Bicycle tree
A Bicycle tree or bike tree is an automated mechanical bicycle parking system that resembles a tree in shape. There are a few types that have been developed.
A Swiss company, Bike Tree International, designed a system whereby a bicycle can be hoisted into a tree-shaped device after lifting the front of the bike and connecting the wheel to a hook. There are plans to deploy this machine in Geneva. It can handle one or two dozen bicycles.[1]
A similar but much larger device, fully automated, has been developed by JFE Engineering, a unit of JFE Holdings of Japan. This integrated steelmaker sought to develop new products and diversify its production as it encountered stiff competition from rising output of steelmakers in Korea and China. This was necessary because steelmaking is very dependent on economy of scale, and because JFE was suffering from a shrinking domestic market for crude steel due to Japan's population decline and Japan's economic slump. The first publicly usable bike tree opened in 2006, storing 1,476 bicycles using an integrated circuit based tag system, cleanly stored away above ground in an urban office-like building.[2] Mechanical units have been expanded to hold some 6,480 bicycles, for which retrieval time is 23 seconds[2], such as in this 15 meter deep underground storage facility. Various municipalities in the Greater Tokyo area run the system or are planning installing them, charging 1800 yen a month for storage or a one time fee of 100 yen.[3]
References
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External links
- Demonstration video of Japanese system on Youtube.
- Demonstration video of Swiss system on Biketree company website
