WMATA releases 2012 bike parking survey data

WMATA just released 2012 data on bike parking at Metro stations across the region. Vienna was third in two categories, Total Bikes Parked and Greatest Rack Capacity. Franconia-Springfield has the fourth most Total Bikes Parked but there's a definite shortage of racks at the Franconia-Springfield VRE entrance, with 35 bikes parked, 19 of which are not parked in racks.

WMATA has been doing a good job recently of adding bike parking capacity.

These counts show that we are moving in the right direction, but more work remains. We generally have enough bike parking capacity at nearly all stations, but not all stations see equal usage. One missing piece could be bike-friendly infrastructure around the stations to allow bike-to-rail customers to comfortably and safely access stations. So, we’ll work with our jurisdictions to improve paths, crossings, and other infrastructure outside Metro’s immediate property. But you tell us – what do you see as obstacles to biking to your Metrorail station?

Here is a summary of the overall findings:

• Bike parking usage in 2012 is up 3% from last year
• Bike parking capacity is up significantly, thanks to newly-installed bike racks near Metrorail station, including racks with capacity for over 300 installed by Metro staff.
• Now, 85 of 86 stations (all but Arlington Cemetery) have bike racks available.
• We now count over 4,000 bike parking spaces near Metrorail stations.
• Many stations where we recently added new racks saw some uptick in usage (e.g., Braddock Road 19% increase in usage, Takoma 24%, West Hyattsville 13%) over last year, but some did not.Generally, there may be enough year-to-year variability with these "snapshot" data that it can be difficult to identify detailed trends.
• Parking near downtown stations may have declined somewhat versus last year.This might be one impact of Capital Bikeshare.
• We found six stations where total bikes parked exceeded 100% of rack capacity.Metro staff will take action at these stations where we can, but in other situations where we do not own the land or the racks, we will work actively with our station-area partners.
• Twenty-five stations had at least 3 bikes secured/locked to things other than racks.Securing a bike to a railing can obstruct those who need the railing — or can block an accessible path — and is strongly discouraged or even illegal in some jurisdictions. Securing a bike to a tree can damage or kill it. At station areas where cyclists are securing bikes to objects other than racks because of inadequate bike parking capacity, Metro staff will take action to increase capacity where it can.