How They Store Bikes In Tokyo

Even without all of the funky mechanised storage, th UK can learn alot from Japan's bike parks. Buildings housing multi level bike holds are found near most large stations, wth smaller attended bike parks next to smaller stations. At 100 yen a day, it is a cheap and safe way to store bikes, reduce congestion and pollution.
Ditch the car parks and make more bike parks around cities and at commuter belt stations!

100 円 a day, or 1,800 円 / mo. Which is roughly 97 cents and $17.50 (US). As the previous comment suggests other countries have a lot to learn from Japan. Japan's (car) parking garages are also ahead of most I've seen stateside, but surely not as cheap as the bike storage.

This is very cool but looks like it uses an unnecessarily large amount of energy. Also, the bikes don't even look that densely packed. More bike parking is definitely needed here in London (most busy stations bike parks are almost full during the day) but it seems to me that something of this scale would only be necessary in the more extreme space limitations of Tokyo.

Like many things in Japan, it probably cost a fortune and isn't practical on so many levels; but that's innovation for you. I'm sure that in a couple years they'll have bikes built to spec so that they can cram a whole lot more down there. Or, perhaps a robot will hop on your ride and park it for you. Let's just hope Asimo doesn't help himself to your Shimano gears or something.

At the railway station in Groningen (in the north of the Netherlands), they made very neat underground parking places for bikes:

http://www.groningen.nl/functies/pagfunctie.cfm?parameter=1257

This is awesome. In most cities in most of Japan you are often so desperate for a place to park your bike. They take up alleys and sidewalks and the spots near the train or subway are the worst. So many of the major cities need this. It would make life easier for most japanese and free up some major amounts of public space.

In the US we have these huge parking lots for cars but in Japan that isn't even conceivable unless you're in rural rural Hokkaido (lived in Japan for 2 years).

I always had to plan extra time to catch the train to find a parking spot for my bike and often walked a bit to get to the station.

Awesome!!

That is really cool. I live in Tokyo and have never seen that kind of system before. The price of 100yen/day is really low too. I think the regular rate, even to park outside, is higher than that, like 250.

While Japan does have an interesting bike culture compared to North America, it's far from perfect. Most people will only ride to the station where the bike is parked and takes up space all day. Riding more than 2km is a laughable idea...I have actually been laughed at for riding about 10km (five station stops). It was more a reaction of disbelief than making fun.

Since parking outside train stations is usually illegal, people are forced to use pay parking services. Bicycle theft is very low here, but the police do come to ticket, and often impound illegally parked bikes. An impounded bike costs 3000-5000yen to get back. People will often just go and buy a new bike, turning the impound lots into bicycle graveyards. These lots do take up space, but they are far from stations where land isn't so valuable. Wasted land, wasted bikes, wasted money, and wasted time...but that is the system. With about 30million people in the greater Tokyo area, it'll be hard to change it.