Metro to lure bike-to-rail commuters
By Ann Scott Tyson, Sunday, March 20, 9:25 PM Washington Post
With packs on their backs, reflective neon straps around their ankles and sometimes even headlamps, they are the proud few who brave traffic, rainstorms and thieves to bicycle to Metrorail stations.
Bike-to-rail commuters represent 0.7 percent of Metrorail riders — compared with about 40 percent who drive, 33 percent who walk and 22 percent who take the bus to stations.
But Metro’s long-range planners, desperate to avoid having to build 30,000 to 40,000 expensive parking spaces at stations to meet the projected surge in ridership over the next 20 years, have launched an initiative to quintuple the number of cyclists.
“It’s very much strategic for us to put a really big focus on bicycle parking,” said Kristin Haldeman, Metro’s manager of access planning. Parking spaces cost on average $25,000 each, compared with $1,000 per space for a secured bike cage. “It’s an extremely expensive proposition for us” to expand car parking, she said.
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