Where else but Japan? Underground bike storage

Posted by anthonykuo , Feb, 2009 @ 5:55 pm

You know that scene in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift when Sean’s new friend pulls out his monstrous Hulk-green car from a high tech rotating car-park tower? (If you haven’t seen the movie, you’re not missing much.) I thought that was utter nonsense. Something like that surely couldn’t exist.

Now I think differently, very differently. The Giken Company has introduced Tokyo to a vertical bike storage system. It’s fully automated, and is as simple as putting your bike in and swiping a card. Once everything is set, the system sucks your bike in and stores it on one of 144 rails underground. Pretty cool, huh? Giken also has a similar system set up for cars.

When I watched this video the first time though, the thing to grab my attention wasn’t the marvel of practical technology. The first thing to wow me was how clean the sidewalks were. Where in New York City will you find the sidewalk so spotless and free of grime?

From Wired

Tags: bikes, cool, Japan, wired