Main Station / Heilbronn, Germany / Bikesafe 885

WÖHR Bikesafe in Heilbronn: 122 bikes in an area with a diameter of 7.5 meters - Germany's most modern bike parking garage is located at Heilbronn main station

If you want to look into the future of urban mobility, you can now make your way to Heilbronn. At the main train station there, the first publicly accessible WÖHR Bikesafe is now in trial operation. The fully automatic bicycle parking garage from the Swabian parking space expert is a spatial wonder with an innovative, digital user interface - and a pioneering project that is also convincing in terms of design in its listed surroundings.

Germany is to become a cycling country by 2030. This is the goal of the "National Cycling Plan 3.0" adopted in April 2021. To achieve this goal, however, we not only need more people to switch to bicycles - but also a corresponding infrastructure with well-developed bike paths and sufficient parking spaces. The latter in particular are often in short supply in reality, especially in large cities and conurbations.

Heilbronn: a role model for the future of urban mobility

What transport hubs in urban areas need now and in the future are parking spaces that accommodate bicycles and e-bikes centrally, in a space-saving and theft-proof manner - as in Heilbronn at the main train station: the major city in the north of Baden-Württemberg has put a WÖHR Bikesafe into operation as a fully automated bicycle parking garage for the public. After construction work began in September 2020, the innovative parking system has been available for use since October 28, 2021.

With this innovative overall concept, the city in the north of Baden-Württemberg is doing real pioneering work for the modernization of urban mobility.

A lighthouse project in the Stuttgart metropolitan region

Thanks to its central location in the immediate vicinity of Heilbronn's main train station, the Heilbronn bicycle parking garage will make a lasting contribution to improving the city's infrastructure: Located only about 50 kilometers north of the capital of Baden-Württemberg and thus part of the Stuttgart metropolitan region, numerous residents, commuters and visitors arrive in the city of 130,000 inhabitants every day. Many of them leave their bicycles at the main train station or cycle on from there toward the city center. Thanks to the fully automatic bicycle parking garage, this traffic hotspot now has the opportunity to store 122 bicycles quickly, safely and in a space-saving manner behind closed doors - and all this on the footprint of just one double carport.

Bikesafe from WÖHR - Swabian innovative spirit meets international know-how

Behind this innovative solution is the Swabian company WÖHR, one of the world's leading experts in parking systems. The Bikesafe by WÖHR is characterized by a fully automatic system that creates space for 122 bicycles on eight levels and can thus be used in various urban contexts and environments.

Thanks to its contemporary operating concept, long-term and alternating parkers can drop off and pick up their bicycles in only about 18 seconds. During the entire parking period, the bike is kept safe, secure and space-saving and protected from weather, theft and vandalism. It doesn't matter whether you're riding a road bike or an e-bike, saddlebags or a child's seat. Because up to a handlebar width of 76 cm, every bike finds a suitable place here.

The new WÖHR Bikesafe is architecturally and technically a power package that provides answers to specifications for monument protection, insect protection, bird protection and protection against vandalism. The LED lighting with programmable color scheme not only spares insects, but also illuminates the lift carriage - and can even show its colors on special occasions. Color is avoided elsewhere: with a special non-stick coating, the structure gives graffiti artists the cold shoulder. And to prevent birds from crash-landing, a special screen-printing process has been used to apply dots to the entire surface of the wheelhouse glazing.  A special technical innovation is the touchmonitor. With its intelligent interface architecture, it serves four different user groups and is thus the first automatic bike parking garage with payment options for advance bookings via app, permanent tenants via chip, subscribers who pay per use and spontaneous parkers - such as tourists - with bank card.

As one of the leading international manufacturers of parking systems, WÖHR is represented with its projects all over the world - but the company's home is in Friolzheim in the greater Stuttgart area. This makes the Fahrradhaus Heilbronn an outstanding and inspiring example of the innovative spirit from Baden-Württemberg in two respects.

 

PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

• Storage space: 122 bicycles and e-bikes
• Access time: approx. 18 seconds
• Choice of two bicycle heights: 6 levels à 125cm, 1 level à 135cm, e.g. for bicycles with child seats
• When pulling into the rack system, the software itself decides which parking space is to be used
• Height of the tower: approx. 11.80 metres
• Diameter: approx. 7.5 metres for 76 cm handlebar width
• Maximum weight per parking space or per bike with accessories/attachments: up to 30 kilos
• Start of construction: September 2020
• Acceptance and in use: since 27 October 2021
• Usable for permanent users during trial operation