An option at Bay Street Train Station may make your commute easier. The Montclair Bike Depot provides a safe, well-lit place to prepare for your train ride to work or your bike ride home. And you won’t have to deal with parking.
The Depot is located just inside the Bay Street parking deck. Your bike will be protected from weather, vandalism, and theft. The Depot has a 24-hour surveillance video camera, and you will be given a key fob to access the Depot once you sign up. Lockers are also available to store your helmet and other things you need for your bike ride.
Monthly memberships will cost you $20 per month, an annual plan is $220. Lockers are an additional $5 per month.
The Bike Depot is a partnership between the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition and Montclair Township. It opened in October 2014.
The bike depot has been around for a while and is being under utilized. It should be made free and unsecured.
I think that if it were unsecured, it would just become yet another convenient depository of bikes for thieves. They don’t fear those grainy, low res, useless cameras. There are places in the world where residents and visitors alike can leave their bikes unlocked anywhere, but Montclair is not one of those places.
I have been biking to the Bay Street station Monday-Friday for years with no major problems. A sturdy lock and a non-flashy bike and your set.
Indoor parking without a fee would be great.