Sound Transit will add more bike parking to deal with shortage

As the demand for bicycle parking outstrips the supply, Sound Transit has decided to spend $464,000 in federal grants to add 173 lockers and 25 racks during the next two years.

The new bicycle-parking options will be built not only at Link light-rail stations but also at other transit centers, the agency said Wednesday.

Perhaps the most ambitious site is Columbia City Station, which will get 46 more lockers and an eight-bike rack next year. That light-rail stop, six blocks from a reviving neighborhood business district, is a classic example of a setting where bicycling could attract train riders from beyond the typical quarter- to half-mile radius.

Currently, there are 201 bike lockers in the three-county area, with 57 people on waiting lists, said Bruce Gray, Sound Transit spokesman. The longest waiting list is 19 people at Kent Station.

Additions are planned at bus or train stops in Auburn, Columbia City, DuPont, Federal Way, Kent, Lynnwood, Mercer Island, Othello, Rainier Beach, South Everett and South Hill (Puyallup). To lease a locker costs $50 a year, plus a $50 deposit.

Bikes also are allowed onto Sound Transit trains, but sometimes there are space conflicts with standing riders on Sounder commuter lines, or with airport travelers' luggage on the Link route.

Meanwhile, the agency is considering whether to boost automobile parking for Link by speeding up construction of the South 200th Street park-and-ride station to 2016, instead of 2020. But money is short, due to recession and lower sales-tax income. Parking expansions also are promised at some Sounder stations, in a voter- approved 2008 ballot measure.

The local bike-parking improvements cost taxpayers more than $1,200 per space — but that's still far below auto parking. Sound Transit spent about $37,500 per stall in the 2008 Mercer Island park-and-ride rebuild.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com