Valley Metro, the bus and light rail operator for the Phoenix Metro in Arizona, forgot to install bike parking at the Roosevelt/Central station in downtown Phoenix. This station might have been part of a planned Transit Oriented Development (TOD), or it might not have, but the fact is that there’s plenty of mid-density residential buildings right across the street and further west.

There’s no excuse to NOT have bike parking at ANY light rail or transit station. However, during my visit there on grand opening day (December 27th, 2008), my observations along with the Valley Metro publications indicate that the agency only installed bike parking at stations with park & ride lots.

I believe Valley Metro will realize their error and install secure bike parking at this station – there’s plenty of room!

Valley Metro may actually be motivated to install the bike racks when they realize that cyclists will be locking their bikes to the railings on the inside of the shade structures. These are not ideal locations for bike parking, could be unsafe, and will potentially damage the shade structures. I hope it doesn’t come to that and Valley Metro makes the station upgrades as soon as possible.