Bicycle access continues to improve as BART’s sixth Bike Station opens in the heart of San Francisco’s bike network at Civic Center station, bringing the total number of bike parking spaces there to 248, thanks to a partnership with the SFCTA.
Secure parking is just one part of BART’s three-pronged strategy to encourage cyclists and ease the transition between transit modes, the other two being the bike sharing program and the recent policy change allowing bikes to board trains at all times when there is enough room.
“The Civic Center concourse is a wonderfully natural fit for a bike parking station,” said BART Director Tom Radulovich, who represents downtown San Francisco. “This is where several of the most popular San Francisco bike routes converge, which means a lot for commuters heading into the East Bay.”
BART Directors Radulovich and Raburn joined SFCTA Executive Director Tilly Chang and San Francisco Bike Coalition Executive Director Noah Budnick for a ribbon cutting ceremony, unveiling the station to the public and explaining how it works.
Like other Bike Stations, parking is easy and accessible — pedal to the station and walk your bike across the concourse to the entrance and use a BikeLink card to load bikes into the storage room, which charges a mere 3 cents an hour for controlled access parking. For information on the BikeLink card, click here. In the open parking areas of the Bike Station and inside the fare gates, bike parking is provided free of charge.
The new Civic Center station joins five other BART Bike Stations located at Fruitvale, Ashby, Embarcadero, Downtown Berkeley and 19th Street Oakland BART stations and complements the 1,200 BikeLink electronic lockers located at 36 other stations.
Funding for the station came from a combination of San Francisco’s Proposition AA and Proposition K, and from California Proposition 1B. The cost of construction and upgrades to existing parking was approximately $650,000.
