Bicycle parking station
A bike station, also Radstation or bicycle station, is a room for the meeting at least three basic functions:
- Paid, guarded bicycle parking in enclosed spaces
- Rental of bicycles
- Repair services for bicycles
Other services, such as the sale of bikes, parts and cycling accessories and tourist information can also be offered. Bicycle stations offer partial to professional bike cleaning in bike washes or thorough hand cleaning of the complete wheel, incl hub gear, etc., and partly also the bicycle leasing. Some bicycle stations, such as the bicycle station at Cologne Central Station, the building of bicycles also offer custom made tailored to the body of the cyclist. Often they are located stations at railway stations ( bike and ride ).
Radstation is protected by the ADFC North Rhine -Westphalia trademark.
Mid-2012 there were in Germany nearly 100 bike stations, 66 of them in North Rhine -Westphalia. The largest bike station in Germany is the bike station at the main station Münster in Münster ( Westphalia).
A bike station is not to be confused with a bicycle garage and a bicycle parking garage, because the latter offer only the pure bicycle parking without services.
Similar to parking garages for cars, there are bicycle parking garages in major cities to make better use of the scarce urban space and the street area of parked bicycles to relieve ( so-called stationary traffic). Closed and guarded bicycle parking garages offer a fee protection for high-quality wheels. Through electronic key systems such spaces can always be made accessible for collection. An alternative possibility is covered bicycle parking with lockable rentable Fahrradabstellboxen.
BASF has a large bicycle parking garage at its plant in Ludwigshafen. In other countries, especially in Denmark and the Netherlands, are in some large cities also covered bicycle parking spaces or park homes.
Bicycle stations are often non-profit organizations supported (eg Caritas, etc.) and maintained in which people with disabilities, disability and / or other health problems, which can not work in the open labor market for this reason, the possibility of a fixed daily structure and a corresponding merit allows to get and will be for this reason in addition to promoting cycling as an environmentally friendly and healthy way mobile particularly encouraged.
The alternative to the bicycle station is the bicycles on buses, trains or on passenger vessels. This combination of individual and public transport can also be easily cover longer distances by bicycle. A route by bike to the bus stop, then bicycles and then continue by bike increases the possibilities of using public transport offers. Here is the support, for example by providing free bicycle transport in some states or transport associations or the establishment of railway cycle routes ( cycle paths ) the restrictive measures of individual rail operators over ( for example, pre-order hotline for local trains ).