StructureHub

Washington, D.C. bicyclists got a big morale boost last month, when the Bicycle Transit Center opened to the public.  Essentially a parking garage with changing rooms, the new hub has room for 150 bicycles - all of which get to reside in a beautiful structure designed by KGP Design Studio.  The building is unabashedly different from the National Postal Museum and Union Station buildings on either side.  Instead of being a derivation of classical architecture, the new structure resembles Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts & Sciences building in Valencia, Spain.   

The garage seems a bit small (given its $4 million price tag), but it does point to effective means of encouraging bike commuting: give bicyclists secure, storage areas that aren’t buried in the dark depths of their workplaces.  A common complaint about bike-commuting is that storage facilities exist in the darkest, most isolated, least convenient, part of existing buildings.  I suspect that if more storage facilities were like this one - above ground, and not shoved into an isolated location - more commuters would travel on two wheels. 

Perhaps the best aspect of the new garage is its location next to the front entrance of Daniel Burnham’s Union Station.  Whereas Chicago has a swanky new bike-storage facility in Millenium Park - removed from trains, buses, and subway cars, the Washington garage is as much a character of Washington’s daily drama of the commute - even for non-cyclists - as its more established modes of transportation.  In a way, the garage and its placement is a sign that bicycling is finally more than just a recreational activity in America - and there are few better locations to signal as much than down the street from the Capitol Building.       

Related Post:  Danes ride bikes, so why don’t we (ride bikes too)? 

Image courtesy of loonyhiker.