Bike Locker Space is nearly 6X as costly as Car Parking Space

If WMATA increases the bike locker fee to $200 a year it will then be nearly six times more expensive to park a bike per square foot than to park a car. Car parking for the year is $660. But, as pointed out in the brochure of the company who makes the bike locker

you can fit nine of our bike lockers in one car parking space - that’s enough parking to hold eighteen bikes.

So that same parking space could generate $3600year if dedicated to bike lockers. Even at the old price WMATA was making a killing of $1260 per car parking space. Metro is not considering raising the price of automobile parking I should note.

Again, I support performance parking for bike lockers, but that involves actually knowing which lockers are being used and which are not. Where there is a waiting list, raise prices gradually, and use some of the new revenue to install more bike lockers or double-tiered ones at places like Eastern Market where there's a waiting list. Where there is no waiting list, lower prices. 

Comments

[Froggie]

Realistically, you'd probably see ONE bike per bike locker, not two. So cut your numbers in half. Still notable, though.

[washcycle]

The lockers have doors on both sides and inside is separated by a diagonal wall. They're shaped more like a wedge than a box. Why do you think there would be only one bike per locker?

[Froggie]

Lack of experience with said lockers. Was assuming one person per locker, so the two-bikes-per-locker didn't make sense at the time...

[Jan]

So, is there a particular place current bike locker renters can complain about this, and make the point about the differential between parking fees and bike rental fees? Know of a particular link, email? WABA? Metro Board?

[Washcycle]

If you want to complain about the current state of things the Metro Board is the place to go (as well as your state's board members who might be elected officials). Another option is to contact the Rider's Advisory Council, of which David Alpert of GGW for one is a member. For the proposed changes, I'm hoping there will be public comment allowed and that would be the time to bring those up. It can't hurt to write WABA about it either.

[DS]

I assume that the $660/year for a car is the price of a reserved spot? The problem is that this price doesn't include the daily cost of parking at the lot (I believe at least $4.25/day). The $200 for the bike locker is the only fee for the year, there is no additional daily fee. You can't compare the $660 for a car and the $200 for a bike because you're not comparing the same things. You need to look at the total cost to park a car (daily fees + reserved spot fee) and compare that to the $200 bike locker rental to get an accurate comparison.

[washcycle]

DS, since daily bike parking without a locker is free, I was considering only the markup to a reserved space. But, if we add in the daily parking, that comes out to an additional $980 - if you park every day (less holidays and vacation). That's a total of $1640, still less than half the new cost of a bike locker per square foot. And if you don't have a reserved spot, it's less than a third.