Capital Metro to open fully enclosed bike shelter at Kramer Station on Aug. 6

Photo courtesy Capital Metro

The fully enclosed shelter has card-key access as well as 24-hour camera surveillance.

On Aug. 6, Capital Metro will open a new bike shelter at the MetroRail Red Line Kramer Station that will be available for an annual rental fee. The shelter will be one of as many as six to open throughout Austin at various Red Line stops and Park & Rides during the next two years.

Photo courtesy Capital Metro

Up to 24 bikes may be stored at a time, and the facility features a sitting area for changing shoes and a work bench for minor bike repairs.

"Through observation, we know that Kramer Station experiences the highest volume of bikes getting on and off the train," spokeswoman Erica Macioge said.

She attributes this to the area's major employers and destinations that are not within walking distance, such as Austin Community College's Northridge campus, The Domain, IBM, Texas Culinary Academy and the JJ Pickle Research Center.

The fully enclosed shelter has card-key access as well as 24-hour camera surveillance. Up to 24 bikes may be stored at a time, and the facility features a sitting area for changing shoes and a work bench for minor bike repairs. Reserving a spot at the shelter right now will cost $30 per year, though that price would eventually go up, Macioge said. The transit agency has not decided by how much to raise the rate or when it would do so.

One of the goals of having the shelter is to increase the carrying capacity of the train. For each bicycle stored at the shelter versus being carried onboard, cyclists make room for four additional people to ride the train, according to Capital Metro.

The agency does not currently have a way to measure bike ridership on the train.

"There has been a consistent increase in the number of bikes being transported on the train, and nearly all of them are being used for at least one leg of the commute to [or] from a person’s final destination," Macioge said.

There are already some standard bike racks near Kramer Station; 75 percent of respondents to a cyclist survey conducted by Capital Metro in 2011 said a lack of secure bike parking was a barrier to taking transit.

The shelters are primarily being funded by a $554,000 federal grant.

Comments (4)

Comment Feed

roads

Bob: Austin isn't responsible for funding I-35 or Mopac improvements, that's mostly up to TxDOT and regional mobility authorities. And in case you havent noticed, both highways are getting improvments over the next few years (although Mopac more dramatically and immediately).

This isn't even touching on the fact that improving highwaysonly increases the number of people who use them, diminishing the improvements rather quickly.

brad 317 days ago

waste of money

It is federal grant money so it is free, so it doesn't have to make sense to waste the money. Government grants are one of the most wasteful ways local governments waste our money.

Ed Gomez 317 days ago

Austin spends money on everything, except ..

fixing the highways that are so bad. $150K for a bike box nobody wants to use? $20+ million for a mile of Town Lake trail? millions for bike bridges and trails? Making car lanes narrower so there's more room for bikes? All OK.

Fixing Mopac or adding a fourth lane to I-35 downtown? Nah, can't do that, but let's get the toll people in here to take some of the roads we already paid for and start charging us to use them.

Bob 320 days ago

Austin Needs Shweeb Rail

Rail in Austin is great, but to get to other locations from the stations is inconvenient. Austin needs the Shweeb bike-rail system to get to in-between locations. It's fast, and fun, zero-emission, less expensive than any other system, and healthy. It doesn't compete with street traffic, thus is efficient as you can avoid stop lights and other barriers. For more, see www.shweeb.com.

Gianmarco Conegliano 320 days ago