Cyclists Turn to Smartphones to Find Secure Place to Store Bikes

Municipalities, college campuses and corporate campuses that want to add bike lockers to give visitors a secure place to park their bicycle have faced a significant hurdle — having someone on hand to manage the keys.

Offering bike lockers meant having a person nearby to give out the keys to the lockers, collect the rental fee, if there was one, and later take back the keys — assuming the riders hadn’t lost the keys.

Cyclists faced some pain points too. They had to find a locker, see whether it was already being used and then get, keep and return a key.

“A lot of places want to use bike lockers — it’s the highest security solution that you can have for on-site bicycle parking — but then it becomes a matter of, ‘Who’s going to administer all of this? Do you have to have someone walking around with a ring full of keys? Do you have to have someone at a booth somewhere?’” Jeremy Hixson, marketing director at Dura Bike Locker, told PYMNTS.

Offering a Digital Solution

Dura Bike Locker now offers a digital solution to replace this analog process: an app that enables riders to find, rent and open lockers with their smartphone.

With the DX Bluetooth Bike Locker, riders download the app, enter their name and phone number and, if there’s a rental fee, pay with a credit card through the app.

“A lot of it comes down to riders being able to know what parking is available, that the parking is secure and where it is,” Hixson said.

Dura Bike Locker has been marketing this solution for the past six months. Some facilities offer these secure parking spaces for bikes for free, some do it for a rental fee and some do it as a membership. Some also use the lockers for scooters and small boats.

Building a Bike-Friendly Environment

For facilities, the digital solution enables them to remotely rent lockers through the app or web portal, eliminating the need to hire rental staff and track keys.

For riders, it eliminates the worries about losing the key and the uncertainty about the availability of a bike locker. On the app, they can see in real time where the lockers are and whether they’re available. Those who have already found a locker can scan a QR code that facilities put on the locker to download the app. They can then gain instant access to the locker.

“Really, by doing this Bluetooth setup, it’s a win-win situation for both facility managers and for riders,” Hixson said. “It makes it easier to manage, you don’t have to have people manning it and it makes it all very seamless.”

The first facilities to implement the DX Bluetooth Bike Locker include municipalities and college campuses that want to offer secure bicycle storage in order to build a more bike-friendly environment.

“From a governmental standpoint, and really from a societal standpoint, we want to encourage cycling commuting wherever possible,” Hixson said. “Making that as easy and secure for riders as possible is the best way to incentivize them to do that.”