I had some minor mechanical problems with my front brakes on Monday (mostly due to my mechanical ineptitude) so I took my bike to the Seattle Bike Station. I'd never been inside before, and I was pretty impressed by what I saw. In addition to housing secure, 24/7 bicycle parking, Bike Station is also home to the offices of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and they have a full service repair shop in the back. On my way to see Joe (the mechanic) I passed Pauh Wang, the City of Seattle's liason to the Bicycle Advisory Board, who had also come in for a quick repair. Joe fixed up the Kona in about 15 minutes and he only charged me $5!
This is a great facility, and I think it would be even better if there were more of them in and around Seattle, located in areas of high employment density (another in downtown, closer to the Pike/Pine corridor & financial district would be good, UW, downtown Bellevue, Microsoft campus in Redmond, etc.). Something similar has been done in the San Francisco Bay area, with Bike Stations in Berkeley and the Embarcadero. Long Beach and Palo Alto also have Bike Stations.
Maybe we could use some of the State's budget surplus to fund more infrastructure for bicycle commuters?
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