Infrastructure Pr0n: the Eco-Cycle Bike Park

I have a bicycle storage solution: a ropey steel cable wound up in my bag and a small u-lock strapped to my bike’s rear rack. Of course, the cable gets kinked, the lock rusts and gets funky, the whole thing leaves my ride out in the snow�but it’s the best option I have in Boston.

Although it isn’t exactly new, the Japanese “Eco-Cycle” kiosk proves that the future is not only unevenly distributed, but elsewhere. Swipe a card, roll your bike’s front wheel through the gate, and the machinery whisks it off to a subterranean silo holding hundreds of bikes in weatherproof safety. To an addled bike commuter, it’s like a vision of jet packs and flying cars. You can see how the system works in the video above. (But watch out, there’s a subliminal message at 1:13: the old “cats: all your base are belong to us” meme. If I show up at city council meetings carrying a sign emblazoned with the legend All Your Base,” maybe it will subliminally convince the councillors to fund eco-cycle kiosks in Boston.) �via GOOD