bike lockers at Franconia-Springfield metro station

[trailrunner]

I’ve been trying to get a bike locker at the Franconia-Springfield metro station since June 2016 (almost 18 months ago). Dealing with WMATA has been frustrating. They are not responsive to emails — I have to send three or four emails to get one reply. Supposedly I have been on the waiting list this entire time, but based on my last email with them, I now doubt this.

I’m not sure if I am falling through the bureaucratic cracks, or if truly there have not been any lockers available for the last year and a half. If it’s the latter case, then perhaps adding another set of lockers at this station might be justified to meet the demand.

Topic

[RideTheWomble]

I had a locker at East Falls church. Dealing with Metro convinced me they’d lost accountability for their lockers long before I got mine. I was originally assigned a locker with a bike in it, then I got a locker, but was issued the wrong key. When I finally got my locker, I had to contact THEM to renew, and basically had to reconstruct the records of me renting the locker. As of three years ago, they kept the records on paper, in a folder, in one person’s desk. If nobody has stepped up and made big changes, I bet they have no idea whether lockers are available, or not.

[trailrunner]

@RideTheWomble 168913 wrote:

I had a locker at East Falls church. Dealing with Metro convinced me they’d lost accountability for their lockers long before I got mine. I was originally assigned a locker with a bike in it, then I got a locker, but was issued the wrong key. When I finally got my locker, I had to contact THEM to renew, and basically had to reconstruct the records of me renting the locker. As of three years ago, they kept the records on paper, in a folder, in one person’s desk. If nobody has stepped up and made big changes, I bet they have no idea whether lockers are available, or not.

That’s a little sad, but based on my experience, I think it’s true.

[zsionakides]

This seems like something that WMATA should just outsource. Lease the space in stations that they see fit and allow the vendor to build and manage lockers. If they wanted to make it competitive at stations, put two vendors in place at each station and let them compete on price/service.

[Author]

Replies