AIA writes about DC's bike station
District of Columbia Department of Transportation officials first
suggested a cinder block design for the building that more literally
mimicked the masonry of Union Station, but the architects at KGP
instead chose to use sharp material oppositions to bring the project
into focus. Still, its shallow vaulting curves are a contextual
parallel to the train station’s arched colonnades.
But even these efforts pale in comparison to the infrastructure and design investments European and Asian nations have made in bicycle transit (where parking structures’ capacity is measured in the thousands, not the hundreds). Domestically, this scale of bike infrastructure has to be approached before Americans will regard a bike commute as commonly as a trip in a car or subway, Paine says. “For the bike stations to work, there have to be more bike stations,” he says.
But even these efforts pale in comparison to the infrastructure and design investments European and Asian nations have made in bicycle transit (where parking structures’ capacity is measured in the thousands, not the hundreds). Domestically, this scale of bike infrastructure has to be approached before Americans will regard a bike commute as commonly as a trip in a car or subway, Paine says. “For the bike stations to work, there have to be more bike stations,” he says.
Photo by M.V. Jantzen
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