Bikers would be motivated to use their bicycles everyday if it is easy to get onto the street every morning and can be safely stored away till one attends to the work of the day. In short, the availability of an appropriate bike storage facility would effectively increase the number of bikers.

One would certainly want to avoid making special trips to the apartment bike storage locker, or lugging a bike up and down many flights of stairs every time you had to leave for work. In the event the bike is difficult to be brought inside the house, a cyclist may well be tempted to lock it outside, putting it in danger of theft.

Ideally, a bike should be securely locked behind locked doors in a bike storage area and it should not be visible from the street or hidden in a dark secluded place which might attract thieves. Places such as garages and porches may not be suitable for bike storage since these generally are top theft locations.

Special consideration should be given to protecting one’s bike as much as possible from wetness and freezing. In the event that your bike has been through rain or snow, it is advisable to knock most of the solid mud or ice off the wheels and frame outside prior to parking it in the bike storage area. Bikes that are permanently outside should at least be covered with a tarp.

Bikes can be brought up on elevators provided that they are light. The bike being brought up an elevator should be held straight on its back wheel so that it takes up less space. If the bike is heavy, roll it in nose first, and then pivot it so as to allow other people to get on the elevator.

Certain landlords and managers are of the view that bikes bring in mud and inconvenience other tenants and thus disapprove of bicycles and thus do not provide bike storage facilities in their buildings. Most condominiums explicitly ban bicycles from elevators.

In building a bike storage area, the chief concerns would be ‘how many bikes would fit in your bike storage room? how conveniently can they be accommodated within the bike storage facility?’. If the bike storage area is meant for public use, one needs to evaluate the site with respect to its access and flow from adjoining streets and buildings in order to ensure that the bike storage facility attracts its intended users and avoids unforeseen safety hazards.