death of folding bikes if this ever come to ur nearby city...
 

At first I thought "This is really cool!"
Then I realized that this would be really expensive, and although I can see it working in Japan, where space is an utmost premium, I cannot see it working in the United States, where car-culture is much more widely embraced than bike culture.

I also don't know if people would be willing to spend their tax dollars on it.

But hey? If the government can spend billions of taxpayer's dollars in an unpopular war, maybe they could spend a teeny tiny fraction of that on this program!

The crazy thing is, this is isn't a response to bike theft. It's a response to too many parked bikes getting in everyone's way.

I think a smaller version for our smaller town would be great. Of course, our town is kind of 'broke' right now.

We should be so lucky to have this problem.

Hmm, it opens opportunities for hackers to upgrade their Dahons to Moultons.

BTW, similar systems for full size cars are common in Japan.

Kam

Here's a small "car shuffler" system inside a 3rd level basement in a Taipei office building during one of my visits. There's a computer on a pillar and you punch in your card and your car (or car spot) comes automatically to the front. It's 3 cars deep, 2 cars high, and 12 cars wide on both sides of the access-way. It's really funny to watch if your car is at the very back, the A.I. decides the quickest shuffle route depending on how the stacks are loaded. I don't know how many parking levels there are further down. A parking spot is currently TWD $1,500,000.00 (USD $43,000.00) to own one, that's if you could find one that's for sale which is highly unlikely!

We really don't appreciate enough the fact that we live in countries that do have space... :)

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t.../carpark02.jpg


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Don't forget the trillions being handed out to banks and car makers.

Governments can find VAST sums of money whenever they want to it seems. Then they jib at other investments that might be socially useful. I'm not referring to this scheme there - I'm too anarchistic a person to be too enthusiastic about that degree of control myself.

Providing good bike storage for commuters = good.
Deciding this guy should be in charge = hilarious.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...s07/asimo1.jpg

^ He looks like he'd be pretty good at changing tires though! :)

I think you're right; if bike parking of this kind were an option, I might actually get rid of my folding bike. But that's pretty hypothetical.

$20/month is pretty reasonable, depending on location. I now pay $7.50/month for a locker at the train station in sub-rural NJ, where parking a car costs $4/day last time I checked.

I would not get rid of all of my folders. I still like to keep at least 1 for places that don't have any form of secure valet parking. If the real threat of bike theft is removed as is with my folder usage, I prefer to use a regular bike again. I don't like to draw too much attention to myself with using the folding option anymore-I find it gets rather old quite fast. Or pay an additional premium for the initial cost of buying a folding bike over a similar regular one.

I wouldn't get rid of my folder. I still need to carry it up 3 flights of curving stairs when I get home. There's no parking silo in my apt, unfortunately. ;)

At $20/month it's cheaper to simply use a regular lock and let your bike get occasionally stolen. So, no this definitely wouldn't replace my folder.

Besides, why pay $20/month for parking when you can get the bike included for $40/year?
http://www.smartbikedc.com/

I wouldn't get rid of my folders until similar schemes are available both on trains and in the back of my car!

tokyo is ahead of the world with that thing.
I don't see it a s a threat to folders,
just another way for people to not worry about bike parking.
Basel, Switzerland has a nice system (albeit manual) where you park beneath the train station
Your bike is out of the weather, it's free and just an escalator ride away from the train platform.
If you wish, for a small price it can be within sight of a guard booth behind a turnstyle.

um, and I suspect to make and operate the silo aint exactly green either. Not a fanatic about that kind of thing, but we should bear it in mind, right?