Bike Elevator

Bonn, Germany, has been working to eliminate emissions in its city center by making it easier to travel on bike. The city has removed parking spaces to make room for bike lanes, added cycling highways to help commuters ride longer distances and, at some train stations, it is rolling out bike-parking towers. These sleek structures provide more storage space for commuters who ride to the station.

Across Europe, cycling commuters often face the challenge of finding a suitable place to leave their bikes. It can be difficult to find a secure location, and the risk of theft often deters bicyclists — especially those who own expensive e-bikes. Some cities have partnered with V-Locker, a Swiss company that supplies fully automatic bike parking facilities, to offer a solution.

The lightweight, modular bike towers take only a few days to install and offer extra storage in a small footprint near the stations. Within the tower, bicycle lockers move vertically in a paternoster lift system equipped with Internet of Things technology. Riders can use an app to confirm that there’s space available at the station and book a locker 27/4. Each tower can hold up to a dozen bikes, and its modular design can be scaled up for larger stations. For example, one station in Mühlacker, Germany, has 10 towers and room for 120 bikes.  

V-Locker has installed its systems in more than a dozen cities, all at train stations. In the future, they could be built at universities, apartments buildings and shopping centers. In Bonn, the towers are part of new “mobility hubs” that also feature e-bike and electric car chargers, as well as e-bike rental, car sharing and other services designed to reduce the number of vehicles on the road.