Very fancy bike rack

As part of the Bicycle Master Plan adopted by the City of Seattle in 2007, the Seattle Department of Transportation will be installing On-Street Bicycle Parking at 3 locations around Seattle in February 2009. More locations will be installed in 2009 and beyond.

Why On-Street Bike Parking?
The combination of the increasing urban density in Seattle and the goal of the Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) to install 3000 new bicycle racks within the city over the next 10 years, has increased the density of amenities on urban village sidewalks. Due to this increased density, in many urban villages there is little existing space to install sufficient bicycle racks to meet the growing demand.

In Japan, they have a developed a much fancier storage system. Below are a couple videos showing the automatic, underground bicycle storage. You simply load your bike, swipe your card, and the machine takes your bike underground to one of the 144 bike racks. When you return and swipe your card again, the machine fetches your bike and bring it to you in about 20 seconds. The monthly charge is 2600 yen or about $27. Pretty slick.