anotherbrian

Is there anywhere near City Hall that I could securely park a $5k+'ish bike short term? And without bringing my own lock? I need to visit the US Passport Office nearby, likely for 30-60min in the morning, and then the same at the end of the day.


I planned to leave my car outside of the city, and either bike, BART, or ferry in, and then spend the day riding. I have a TiGr lock, but I wouldn't trust that for leaving the bike out of view for more than a minute.


I'd take a beater bike, but I'll be coming from the Old Growth Classic in Big Basin a day or two before.

DiabloScott

There are a couple e-lockers and group parking spots within a half mile or so, but you need Bike Link.

anotherbrian

Thank you very much; I Google'd for pics of the Civic Center group spot and it should work just fine. It may take a long time to burn off the value in the $20 card, but I can justify it at least for this trip.

KraneXL

If you do it be sure and report back on how well it works out i.e. pros and cons. There are some new locker (not really new but seldom used) on the Santa Monica rail line that I've cycled past but never actually has a reason to use.

Shopping plaza and malls in and around rail system really should provide these for cyclist just as they offer parking spaces for motorists.

Many supermarkets do offer posts but locate them on the side and back of the business away from traffic, and exactly where the bike thieves like them.

DiabloScott

I still have $11 on my initial $20 load from 2011 !!
Here's my initial BikeForums post about it:
https://www.bikeforums.net/northern-...kers-bart.html

And here is a little more experience from my blog that might be useful to know before you go (not the same station, I don't know how Civic Center works). The thing with the Pleasant Hill room is that you needed to pre-qualify yourself on top of having the BikeLink card. Find out if you need to do that before you go.
https://diabloscott.blogspot.com/search?q=bikelink

anotherbrian

What I read for the Civic Center it was the same, showing badge to a camera on the spot the first time you use it (and a $5 fee they deduct for the enrollment).

City of Roseville seems to sell the cards with lockers at the Amtrak station and a couple of city parks. I’ll see if I can do the enrollment/authentication on the spot.

anotherbrian

Still a week away from using it, but I bought the card yesterday from the City of Roseville's Alternative Transportation department, activated the card online, then sent a selfie with my drivers license to Bike Link and was activated for group parking within an hour.

Fingers crossed it'll be that easy when I get to the Civic Center next Wednesday.

DiabloScott

What number did you get? I think I was a pretty early adopter with #9998 , wondering how popular this has become.
And most of the group parking spots will require temporary tags or stickers to identify the bike with the card - I got the stickers as a badge for my dedicated commuter, but I wouldn't put them on a nice road bike.

Edit: I just submitted an expense report that included 30¢ for bicycle parking... that gave me a laugh. I wonder if someone will challenge it. Bike Link doesn't have receipts so I submitted photos of that screen before and after showing the time and value. I wish there were a way to check value on-line though.