Metro to add bike spaces in station

In an attempt to increase bike ridership in the city, Metro officials are providing funding to create a secure room in the College Park Metro Station's garage for students and residents to safely lock up their bicycles.

The station — called a Bike & Ride — is slated to open in the southeast corner of the parking garage, and docking stations will hold about 120 bicycles, according to a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority press release. The first Bike & Ride within the WMATA system is set to come to the city early next year. Metro officials said they hope the project will encourage students and residents to choose this eco-conscious mode of transportation to and from the city's light-rail system.

"It was a pretty logical choice," said WMATA spokesman Dan Stessel. "If you build it, more people will use it."

Situated within a steel mesh barrier, the Bike & Ride — which will cost $400,000 to install — will only be accessible to those who register with WMATA's parking office, which will provide them with a card that enables access into the space, Stessel said. The bikes will also be locked up at a docking station, which will "effectively create a double lock on your property," according to Stessel. It will cost about two to five cents per hour to use the location, he said.

The station's proximity to the university made it an ideal location for nearby college students who are more receptive to riding bikes as their primary mode of transportation, according to Stessel.

He said the city could also set a trend for more Bike & Rides to pop up in other stations within the WMATA system.

Metro Transit Police officials said the College Park Metro secured the sixth most dangerous spot on the Metro line for its high rate of property crimes.

Despite this, Stessel said the construction of a Bike & Ride station is not a direct response to the issue.

"It's a secondary consideration; it's not in response to any crime statistics," he said. "It wasn't the primary motivation for picking College Park at all."

About five security cameras will also monitor every angle of the station, according to Stessel.

"Someone has to work pretty hard to steal your property," he said.

The station will occupy 2,400 square feet in a location that was originally planned for retail purposes, according to Stessel.

"It could have been a newsstand or dry cleaners," he said. "It just turned out not to be viable for that sort of use."

College Park Mayor Andy Fellows said the city's Metro station has yet to properly tap its potential for surrounding the station with retail development and would like to see more done in the way of providing a more attractive hot spot for Metro passengers.

"The slowness of the area to develop is still a source of frustration," he said.

However, Fellows said he agreed with the decision to scrap plans for retail development in that space in favor of the new Bike & Ride and that the Metro station's new feature will complement his vision for future development projects in the location.

"I still think there's plenty of room for retail and mixed-use development," he said. "The new bike system will be a welcome amenity for people who use the College Park Metro Station."

Several students — such as sophomore letters and sciences major Zach Berman — said this project will help create a safer atmosphere for bike riders.

"I think now that they're promoting more places for people to put their bikes, it would make everyone in College Park and the community more cognizant of bike riders."

bach@umdbk.com