (and laughed at the same time) when I saw umbrella holders for bikes in Japan. I wonder how much they cost in japan...

Does anyone know of any other "out-of-the-ordinary" accessories that they got for bikes...cup holders maybe?

This is pure awesomeness. I would so like to have this parking thingy to be installed at my office. Hehehe...

Wow, so high tech.. we need more car parks than bike parks over here^^

Japan and its never ending battle of making space with the little space they have left.

O_o That's so cool!!! I could just stay there all day and just stare at the bikes coming in and out! XD

bicycle parking has never been so great~

Those would be a great investment on campuses... I can't tell you how hard it is to park a bike when it's going to rain.... None of the spots are ever under a roof for me. >.<;

I rarely see bikes in my neck of the woods. Especially not in the sort of numbers pictured above!

Pretty innovative to say the least. I kind of like this and the robo-parking lots I spotted here and there in Tokyo.

It's a clever use of robotics to be able to use up room vertical above and below ground. When you can't build along the x axis, build along the y. XD

Oh, wow.

San Francisco is a big bicycle city. San Jose? Not as big, but I do see people with bikes often when I use public transportation.

WOW! I love this concept, unfortunately Toronto would never invest in such a smart idea. All our city worries about is how to make the roads wider to accommodate more cars :(

Ride your bikes people! D~!

im trying to find the song danny used on the video on youtube.......... if someone knows could you please tell me where to find it?????

thanks in advance

Pretty innovative! I don't think my area will see this anytime soon as we pretty much transport via car as a lot of desired locations are pretty far. This idea is awesome, especially with the biking population. =]

Original concept ... very effective & small bulky.

Very innovative...but how do we take our bike if it's really down,like in the 144th position(most back).will the computer know that that bike is our bike?

I would LOVE to have this here in California. I'm a bike commuter myself, even though my area is pretty spread out, as are most cities in Cali (sadly the reason why we'll never see these machines here). But why I want them is because I'm about at my limit dealing with people tampering with the "things" I have on my bike, not to mention full bike theft is pretty common too.

Many more people in the DC and NY area would definitely use this and ride bikes to avoid traffic if we knew there was a more safer place to park our bikes. It's too bad my country likes to waste money on weapons, the army, invading countries for oil... etc etc.

would like to have that here in SG i cycle to commute too

Preetty storage~
I'd love to have a cheaper alternative form of transport but.. yeah ^^; That's not very safe over here...
It's pretty amazing as to how full it can get D:

wow.. so cool!

Not alot of people actually come to work in the town where I live and most people commute by means of car, not by bike, except the elderly who enjoy walking around clutching the handle bars of really old bikes as they slowly make their way around the shops.

I think this a pretty good idea. I took a trip to Japan last summer and went to Yokohama. I saw hundreds of bike parking on the side walk, considering the Japan has already limited space looks crowded. I wish Thailand has this thing too, would be cool.

Wow, I'm jealous of Japan now Danny. I wish we had some kind of bike storage system here that isn't the stop sign and a chain. But to me, that seems like a bit too much just for some bike storage, but the Japanese have never ceased to amaze. I remember one time my bike got stolen in downtown, and I was totally bummed out because of that. Now I know that if I live in Japan, I can store my bike without being afraid it'll get stolen. >:D

It's kinda wierd that when I look at that picture with all the bicycles underground it reminds me of all the human pods in the Matrix.

I live in Sicily, and many towns here are uphill, so bike is not useful as transport.

Wow! Sweet! We could use underground babies like this here(but that will never happen)! Here bicycles aren't a common form of transport. It would be too good to be true. I do have a bicycle and I love it. That's why I called it "The Celestial Demon".
So, Danny, you're saying that people just leave their bikes on the street? And nobody steals them?

Hi Danny

Thanks for the post. BTW, what's the music you used in the youtube video? my 13 months old loved that music. Is it something I can get on itunes?

Very perfect design,for a large population density areas
Hope car Storage like this :D

wow

that's pretty neat

4 me seems a 95% chance on grabbing the wrong BIKE!

it would be cool if also that parking thing could put oil on those bikes because iam really tired of japanese bike making kirai noise everywhere in the streets -_-