Metro to take on bike theft, add pay by the hour lockers

Bike theft makes up 30% of all larcenies at Metro Stations and Metro appears to be making a real effort to attack the problem.

Metro plans to install 153 security cameras at the entrances of its rail stations and is also considering recruiting auxiliary police officers to improve security, Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said Thursday.

The new cameras will be able to take picture of high enough quality to identify someone. It's unclear if any will be pointed specifically at bike parking.

Metro customers who bike to the stations say theft is a major concern. Metro provides bike lockers at some stations, but riders have complained that the price of those lockers more than doubled last year, from $70 to $200 annually.

Nat Bottigheimer, Metro’s director of long-range planning, said Metro plans to build bike lockers during the next year and a half that will rent for about a nickel an hour.

I'm waiting to see data on the rental rates of lockers before and after the price increase. The new pay by the hour lockers are brilliant (and I don't just say that because I've been pushing them). Bike theft can be a real deterrent to bike commuting so this is an important step to encouraging cycling.

Comments

[Jmg]

Is METRO considering the possibility of relaxing its bikes on the trains rules. I can certainly see the continued restrictions on peak of the peak trains, but there is a lot of unused space in the mornings that could really increase the number of people who integrate bikes into their commutes.

For example, why couldn't METRO allow bikes in the eighth car during the 7 and 9 o'clock hours? Even allowing small-wheel bikes (24" or less) could promote a lot healthier use of the system and restricting use to 8-car trains will keep the 6-cars from getting too full.

[Greenbelt]

I'd settle for a small loosening of the rush hour limitation -- would really help in winter evenings, when it's too dark for my usual ride home (on unlit trails).

I'd like for Metro to allow access for bikes starting at 6pm, but perhaps limited just to entering only the first door of the first car of the train, right by the operator's window, and giving the operators discretion to ask people with bikes not to board if the first car is already crowded?

[Jmg]

I like the first door idea, but I wonder how well that would go with station managers.

[Rob]

Maybe we could start just by allowing bikes during rush hour for reverse commuters (people living in DC and commuting to the suburbs). Trains going that direction have a fair bit of space available.

[washcycle]

Reverse commuting: Metro's position is that they can only enforce behavior at the gates. If they let "reverse commuters" on, how can they be sure they won't go the wrong way?

BART somehow makes it work.

I think Metro should try it and see how it works. If it fails they can put the blame on cyclists. Until then, the blame is on them for being too timid to experiment.

[Greenbelt]

Reverse commuters or first door "space available" riders could sign an agreement to be "responsible rush hour riders" pledging not to board an overcrowded train and to abide by operators' discretion to get off and wait for another train if a car gets too crowded.

[washcycle]

There are a lot of possible solutions. I won't bother naming them, because WMATA won't bother trying them. The best solution is to buy a folding bike.

[Allen Muchnick]

Thanks for this good news. Video surveillance of bikes parked at Metrorail stations and daily bike locker rentals are simple, common-sense measures that are decades overdue.

[Greenbelt Bike-to-Rail]

This is good news. The new cameras need to actually be aimed at the bike storage. No brainer. I and some of my colleagues have been asking for security cameras at the Greenbelt bike lockers for years now. They are very far from the station entrance, and people use them as bathrooms on a daily basis. They smell terrible, and your bike smells terrible if you leave it there for longer than a few hours. The abusers need to know that this is an illegal offense and be reprimanded according to the law. At least Metro finally plugged up the little holes in the street lamps where folks used to hide their stash. No joke.

[Greenbelt Bike-to-Rail]

This just in: a fellow Greenbelt bike-metro commuter discovered two piles of human feces between two bike lockers earlier this week. He informed the station manager and asked that it be cleaned immediately. Three days later after three direct verbal requests to the station manager, nothing has been cleaned up. What is the next course of action here? This is not the first time a Greenbelt bike commuter has had this problem.