Bikes grow on trees in Japan
Friday, November 6, 2009 by Anthony Plewes
Long fans of automated vending machines for just about everything and unusual parking arrangements, the Japanese have come up with yet another technological solution to a long-standing problem in cities – where to park your bike safely. In Japan apparently they have a big problem of bicycles being parked ‘illegally’, so they’ve come up with an idea for an automated bike store, as described in this Guardian video: Bike tree. Basically you buy a season ticket for the facility, tag your bike, and use a smartcard to store and retrieve it. The manufacturers of the solution – a steel company bizarrely – outline their idea here. Could be worthwhile investigating in London, where a couple of train-based bike stores are already emerging, such as the one at Finsbury Park, which can store 125 bikes. Compare that to the nearly 6,400 bikes that can be stored in the Kasai Station ‘Cycle Tree’ in Tokyo!
