Would you pay for 24-hour access, secure bike storage?

[Wormwood]

I like the idea but I hope its a non profit organization.

The storage business is ubber competitive with poopy 4-6% P&L statements per facility at best. A specialty market would be consumed by the major players.

 

[tempest411]

I think it would only work in S.F. as it's the only place with the density for such a facility to be close enough to the number of riders to make it work.

 

[Wormwood]

Square footage in the city is far to valuable. Existing private lots could profit?

 

[DannoXYZ]

Make it like the robotic parking garages in Japan. Much more efficient utilization of space. You can make per-bike costs low with high-volume and that would be really attractive to a lot of people.

 

[n8]

More smaller locations rather than a huge ware house would make more sense. But still, this would mainly work in the city, not as much in sj. The travelling to my bike part would be a deal breaker for me

 

[Hooli]

I would need a secure place to store my trackbike, since it's never ridden on the street. This would work.

 

[Wormwood]

Make it like the robotic parking garages in Japan. Much more efficient utilization of space. You can make per-bike costs low with high-volume and that would be really attractive to a lot of people.

Now we are talking. I smell profit and happy owners.

 

[sliverstorm]

To offer 24-hour access, we'd need personnel to facilitate it. Otherwise, it would be just like your average public storage system.

We are considering operating hours that start at the wee hours of the morning and late-night closing, seeing as it's unlikely for a rider to need access to their bike during normal sleeping hours.

You could try giving 20-hour access or something like that- lock the place down from 3AM-7AM or somesuch. Lower operating costs, increased security for 4 important hours (if you design the place right)

You could also seriously bolster security by giving people badges to swipe to get in, and to get out. That allows you to log who is coming and going, helping to protect from insider theft.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Apparently there's many different systems for automated storage:

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I recall something like the PODS storage system where they put your car in a box and a forklift robot picks it up and hauls it away and stashes into cubbyholes in the garage. They had cars stacked 10-high vertically in the same space as a 2-story garage here.