From Ken Ohrn:
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I travelled (multi-mode) by bike, SkyTrain and foot to family business in Surrey. While at King George SkyTrain station, I saw the new bike parkade. Uptake seems faster than at Main Street, with several bikes already in it after the opening on July 16.
It differs from the parkade at the Main Street/Science World Station because it has a pump and a tool kit. Uptake there seems to be improving after a slow start.
This station has 20 to 30 bike boxes, which were getting a fresh coat of paint while I was there.
For me, the Main Street/Science World bike parkade is terrifically useful, making the transition from bike to SkyTrain quick and easy, with no worries about what I will (or won’t) find when I get back there.
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This is really good. I see this sort of thing to be similar to the bike racks on the fronts of buses. When there were only a few, you had to do some work to predict if there will be a rack there but once it came to every bus having one, you could rely on it. (Not that it might have an empty slot though of course.) So like those, a secure bike lockup at a few stations are useful for those who are highly organized but once every single station has one, it will mean much more.
What is needed to compliment them are AAA routes from each station’s bike room to the nearest cycle route(s). That’s what’s missing at Main Street. There is nothing there like that. Two of the streets along the station are hostile. The closest cycle route is a block west but it means going along Terminal Avenue. That added block or so is enough of a gap to dissuade many people from bothering.