Free valet parking for San Francisco's Caltrain bicyclists

It took six years and $800,000, but bicyclists who get bumped from crowded Caltrain cars in San Francisco now have a secure place to leave their bikes.

The bicycle valet parking has been in operation at Fourth and Townsend streets since July, but Wednesday is the official grand opening for the facility. It can handle 130 bicycles; about 70 to 80 bicyclists have used the facility daily the past few months.

The Caltrains facility is the fourth bike station in San Francisco Bay Area. The other three are operated by the unaffiliated BikeStation and are located at the Embarcadero BART in San Francisco, the downtown Berkeley BART on Shattuck, and the Caltrains depot in Palo Alto on University Avenue.

Bikes bumped

The SFGate.com says the bicycle valet parking for Caltrain passengers will help serve those who get bumped from taking their bikes on the train. The newer trains can carry 16 bikes, compared to 32 on the older ones. In all about 2,300 people a day take their bikes on Caltrain.

Cyclelicious wrote in December about the growing problem of bicyclists turned away from Caltrain as more and more seek to beat high gasoline prices.

Even though there are no plans for allowing more bikes on trains, SFGate says Caltrain plans to upgrade its station sites:

“Caltrain does hope to make the stations more accommodating to cyclists by improving bike-parking security, placing bike parking closer to where people get on and off the trains and upgrading bike racks and lockers.”

Warm Planet

The Fourth and Townsend station is a joint project of Caltrain, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

The station is operated by private vendor Warm Planet Bicycles, which also offers repairs, tune-ups and sales.

Valet parking for bicycles is provided by BikeStation in other cities — Seattle, Santa Barbara and Long Beach.

Wouldn't like to have valet bike parking in your city? Time magazine explains “How Valet Parking Could Save the Planet.”