The space can hold 6,000 bikes and will be expanded to accommodate another 6,500 bikes In the Netherlands, where bicycles outnumber citizens, bike parking is serious business. The country just opened the first phase of what will soon become the world?s largest bike parking garage?a 184,000-square-foot space beneath Utrecht?s central train station, capable of holding 12,500 parked bikes by the end of next year. While a cause for celebration, the Dutch reaction to the new garage hasn?t been entirely positive, with critics saying that it simply doesn?t go far enough to accommodate the country?s volume of cyclists.
?They have been talking about updating the city since 1989,? said Martijn van Es, spokesman for the Dutch cycling organization Fietsersbond. ?The infrastructure hasn?t changed enough. And there are a lot more cyclists today than there were, [and much of the infrastructure] was built in the 1980s.?
1st part of world's largest bike parking (12.5k places) is opening at Utrecht station. World class!
pics by @CU2030https://t.co/JngdUNC0zB pic.twitter.com/Aa11yDWV4g? Cycling Professor (@fietsprofessor) August 4, 2017

The average Netherlands resident bikes more than 600 miles a year, and over a quarter of the population bikes to work, according to The Guardian. There have also been sharp increases in biking in the country?s urban areas in just the last 15 years. Today, 40 percent of those arriving at Utrecht?s train station got there on a bike.

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