Bike Stations in Other US Cities: Where Chicago's 2004 Station Fit

The Millennium Park bike station was never alone. It was one of a small family of secure bike facilities that began on the West Coast and spread to transit hubs and downtowns. This page places Chicago’s station in that family.

What a bike station is

A bicycle parking station, also called a bike garage or cycle center, is a building or structure designed as a secure bicycle parking facility.¹ It can be as simple as a lockable cage or as complex as a purpose-built multi-level building.¹

Some add repairs, showers or lockers.¹ Some are staffed and some are not. Some require membership, while others are per-use or free.¹ Operators vary too: local governments, bike shops and nonprofit advocacy groups all run them.¹

How the model spread in the United States

The first Bikestation, a trademarked name for a facility with secure storage, repair and often restrooms and showers, opened in Long Beach in 1996.² The concept was modeled on facilities in Europe and Japan.² Long Beach built the first bike-transit center in North America in 1996, and a new state-of-the-art facility replaced it in 2006.³

Growth was slow. Palo Alto and Berkeley opened in 1999, and Seattle in 2003.² Santa Barbara, Claremont and Covina followed, and Washington, D.C. got a Bikestation at Union Station with about 125 indoor parking spaces.²

City	Milestone
Long Beach, CA	First Bikestation, 1996; replacement facility, 20062,3
Palo Alto and Berkeley, CA	Opened 19992
Seattle, WA	Opened 20032
Chicago, IL	Millennium Park station opened July 20044
Washington, D.C.	Union Station Bikestation, about 125 indoor spaces2

Where Chicago fit

Chicago began designing its station in August 2003.⁴ The city built it at the intersection of East Randolph Street and Columbus Drive.⁴ Bike stations were in place or planned in several US cities, among them Denver, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Long Beach and Palo Alto.⁴ Facilities with amenities had first appeared on the West Coast and did not yet exist in the Midwest.⁴

The station opened in July 2004.⁴ Former Mayor Richard M. Daley celebrated the opening, calling it the “first of its kind in the Midwest and one of the biggest in the nation.”⁷ The plan behind it is in the Bike 2010 plan page, and the building’s story is in the station history.

What Long Beach offered

The Long Beach facility is the best documented template. Its services included:

• Secure, indoor 24/7 bike parking.³
• Valet bike parking during staffed hours.
• Bicycle repairs, rental and retail.
• Tools and repair stands free of charge.
• Educational classes on bike maintenance, routes, rights and responsibilities.

What it cost to use one

Full use, including around-the-clock parking, typically cost a membership of $12 a month or $96 a year plus a $20 annual administrative fee.² Long Beach offered the same $12 and $96 rates and a $1-a-day option.³

Phase one of the new Long Beach building cost about $450,000.³ Its operating costs were $130,000 a year, of which the City of Long Beach contributed $48,000 a year while fees for Bikestation services covered the balance.³

In user surveys, 30 percent of users previously drove alone to their destinations.³ In 2006 Bikestation parked over 50,000 bikes.³

Why a station can still fail

Chicago’s station closed permanently on September 30, 2022.⁶ The City said it ended the operator’s contract because the station was not sustainable as a business enterprise, with decreased demand for its amenities in that location.⁶ The building will now be a home for the Chicago Police Department Bicycle Patrol.⁶

Secure parking today

The world’s largest bicycle parking station is at Utrecht Railway Station in the Netherlands, completed in 2019, with room for 12,500 bicycles on three levels of double-decker racks.¹

New York City’s Department of Transportation provides free, short-term bike parking.⁵ Each of its bike shelters contains four racks and protects bikes from the rain.⁵ Secure parking is a separate program: a network of 500 locations available through paid memberships.⁵

For parking a bike in Chicago today, see the Station hub and the guide to bike parking downtown.