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Transit Officials Considering Bike Lockers For San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency officials were considering a plan that would make it the first major U.S. city to install residential bike lockers in parking spaces.

It was just one of a handful of recommendations, part of an overall strategy to get more people to commute by bicycle in San Francisco.

Transit Officials Considering Bike Lockers For San Francisco

Right now, only about 4 percent of the commute trips in San Francisco are by bike.

"I hear from people who bike in San Francisco all the time about not having secure parking," said Kristin Smith with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "And the risk of bike theft is a major deterrent to them riding their bikes more."

Smith said the bike lockers, which would be located downtown, at train stations, and in neighborhoods, are just one of the suggestions in Muni's study, "Strategy for Long-Term Bicycle Parking in San Francisco."

"Some of the other strategies are having some bike parking options, larger bike parking options where we secure bike parking rooms, which might house up to 500 bikes rather than just a few," she said.

Matt Lasky with the Municipal Transportation Agency said the bike lockers would be opened by smart cards and could double or triple bike storage.

"There would likely be a nominal charge per bike, per hour," Lasky said. "So, you only use the locker as needed, where as now, you could keep the locker empty and there would be no bike inside and no one is using it."

The recommendations for long-term bike parking are divided into three types of facilities: the bicycle lockers, unattended bicycle parking, which would include storage areas or rooms near transit stations with high volumes of bicyclists and transit riders and in locations with a high density of housing and few existing long-term bicycle parking opportunities, and the construction of two new attended bicycle parking facilities.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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