Bike lockers will appear in the upcoming years, mainly in every city of Europe. The trend of ecological and healthy transportation comes into our lives. People need to leave a bike or an e-scooter in the place where Locker will protect the transport from rain, thieves, and vandals. Few companies already produce the boxes, but most make mistakes and can’t take the market over. In this article, I gathered the main features of the bicycle locker structure and design. To make reading clear, I sorted the rules by topics.

Place

Bicycle lockers can be anywhere: near Shopping malls, Offices, Schools, hotels, garages, museums, train and metro stations, public places, homes, garages, etc. It is possible to make different lockers for each location, but the locker price will be overwhelming. For this reason, companies try to make one universal model for any location. Some companies offer additional features, like the Bluetooth locker, a green roof, e-charging, or a different color. These changes are not crucially affecting the construction but help to reach the needs of the customers.

Safebikely, they have the best design for now.

Form

Bicycle lockers should be compact. One rectangle must include two bicycle slots on two sides.

The bicycle should enter the locker starting from the rear wheels.

you may scroll left and right

The basement may be made for each rectangle separately for the ease of transportation or changing the sizes if the amount of boxes does not satisfy the demand. However, you will get the double layer of the inner walls. So, the basement can be made for all of the planned sections.

The walls between slots can be made out of the metallic grid or with patterned or transparent material. It is made for safety reasons. The outer walls can also be patterned or transparent. It depends on the safety requirements from the government or a company. But the box must not lose the primary purpose – the safety of a bike.

The lock on a box must be covered from the rain. The lock can become rusty soon, and the opening of the door will be a tragedy.
Handles must be comfortable and keep warm temperature. On hot or cold days, the metallic handle can reach an enormous temperature so that it will be uncomfortable or even risky to touch the handle. They can be either made of a material like wood or can be covered by a sunlight.

The locker must be easy to clean. There should not be details that make cleaning impossible, like too sharp angles or too small patterns.

Size

If we want to place the boxes on the street, we should not make them too high; otherwise, boxes can damage the view of a city and can be banned to use in the city.

The size should be well suited for standard e-scooters (like Ninebot or Xiaomi), city bikes, road bikes, and MTBs. Let’s assume that the max size of Mtb can be XL (22 inches frame) with 29 inches wheels. Don’t count any unique bikes that are too high or too long, a bike with four wheels, or a bike with too wide handlebars.

For example, I took Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 with a frame length of 128,9 cm and 73,9cm (29 inches) wheels. That means that the length is 129+74=203cm + 2-5cm. The manufacturer of steel usually uses 2m and 2.5m width of a steel sheet. So we must satisfy 2m. In this case, we put the bicycle not straight but under angle.

The height is equal to half of a wheel 37cm + frame and handlebar size 65cm + 7-10cm- + additional space 3-5cm, so it is 115 cm-120. don’t forget about the height of a basement and the “feet” to make the construction stable.

The width is equal to the size of the handlebar. Mtb handlebar has a maximal of 61 cm. Don’t forget about the real part. The width of tires (excluding fatbikes) and the end of the frame are important. So, the width in the form should be 65-75 cm. The manufacturer uses a 1.5m, 2m, 2.5m sizes of the sheet, so we can use 75 cm for 2 walls, or 67 for 3 walls (but it’s hard to measure it right), or 62.5cm for 4 walls using 250cm sheet. Don’t forget about the angled laid bike.

we see that in this example the size of a box is too large and it could be lower if we assume that most of the people use normal-sized bikes, however, don’t forget that e-scooter must have enough space there too, maybe the scooter can be laid on a wall to save space

Material

The purpose of the box is to protect the bicycle; the design and sustainability come next.
The material used should last long and should be easy to clean and produce. The material should be water, cold, and dirt resistant. However, the price of the material should not be extremely high unless it is corten steel.

Why can corten be a good idea? If we implement corten steel, we don’t need to care about cleaning it, and through times corten will look better. Corten seems nice with a green roof. However, this is an assumption. Probably due to its size, it will look unpleasant.

That is just a pot for the flowers, but it looks like the bicycle locker.

Color

Color should be neutral. It is better to use one color. The color may differ due to different surroundings and company styles. If it is a specific material, like corten, we save the initial color.

The box lock

There can be three types of locks in the locker: no locks, key (password) lock, and Bluetooth (Wifi or cellular) lock. Each type has its scenario of usage:

1. No locker can be used, e. g., in schools, shopping malls, or other locations, where lockers are not used for a direct profit. Instead, people can use their locks, then the purpose of the box is to keep safe the details of a bike: wheels, cranks, saddle, or forks. These parts are popular in the darknet.
2. A Key or a password lock can be used near houses (e. g., in the courtyard), offices, etc. That means that only members of one community will be able to use the bicycle parking slots. The boxes can also be used for profit by renting out the slots for months or years.
3. A Bluetooth (Wifi or cellular) lock can be used for mass usage. These boxes can be placed anywhere and are typically used for profit. The owner can be the shopping mall, business center, University, or even a government.

structural stability and safety

The box must not fall or disassemble due to external forces like vandalism, punching, or obviously – using a screwdriver.
That means that only an authorized person can disassemble a box, e. g., with special instruments.

other examples

By this link, you may find different companies who produce or use bike lockers. I used their photos in this article.

Holy Bike, my project of a bike locker will use all of the rules mentioned above to make the most comfortable and well-looking Bike Box