A new Bicycle Parking Management Plan was adopted by the Caltrain Board of Directors. The plan was crafted to allow Caltrain to more effectively manage its large and growing amount of bike riders using the system.
Under the new Bicycle Parking Management Plan, Caltrain will work to increase bike parking capacity at stations along the corridor. Improvements will focus on providing passengers with secure, easy-to-use, low cost bike parking options, such as electronic bike lockers, at stations across the corridor. In addition, Caltrain seeks to hire a dedicated project manager for bike access and to outsource bike parking facilities to outside vendors at all of their stations. Currently, Caltrain has a mix of third party and in house bike parking facilities, but the ones managed by Caltrain are underperforming due to a lack of dedicated staffing and resource constraints.
With an estimated 6,000 bikes brought on board each day, Caltrain has more on-board bike storage capacity than any other commuter rail service in the country. Estimates show 17 percent of passenger trips to and from Caltrain stations are made via bicycle. Currently, the vast majority — 93 percent — of Caltrain passengers riding a bike to their origin station bring their bikes on board the train, with only six percent of passengers parking bikes at their origin station and a mere one percent using bike share programs. And with an estimated 40 percent of Caltrain bikers’ final destinations within a half-mile of their destination station, greater wayside bike parking capacity could greatly reduce overcrowding on bike cars.
With the Board of Directors’ approval of the plan, Caltrain will move to hire a dedicated bike access project manager by the end of 2017. This project manager will be tasked with developing a detailed funding plan and seeking proposals from third party vendors to manage and administer the bike parking system. With the new management regime in place, Caltrain will then focus on planning for and delivering bike parking facility improvements across the corridor.
