Photo by Adam Gerard
Commuters parking their bicycles outside Metro stations increased 3 percent from last year, according to a newly released Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority bicycle parking “census.”
The survey also discovered more than two dozen potentially abandoned bikes throughout system. Metro staff tagged them in hopes owners would claim their property so more bike parking spaces will be available. Once a bike is tagged, the owner has 10 days to remove it; otherwise WMATA will remove them.
From May 1 to June 15, Metro staff traveled throughout the region and counted the number bikes parked near the stations between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Bike lockers, the Union Station Bikestation and the College Park Bike & Ride weren’t included. Each U-Rack space counted for two bikes, while staff used their “best judgment” to determine how other racks were counted.
The survey was part of its Pedestrian and Bicycle Element of 2012-2017 Capital Improvement Program to survey the demand and availability of bike parking around the stations. Below are the main findings:
Bike parking usage in 2012 is up 3 percent from last year
Bike parking capacity is up significantly, thanks to newly-installed bike racks near Metrorail station, including racks with capacity for over 300 installed by Metro staff.
Now, 85 of 86 stations (all but Arlington Cemetery) have bike racks available.
We now count over 4,000 bike parking spaces near Metrorail stations.
Many stations where we recently added new racks saw some uptick in usage (e.g., Braddock Road 19 percent increase in usage, Takoma 24 percent, West Hyattsville 13 percent) over last year, but some did not. Generally, there may be enough year-to-year variability with these ”snapshot” data that it can be difficult to identify detailed trends.
Parking near downtown stations may have declined somewhat versus last year. This might be one impact of Capital Bikeshare.
We found six stations where total bikes parked exceeded 100 percent of rack capacity.Metro staff will take action at these stations where we can, but in other situations where we do not own the land or the racks, we will work actively with our station-area partners.
Twenty-five stations had at least three bikes secured/locked to things other than racks.Securing a bike to a railing can obstruct those who need the railing — or can block an accessible path — and is strongly discouraged or even illegal in some jurisdictions.
Securing a bike to a tree can damage or kill it. At station areas where cyclists are securing bikes to objects other than racks because of inadequate bike parking capacity, Metro staff will take action to increase capacity where it can.
