Don’t take our word for it. Listen to what your mass transit colleagues are saying.
The agency had been burned with bicycle lockers from a CycleSafe competitor that lasted about three months. When we asked them about CycleSafe there was a thread of positive responses. We were really satisfied about what we heard from other people about CycleSafe, and were looking at a lot of ways of connecting transit with biking. With the ISTEA money we invested in equipment like bike racks on buses and vanpool vehicles, but we also thought to look at how we can increase bike parking at park-and-rides and transit centers. We wanted to add an option to help reduce car travel and establish the right mix of equipment. The driving force behind our grant was to test the various types of equipment, look at the quality, and determine how they would be managed to could establish guidelines when we construct a facility. People are hard on them, and we need a locker that could take punishment for long periods for time and still offer security. I didn’t want to end up investing in cheap equipment that I had to keep replacing. The CycleSafe lockers are a good solid equipment, we haven’t had any problems with them. We don’t want to have to keep spending a lot of money on parts and maintenance. The CycleSafe lockers may be more expensive initially, but the long-term value is what we’re looking for. We surveyed them, and everybody’s satisfied, only wanted to know why there aren’t more of them.
We have had very good experience with CycleSafe lockers. They are expensive, but worth the money in terms of being durable, not easy to break in to and excellent customer support. They were purchased for their resistance to break-in. San Francisco has 100+ and none have been broken into.
We got what we paid for, cheaper lockers lasted just a year. After that they were torn out, easy to tear apart and heavily marked with graffiti. They didn’t handle the vandalism well, they just weren’t strong enough. We heard about CycleSafe as we spoke with other transit agencies, especially the Washington Metro Transit Authority. They have worked well for them, and they’ve worked out great for us, with no break-in problems. CycleSafe lockers have a nice flow to them, others were boxy and bulky. We want to get as many people off the roads as possible, not only from people’s houses to their jobs, but from their houses to the train stations as well. The locker program is a convenience to customers to encourage them to do that. We are getting very good comments from customers.
The subject of how secure bicycle lockers must be, and at what cost, is one that is circulating among transit authorities who have had experience with bicycle lockers in suburban rail stations. At New Jersey Transit Authority, where (other manufacturers’) lockers were repeatedly vandalized and finally removed, the preferred locker design is manufactured by CycleSafe Inc. of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their endorsement is so strongly worded and adamantly affirmed by bicyclist organizations that no other options to this product are even considered.
We’ve had no problem with CycleSafe, they are low-maintenance, and have performed extremely well. On one of the CycleSafe lockers, somebody spend a great deal of time attempting to rip a door off, but they couldn’t do it. With CycleSafe, the commuter’s belongings are completely protected from vandals as well as the elements.
They did the best job of meeting our specifications, and we’re planning on getting some more. We had a terrible experience with other locker brands, the construction was very poor, and were just trashed by vandals. With CycleSafe there have been no break-ins and are maintenance-free for our operations people. The overall ease of use is a very attractive feature for us, CycleSafe proved itself. We’re very pleased with the product and would certainly like to expand the program. Now it requires some good planning on our part to determine the best locations for additional lockers.
Santa Clarita Transit chose CycleSafe because we wanted to offer our residents and commuters a quality product, one which would be an attractive component to our Metrolink commuter rail station.
After a lengthy review process, CycleSafe was selected because it produces the only bicycle locker that offers the security and durability we require in unsupervised areas. In addition, CycleSafe’s locker construction is the one that requires minimal, if any, maintenance and will withstand our Minnesota weather for years. Other product lines offer some of their features as add-on options, however, the add-on price became more costly than the CycleSafe standard.
