Not technically mine, but Fairfax County Dept of Transportation have been kind enough to rent it to me for $40 until Mar 2008.

My usual commute, especially in nastier weather, is a 14-mile round trip from my home to Herndon-Monroe park-n-ride in Herndon, Va. Then I use either a bus or bus-and-train to get to Rosslyn, just over the Potomac from DC. I've been using this PnR for almost 2 years and locking my bike up at a cycle rack there. It's partly protected from the elements by having a road ramp go over it.

One day about a couple of weeks ago, I had 15 mins to kill waiting for the bus so was mooching about and decided to take a closer look at "the big boxes for containing salt/grit" next to the end bus stop.

Except they had the words "cycle-safe" on them.

A bit of a googling at home and I had a number to call at the County DOT from a notice put out by a local cycle advocacy group. Also, I discovered that the County put the lockers there about 2 years ago, but had only just worked out a system for leasing them.

One phone call (703-324-BIKE), drop my details, form in the post, fill and send back with cheque for $90 ($40 rental and $50 returnable key deposit) and wait. The key arrived 2 days ago.



Waiting for my key, I wondered just how much space I was going to have. I thought the boxes might be too short...

However...



If you know anyone in the area who might be interested in commuting into DC from this area in No Va and using a bike, let them know about the locker option.

There's no waiting list at Herndon-Monroe or Reston PnR.

Wow.That's pretty awesome. I carry grubby bike in from the rain so it doesn't wreck the carpet. It'd be great to have one of these!

Those are the exact same ones we have where I work,except ours have loops on the front so you can use your U lock to lock them. They rock.

Note to self: Must design a good looking bike locker - must not be confused with an air conditioner condensing unit or overturned porta-potty.
That said, I love the idea of bike lockers, just wish that they looked as nice a some of the bikes they protect.

Is the interior shaped like a right angled triangle? Is one unit subdivided into two lockers? I am guessing that it must have doors on each end.

You have it right. This is a block of 10 lockers. Two in each unit, divided diagonally.

Johnson County Transit has similar lockers available for $5 per month. They don't have any near *MY* park and ride location, but there's a single locker (2 units) along the side of the road about 2/3 to my bus stop. The Johnson County buses will stop anywhere if you flag them down, so it could technically work out. I like having my bike downtown though, and my company has a bike rack in the lowe level of the parking garage.

There's a rack in the garage next to work in Rosslyn, 24 miles from home. When the weather improves significantly, I'm going to up the number of times I do the whole distance on the bike. The locker at the PnR is for when I don't have the time, weather,inclination or puff to do the big commute.

Make no mistake, I put my bike on the bus. I couldn't do my 60 mile RT commute every day without the bus.

I did the 48 mile round commute a few times when I had a Giant OCR2. The bike was a bit small for me and a bit rigid. I got pains in my back towards the last 2-3 miles. It is a really nice commute as all but a 1/2 mile is MUP. I can't wait for some decent weather to do it on my LHT.

I don't understand. They charge you rent/a lease just to put your bike in those lockers? The county should have those things out there for free. Why would they make you pay rent, there just lockers? I'm glad they have them out there for you to use but to have someone pay money to park your bike?

We have the same thing over here in downtown Sacramento . There free to who ever wants to use them. You just have to bring your own lock. Bad thing is most of the time there taken.

$40 a month seems a little pricey, but at least they are making them available to you. I like the idea of these even for just around town, if they could just be set up to rent by the hour I would not have to worry about my bike getting stolen when I am running errands. Congrats on the new parking spot.

Yeah, just a little. It's $40 a year.

Az

You can definitely do it. I started riding longer distances last March (I live near Franklin Farm and work in Ballston). Went from 5 miles, to 10 miles, 15, 20, 30....to longer turnaround points on the W&OD....

One Saturday, I thought - how much further would it be to ride to work? I did it once, and found that it wasn't all that bad (43 RT - about 2.5 shorter each way than your ride). Now, I do it once a week as long as the temp is above 25 and there's no ice on the trail.

Starting in April, I'll up it to 2X a week, since I'm training for a big century ride in June, but it's a nice ride, and by the time I get to work, I'm WIDE awake. By the time I get home, any stress from work is LONG gone.

/I will need to check out the lockers, though - it might be a way to get more riding in without having to do the long trip each time. It's only about 4 miles from the P&R to my house.

4 miles would take about 15-20 minutes, I suppose. If you go in at a regular time, there are the 980 buses in the morning. It's rarely longer than a 10 minute wait for those. It's about a 25 minute ride to West Falls Church Metro, 5 mins to change and a 10 minute ride to Ballston. The whole commute should take about 1-1.25 hours. I manage to get through some recreational reading in that time.

For about $3.30 a month for the locker, it's worth having the option.

That's why.

He rents the locker for a year so that it is always there for him.