Bicycle parking, reinvented

Forgot where you parked your bike? Check underground.

In an effort to reduce the amount of land used for bicycle parking, Japanese construction company Giken has developed a way to park bicycles underground, automatically. They are collected at street level, stored in cylindrical units below ground, and then returned to their owners at street level in a fully automated process.

As one of the best ways of reducing carbon emissions, cycling does have one drawback: parking. In a major metropolis like Tokyo, a sizable amount of land is needed to accommodate bicycles. Enter Giken with a way to use land more efficiently.

“In particularly busy areas in cities, bicycles can create ‘parking pollution’. Some of them are even derelict,” says Tsunenobu Nozaki of Giken’s International Business Department. “The pollution ruins not only city scenery, but also public activities. We think there should be a better way of using land, and it should be achieved by providing parking space underground.”

Hence ECO Cycle, a mechanical underground parking lot which promotes Giken’s design concept of “culture aboveground, function underground”. The process is incredibly simple: collection units are set at ground level, where a sensor reads a bike and attaches its wheels to a loading slip. After the loading button is pressed, the doors open and the bike disappears underground in a matter of seconds. To collect their wheels, cycle owners scan their ECO Cycle card. The transporting tray then picks up the bike and returns it above ground — all in about 8 seconds.

ECO Cycle has numerous perks: it protects cycles from weather damage and theft, though Giken remains resolute that its primary concern is ECO Cycle’s ability to save land. “We developed the ECO Cycle not for bicycles, but more efficient use of land for public activities,” says Nozaki.

And they’ve got the numbers to prove it.

“The foot print of ECO Cycle is approximately 52m2,” says Nozaki. “Since the parking capacity of the ECO Cycle is 204, the average parking space is just 0.255m2 per bicycle. In contrast, horizontal parking facilities need to allow approximately 1.0m x 2.0m (2m2) parking space per bicycle.” That means that a standard bicycle parking lot uses almost eight times more land than an ECO Cycle unit.

There are currently 41 ECO Cycle parking facilities in Tokyo and Osaka, most located in densely populated areas and near train stations. Giken is essentially commissioned to build an ECO Cycle unit by the landowner, who then purchases the rights to the parking set up.

“In most cases, the projects are non-profitable as a part of city planning by authorities,” says Nozaki.

Parking spots cost between just ¥1,500 and ¥2,500 per month.

Nozaki says that the goal of ECO Cycle is “to eliminate or minimise bicycle pollution over the world.”

But Giken hasn’t limited itself to bicycle parking. Another project, called ECO Park, applies the same underground storage concept to cars. Drivers pull their vehicles into loading units, turn off the engine, exit the vehicle, and the car is then sent underground. In order to avoid malfunctions, ECO Park has a set-up it claims is fool-proof, which stops the system if a car has been improperly parked.

Despite these provisions, there are only three ECO Park units in Japan. Nozaki says that authorities tend to be more concerned about traffic jams than parking. However, high construction costs also likely discourage widespread installation.

However, whether it’s parking bikes or cars, Giken is implementing solutions that save land for more efficient use.

“From our point of view,” Nozaki says, “bicycles are increasing in major cities and being treated as nuisances.”

“Culture aboveground, function underground” indeed.

© Japan Today