NEWS RELEASE                                                                                   

For Immediate Release                                                                                             

Andrea White:                                                                     562.733.0106                   

Bikestation: 10 Years and Rolling Strong

Why every city needs a Bikestation...

(Apr. 13, 2006) Long Beach, Ca -- Since 1996, Bikestation has crafted innovative, creative, and efficient solutions that improve transportation connectivity and mobility in communities across North America. In its tenth year running, Bikestation celebrates its success and milestones while demonstrating why every metropolis should invest in its own Bikestation-type facilities.

As America grasps rising gas prices, high levels of pollution, and increasingly congested freeways, Bikestation seeks to improve the quality of life in urban communities through the development and operation of bike-transit centers and related infrastructure. In 2005 alone, Bikestation parked 46,400 bicycles, translating to 15,470 cars off the road, 278,460 vehicle miles reduced, 21,720 lbs of criteria pollutants reduced, and 245,045 lbs of carbon dioxide gases reduced. These totals are the start of a revolution to improving cities across the nation.

 “With a decade of success under our belt, Bikestation continues to lead the way not just in advocating bicycling as a part of our transportation system, but also in enabling people to make bicycling a real option,” says John Case, Co-Founder of Bikestation, a non-profit organization. “Bikestation envisions communities where bicycling is an integral part of the transportation system resulting in cleaner air, safer streets and healthier living.”

            The Bikestation Coalition is the parent organization that serves as an information-clearinghouse and support system to the individual affiliates that are responsible for the day-to-day operations of bike-transit facilities. Local operators vary per location and consist of non-profit, for-profit and advocacy organizations that assist in the planning, development and implementation of each facility.

Modeled after European and Japanese examples, Bikestation Long Beach was the first facility of its kind to open in the U.S. in March of 1996. Bikestation Palo Alto and Bikestation Berkeley opened in 1999; Bikestation Seattle opened in May 2003; and Bikestation Embarcadero, in San Francisco, opened in August of 2004.

Although a relatively new concept in the United States, secure bicycle parking at transit centers is an everyday way of life in Europe and Japan; it is not uncommon for these facilities to park over 3,000 bicycles per day.

Although America may need a cultural shift to emulate the European lifestyle, immediate strides have been and still can be made through education, marketing, enhanced facilities (bikeways, signage, etc.), and leadership by the public sector to make bicycling a priority mode of transportation.

The use of bicycles as a form of transportation reduces air pollution, vehicle congestion and mitigates the effects of urban sprawl, thus enhancing quality of life for all residents. Increasing bicycle use will require, among other things, developing bike-transit facilities that offer enhanced services to bicyclists such as repair, changing rooms, refreshments and most importantly, a secure place to park their bike.

Encouraging bicycle travel also meets the dual goals of reducing transportation infrastructure costs and managing automobile demand on increasingly congested roadways. Clearly, as many transportation planners and their agencies have noted, building more roads and more car parking structures is an unsustainable venture.  Shifting park-and-ride users to bike-and-ride users represents enormous economic and customer benefits to transit agencies. Moving just 100 users from driving a car to riding a bicycle could represent a capital savings of $850,000 to $2.5 million.

“As America’s gas prices are reaching an all-time high, Bikestation is providing an alternative, a suggestion if you will,” says Andrea White, Executive Director of Bikestation.  ” We hope that people will see how enjoyable, inexpensive, healthy, invigorating, and smart it is to ride a bike when you can.  We give people the help that they need to get started and hopefully they will choose to continue bicycling as their regular means of commuting."

Bikestation may not be the answer to all of a city’s problems, but it is the start of a simple yet advanced idea that could change transportation, sustainability, health, and economics in the long run. However, Bikestation can’t achieve this alone. Cooperation from the government and other partners to make our systems friendlier to cyclists creates endless possibilities. America has been waiting for a change; Bikestation just got the ball rolling.

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For more info on Bikestation, please visit www.bikestation.org