One of the focuses for future development in our area is what is called “Transit-Oriented development.  That’s a fancy way of saying that you should build housing where you also have existing transit.  It also means that localities should “enable alternate modes of transportation”.  That’s a fancy way of saying that, where possible, localities should build infrastructure to allow people to walk or bike to work or other transit.

Now, what this means in Manassas is that we need to do a couple of things.  The most immediate is to facilitate the increased use of our train station.  Of course, we’re all out of land for parking garages that are very close to the station so an obvious target is walking or biking.  We currently have the bike rack as shown at right.  I’ve seen as many as 8-10 bikes there but that isn’t very many.

So, what I’m fishing for is ideas about how to get more people to bike to the train station.  Has anyone out there seen a better facility for this in another city?  Would putting a cover over the rack be a good thing?  Lockers or something?  I’ve looked around but haven’t really found anything… 

Of course, it’ll cost money but it’s way cheaper than building another garage or buying more land to pave over.