Palo Alto.s Bikestation is a safe storage area for bicycles, helping make it practical for bicycles to be used for commuting. The station allows users to park their bikes during the day or overnight. It is equipped with support staff, repair and rental facilities, a coffee shop, and rooms for changing clothes.
The bikestation is a public-private partnership, funded by a grant to the Bay Area Transportation Fund for Clean Air, and run by Palo Alto Bicycles, a commercial bicycle shop. It is housed in the Palo Alto CalTrain depot, providing users with easy access to transit. Palo Alto Bicycles also markets the facility, promoting it to students and faculty of Stanford University, and envisions the bikestation as a staging point for bicycle advocacy.
The bikestation has been a success, with the amount of bicyclists utilizing the space more than tripling between 1999, when it opened, and 2003. Bikestation is the brainchild of John Case, who was inspired by European and Japanese experiments to open the first station in the U.S. in Long Beach in 1996. Similar ventures under the Bikestation imprint have taken root in Seattle, Berkeley and Embarcadero.
Goal
Providing Bicyclists with Facilities and Services