Skip to main content

Tokyo’s cycle parking problem solved

Cycles are a popular form of transportation in Japan. However, they can take up a lot of public space when parked. Japanese construction company Giken has come up with the answer; its Eco Cycle is an anti-seismic automated underground storage system. Buried eleven metres below ground, Eco Cycle has a capacity of around 200 cycles and each one takes around thirteen seconds to store. Users attach a sensor to their cycle, which alerts the Eco Cycle centre that a cycle is on its way. The user then rolls the f
August 9, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Cycles are a popular form of transportation in Japan. However, they can take up a lot of public space when parked.

Japanese construction company 7445 Giken has come up with the answer; its Eco Cycle is an anti-seismic automated underground storage system.  Buried eleven metres below ground, Eco Cycle has a capacity of around 200 cycles and each one takes around thirteen seconds to store.

Users attach a sensor to their cycle, which alerts the Eco Cycle centre that a cycle is on its way.  The user then rolls the front wheel into the opening of the parking machine, stands clear, and pushes a green button. In about eight seconds the bike is pulled into the kiosk and a robotic lift stores the cycle. To retrieve his cycle, the user simply waves his card over a sensor and the robotic arm pulls out the bicycle and brings it back up in approximately thirteen seconds.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • What's next for traffic management and data collection?
    January 26, 2012
    As the technologies and stakeholders in traffic management evolve, what can we expect to see happening in the coming years? For many, the conversation of the moment is just how, and how far, the newer technologies and services provided principally by the private sector should be allowed to intrude into the realms of traffic management.
  • '190,000 trips' on day 1 of Sydney Metro extension
    August 20, 2024
    15.5km extension means 2,645 new metro services will travel through city each week
  • Apps help passengers avoided overcrowded public transport
    May 30, 2013
    David Crawford reviews innovations in the comfort zone. Anyone who rides public transport knows that, perhaps second only to delays, overcrowding is a critical part of the passenger experience,” says Nir Erez, CEO of Moovit, the Israel-based social transportation app developer. The app is aimed at taking real-time user feedback on transit and making it available to a wider audience of travellers. Currently available on iPhone and Android, it plans to add Windows 8 and other platforms in the future. Moovit i
  • Electric vehicles in construction are the future, say researchers
    December 20, 2016
    The industrial and commercial sector is the largest part of the electric vehicle value market and that will continue to be the case according to analysis in the IDTechEx report, Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles 2017-2027. Buses are the largest part of that and they are mainly made in China for China, where typical orders are ten times the size of orders elsewhere. Less dramatically, construction, mining and agriculture do not see 70 per cent grants for EV versions yet they are steadily becomin