Considering that more than a third of Dutch people use a bike as their main mode of transportation every day, it’s no surprise that the world’s largest bicycle garage is located in Utrecht. Recently completed by the firm Ector Hoogstad Architecten, the cavernous three-story bike parking facility is tucked beneath Utrecht Central Station, which is currently in the midst of a major makeover that aims to make this part of the city more sustainable, walkable and vibrant.

While various “modernizations” in the 60s and 70s made the area around Utrecht Central Station more car-friendly, the ongoing project to update the station is doing the opposite. The growing popularity of e-bikes and rising consciousness about the climate crisis are contributing to more bike riders than ever in the Netherlands, which will require new and modified public transport hubs with plenty of amenities for cyclists.

A modernist building that once connected the railway station to the adjacent shopping mall has been dismantled, allowing for a new public pedestrian street and square to be inserted along with the new bike garage, say the architects.

“The three storey bicycle parking is situated underneath the square. It has been designed with three aims in mind:  convenience, speed and safety. In order to achieve this in a facility of this scale cyclists are enabled to pedal all the way up to their parking slot. The parking lanes branch off the cycle paths, to ensure that users do not get in the way of cyclists passing through the system.”

“Room for mounting and dismounting is left alongside the cycling lanes. Modestly sloping ramps connect the parking areas on different levels The walls are colour-coded to indicate the routing, and electronic  signals indicate the position of free parking slots. Additional facilities such as a cycle repair shop, a cycle rental outlet and several floor managers meet users’ every need.”

“Stairwells and tunnels create direct connections to the elevated square, the main terminal building and the platforms. Ensuring good orientation and plenty of daylight, the stairwells are located inside atria covered by glass roofs. Large windows in the outer walls allow users views toward the platforms and the bus terminal.”

Featuring generous proportions and raw surfaces made of concrete, steel and wood, the garage feels clean and modern, with just as much care and attention given to it as you’d see in a high-profile parking garage for cars in the United States, like Miami’s 1111 Lincoln Road by Herzog de Meuron.

Check out more photos at EctorHoogstad.com.

Spending what feels like forever cruising around a crowded downtown area looking for parking can be highly frustrating, but there’s an obvious solution: take alternative transportation. Decades of car-centric culture around the world have made it difficult to pry people out of their vehicles and into the seats of buses, trains and bicycles, but what if those modes of transportation were a lot easier to access and enjoy? A new collaboration between Dutch bicycle brand Union and ad agency Natwerk aims to do just that with a fun mobile parking shed for bikes.

One could argue that there’s ample space to park bicycles all over the city of Amsterdam (and most cities, for that matter) while parking spots for cars are harder to come by, therefore the pop-up is taking up valuable space. But that’s part of the point. The project demonstrates how many more people could get around if there were fewer individual vehicles on the road, especially those with a single occupant. In fact, Union argues that there are still too man parking spaces for cars instead of bicycles in a city where cycling is so popular.

Though it hasn’t been approved by the city, the mobile bike parking shed gets away with occupying parking spaces through a loophole; as required by law, it has its own license plate so the operator can pay for parking like everyone else. The parking shed was quite a spectacle while in motion, but once parked along one of the city’s poshest shopping streets, it stirred up some controversy. Dutch news site Fonk Online reports that angry shopkeepers at adjacent businesses worried their car-driving customers would be put out, while passersby complained that “the motorist is already being bullied too much.”

Frank de Ruwe, the creative network of Natwerk, shrugs off these responses. “Cycling is simply better for the world than driving. Everyone agrees.”

Since cars are still so convenient, it might take more than a little “bullying” to prompt people to consider alternatives. While bicycling is not for everyone, and some people still need to drive due to cargo or disabilities, cities would be a lot more pleasant (and emit a lot fewer greenhouse gases) if they contained fewer cars. While occupying more parking spaces for other uses would undoubtedly upset a lot of drivers, it could also provide a bit of a helpful push toward a new way of thinking about urban transit.

Bikes are a convenient way to get around in the city, but if you’re like most of the cycling masses in crowded urban locales, you probably don’t have a dedicated and tidy-looking spot for your bike inside your apartment. Space is always at a premium, so sometimes, just hanging it from the ceiling is your only option. But what if an existing piece of functional furniture could be adapted not only to store your bike, but put it on display, too?

This series of bike-centric furniture by Chilean designer Manuel Rossel features simple cut-outs for bike wheels. Not only is there always a place to put your bike, you’re basically making it a major focal point in the room (which could be a good or bad thing, depending on whether you’re riding a replaceable thief-unfriendly beater or a bike that’s a work of modern design in itself.)

That’s intentional, says Rossel, noting that when you put a bike on top of a bookshelf, it take the place of what would normally be the center of attention: the television. “It changes the cult of the TV to one of the bike,” he told Fast Company. “It’s a way to optimize space that’s scarce in urban centers. If you already store your bike inside, it’s a way to avoid marking the walls. It also turns into a firm support that keeps the bike from falling.”

The furniture line includes single-tier bookshelves with either straight or angled bike niches, a sideboard and a couch. The bikes are currently only available in Chile, but may soon go on sale internationally.