Too many bikes and not enough racks… around here, we’d be happy with with a few more two-bike units. Sorry, that’s way too simple for Japan. There they turn the engineers loose. Visitors to Toyko are frequenty awed by the crazy vending machines: Hot Ramen, socks, umbrellas, eggs, kerosene, and more. One count puts it at one vending machine for every 23 people.
So it only makes sense that bike parking would benefit from this technical vending genius. Understanding Japanese would add to the experience but we managed to get the gist. Combine this baby with the giant bike parking garage we saw in Amsterdam and we’d be in bike-parking dork heaven.
-Tim
via Streetsblog and Gizmodo
Anne & Tim
Tim King
Anne
cfdgirl
Tim K
Car Free Days 
What if a queue forms at each vending point? Seems like it would slow things down. I am imagine it is solved, but how?
Thanks for the comments, Todd. I suppose that could be an issue, thought one of the referring blogs said it only took 23 seconds for the process.
I’m thinking turnaround time like that must cut down on lines. Heck, at a regular bike rack I can’t even find my keys in 23 seconds.