Chengdu residents are complaining that subway stations lack convenient bicycle parking, and nobody's really listening.

A story that appeared in the West China City Daily earlier this month told the plight of a Mr. Gao, a Chengdu resident who decided to go on a family outing by bicycle to try out the subway for the first time.

They rode down Hongxing Lu and arrived at Tianfu Square, looking for a place to park their bikes. After circling the plaza twice without any success, they asked a street-sanitation worker who directed them to the Xiyu Jie Chengdu Bank bicycle parking lot.

The Gao family members aren't the only ones having trouble parking their bicycles near the subway; a number of people who work near Tianfu Square have made the same complaint.

In response, a representative from the Chengdu Transportation Bureau said that there are in fact 12 bicycle parking stations near Tianfu Square: Shuncheng Da Jie, Lihua Jie, Shaanxi Jie, Yanshikou, Sheraton, the Stadium, to name some. "At the Sheraton parking lot, you can even park your bike overnight," said a staff member at Tianfu Square. All of these parking lots accommodate electric bicycles as well as standard bicycles.

And the New City Bulletin (新城快报), the free paper handed out at some subway stops, published a map of bicycle parking lots that are located along the subway line.

But what the transportation bureau does not mention is that none of these parking lots are immediately adjacent to the subway station, and a number of them are a decent walk away—the northern lots, in particular, are halfway to the next station.

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