The City of Sacramento is working on a secure bike parking pilot program. This was first presented at the February 2025 SacATC meeting (sacatc_2025-02-20_05-bicycle-parking), and an update was providing at the August 2026 SacATC meeting (SacATC_2026-08-20_agenda-04-bicycle-parking-staff). The presentation provided the following graphic for the secure bike parking solution:

These secure bike parking facilities from eLock Technologies would use the same BikeLink access, by card or app, that is used for the city’s existing bike lockers located at parking garages. Sacramento Valley Station also has two types of secure bike storage, BikeLink lockers provided by Capitol Corridor, and the BikeHub provided by the city, which uses BikeLink for access but has different rental policies. In the region, Capitol Corridor also provides lockers at Davis, Roseville, Rocklin, and Auburn. City of Folsom has BikeLink lockers at its three light rail stations, and City of Roseville has lockers at transit centers. You can view locations on the BikeLink map. Some but not all locations accept ClipperCards for access, but payment is through BikeLink.

Seeing vandalized and stolen bikes (cut locks, wheels missing, or just wheels remaining, missing seats, etc.) at the outside bike racks in many locations where these lockers are available, leaves me scratching my head about why more people don’t use the lockers. At 5 cents per hour for most locations, this is a tiny price to pay for protecting your bike.

Part of the discussion at the SacATC meeting was about whether this secure parking design would accommodate cargo bikes. It appears not. Though the footprint of this design is 84 inches, it seems that the cage or shell only allows the same traditional bike sizes that standard BikeLink lockers allow, with a depth of 67 or 72 inches.

The BikeLink website mentions large and extra large lockers, so I inquired about these and was provided with the following three diagrams. The ‘large’ size has been installed at the Davis Amtrak (Capitol Corridor) station, 12 lockers. I am not aware that this larger size has been installed at any of the other Capitol Corridor stations. As you can see from the diagram, this larger size is designed to accommodate most long-tail bikes and some cargo bike sizes, with a 36 inch width and 85 inch depth. It does not have the wedge design of the standard lockers, so can accommodate bicycles that are wider front and back.

I was told that the mini-station or cage design was a done deal because there was a contract, though the device has not been delivered or even manufactured, so it seems to me that the contract could be modified.

This is a pilot, and as such, it makes sense to explore additional BikeLink options. I recommend that one of the five secure bike parking locations, which have not been identified yet, include at least two BikeLink large size lockers. The city needs to gain experience with these, as do bicyclists.

All of the existing BikeLink lockers in the Sacramento region seem to be underutilized. For the city garage locations, these are not destinations bicyclist think of when planning their trips. Garages are for cars, not for bicyclists. The K Street tunnel locker is accessible from the path, and the city hall parking garage locker was moved to I Street due to the fire, but still, these are not bicyclist destinations. Since Capitol Corridor makes it so easy to take bikes with you on the train, the Capitol Corridor lockers in this region are underutilized, though in the bay area they are much more highly utilized. BART stations have lockers or BikeHubs.

So the key to the pilot program is to identify where bicyclists want to store their bike securely. The best way to determine that is to ask them. City staff could hang out at some existing traditional bike racks, and ask bicyclists how important secure parking is to them, and where they would most want to see it.

For previous posts on BikeLink and secure bicycle parking, see Tag: BikeLink.