17 bike racks at the Silver Spring Metrorail Station demonstrate that would be a good place to put in a Biceberg kiosk-based bike parking system

Each bike rack accommodates 2 bikes, so this is parking for 34 bikes. Not quite all of the slots were used yesterday afternoon when I took this photo. But bike parking at many stations like this one are well used. And lots of bike indicate greater demand.

(Note that the station has other sections for bike parking on the west side of the south side entrance to the station, and adjacent to the north side entrance to the station, across Colesville Road.  I haven't counted the spaces in those sections.  Generally the west side parking isn't highly used as that station entrance is less well used so the parking is less secure.  The north side parking is more highly used, but the lighting and use conditions there are also suboptimal.  By contrast the parking pictured is highly visible and well lit by natural lighting during the day, and well enough lit at night.)

In terms of a comprehensive bike parking agenda, I advocate four elements:

1. More

2. Better, meaning more secure options, protection from theft definitely, and ideally, from bad weather too.

3. Use of innovative solutions to expand parking options (including in dense neighborhoods of multiunit housing where there is usually limited or no parking, for cars or bicycles, on the premises)

4. Creating a cross-jurisdictional high quality bike parking network, modeled after the Parkiteer program in Greater Melbourne and Victoria State in Australia. Users pay a $50 deposit for a key card, which entitles them to use any of the facilities, of which there are now more than 90.

One such innovative solution is the Spanish Biceberg product.  It works with an underground "cavern" or locker with an above-ground kiosk. It can be as big as four underground modules. Each module accommodates 23 bikes and takes about the same amount of cubic space as one car parking space.

A four-module Biceberg at this location would almost triple the amount of available bike parking, with the added value of it being highly secure and protected from the elements, not to mention using underground space, rather than a large amount of surface space which is required by "bike cages."