Never easy to find a place to park and lock your bike in the big city, right? Cyclo was delighted to uncover this gem on an idea from Japan, an automated cycling bunker, which can load, retrieve and house a jaw-dropping 9,400 bikes in its Bond villain-like subterranean silo. Reportedly built at a cost of nearly £39million we can’t see Boris digging deep (in either sense of the phrase) any time soon and we might also question the “green” credentials of such an undertaking when you stop to consider the carbon-saving cycling hoards weighed against such an enormous construction project – still it is very cool. If you find yourself in Tokyo then using the robo-storage unit will cost you in the region of 80p per day or £14.00 for a monthly pass. Bargain.
Oddly, although Japan has an estimated 90million bikes (around 65% ownership) and Tokyo even has a public cycle hire scheme – launched in 2009 – there are virtually no cycle lanes in the country. Tokyo’s first true cycle path opened in 2008 and is a mere 400 meters long. Still, did we mention how cool we think the robot bike parking is?
