InBerkeley

Streetsblog reports that the bike station at the Downtown Berkeley BART station will be expanded. The new bike station, in the now-vacant Shoe Pavilion store on Shattuck, will have room for 200 bikes. It will replace the current station, which is inside the BART station.

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According to Streetsblog:

The new bike station is at least partially the result of successful lobbying from the East Bay bicycle community, including the EBBC and Bicycle Friendly Berkeley, which saved the proposal after it neared the brink of losing funding late last year.

The new station will be paid for by a mixture of a Safe Routes to Transit (SR2T) grant, a program funded by Regional Measure 2, and contributions from BART ($53,000 per year) and the city of Berkeley ($60,000 per year). BART is also paying the utilities, estimated at $24,000 per year.

The SR2T grant, which is managed by TransForm and EBBC, was in serious danger of being forfeited last December, when its three-year term was set to expire if Berkeley didn’t contribute its portion of the funding. Advocates showed up in force to the December 8 meeting of the Berkeley City Council [see photo above], concerned that the Council would not provide the funding, or would support a stripped-down proposal for a less visible station located in an existing auto parking garage. District 3 BART Director Bob Franklin also strongly urged the council to take action at the meeting.

These efforts paid off, as the Council unanimously approved providing $60,000 annually in funding for the expanded station, and TransForm consequently extended the grant’s term.

The new bike station will also include bicycle repair, bicycle rentals, showers and lockers, and community bike education classes.

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Photo from EBBC

Lance Knobel Downtown, Green