It is an important goal of the Puget Sound Region to achieve a more efficient total transportation system by increasing the number of people who bicycle and take public transit as regular modes of transportation. One way to encourage this is to create good bike parking facilities at park-and-ride lots and transit stations (including bus transit centers, rail stations and ferry terminals). Accommodation for bike parking at transit facilities can range anywhere from a simple bike rack to a full-blown bicycle commuter station ("bikestation") that offers a variety of services such as 24-hour secure bike parking, restrooms, retail sales, bike repairs and rentals and more. Deciding what type of bike parking to provide at any given transit station can be a challenge for local and regional transit agencies who would like to encourage bike access to their services.

To address this need, the Regional Council recently completed a Regional Bikestations Project - in partnership with Everett Transit, Sound Transit, King County Metro, City of Seattle, and Pierce Transit - using funds from an Enhancements transportation grant. The project is designed to assist transit agencies make better informed decisions regarding how they accommodate bicycles at their transit stations and park-and-ride lots. The project outlines a detailed regionally coordinated bike parking program and how to make such a program successful in the Puget Sound region. Specifically the project developed four products:

1. A methodology to estimate bicycle demand at transit stations and park-and-ride lots. The methodology will help transit agencies gauge bike parking demand at any transit station location based on local demographic and other data, allowing them to make better informed decisions regarding how much and what kind of bike parking to provide.

2. A study examining the feasibility of constructing bikestations at four demonstration locations: Montlake Flyer Stop, King Street Station, Everett Multimodal Station and Tacoma Dome Station. The study makes recommendations for how to best accommodate bike parking at these locations based on estimated bike parking demand and other factors.

3. Design guidelines for accommodating different levels of bike parking demand at transit stations and park-and-ride lots. Taking this a step further, detailed construction drawings were created for covered bike racks and controlled-access bike cages as part of the regionally coordinated bike parking program, making it easy for the transit agencies to implement the new design guidelines. The term "bike-and-ride" is a generic term used to refer to a bikestation, bike cage, or covered bike rack at a transit facility.

4. A regionally coordinated marketing plan and graphic design tool kit was crafted to promote the use of existing and future bike-and-rides. The graphic design tool kit includes logos and a template brochure to be used to spread the word about the regional bike parking program.

Demonstration Bike-and-Rides
King County Metro, Everett Transit and Pierce Transit received a portion of the Bikestations grant as seed money to design and construct demonstration bike-and-rides based on the findings of the feasibility study. Each bike-and-ride will be comprised of different components and features, depending on estimated demand, level and type of transit service, and other factors. Each agency is at a different phase of planning and implementation for their bike-and-ride. The four demonstration bike-and-rides will be located at:

King Street Station, contact Eileen Kadesh, King County Metro, 206-684-1600
Montlake Flyer Stop, contact Eileen Kadesh, King County Metro, 206-684-1600
Everett Multimodal Station, contact John Peterson, Everett Transit, 425-257-8803
Tacoma Dome Station, contact Janine Robinson, Pierce Transit, 253-984-8156

Bike Station Seattle
Bikestation Seattle opened May 16, 2003. This groundbreaking transit facility offers members access to public transportation, bike-sharing and car-sharing services and provides bicycle rentals, sales and repairs as well as secure indoor bicycle parking available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Bikestation Seattle is located at 311 3rd Avenue South in Pioneer Square near King Street Station. For more information - www.bikestation.org/seattle/index.asp.

Regional Bikestations Project Final Products
Cover and Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Introduction and Background
Chapter 2: Bikestation Demand Methodology
Chapter 3: Site Assessment
Chapter 4: Feasibility Studies
Chapter 5: Design and Graphic Standards
Chapter 6: Marketing Program
Chapter 7: Conclusions
Appendix
Demand Estimation Methodology Template [Excel]

For a print copy of the Regional Bikestations Report, contact the Information Center, infoctr@psrc.org, 206-464-7532