The City of Fullerton has announced that bicycle locker rentals at the Fullerton Transportation Center will be discontinued and removed, citing minimal usage, vandalism, theft, damage, maintenance costs, and the inability to obtain replacement parts.
But before a long-standing bicycle amenity was eliminated, why wasn’t there a public discussion with the cyclists who actually use the station?
Many residents may be asking why this issue was not first brought before the Transportation Commission or the Active Transportation Committee for public input and discussion. These bodies exist specifically to advise the City on transportation and bicycle-related issues, yet meetings have repeatedly been canceled due to a lack of agenda items.
The decision also raises broader questions about the City’s priorities. In recent years, significant resources have been invested in improvements and beautification efforts at the Transportation Center. (Click here to read the 2025 CalTrans Article.) If the bicycle lockers were deteriorating due to vandalism, theft, and a lack of repair parts, why wasn’t replacement or modernization considered before deciding to remove them entirely?
Were the lockers truly underutilized, or had years of neglect made them less attractive and less reliable for cyclists?
If you currently use, formerly used, or want to use the bike lockers at the Fullerton Transportation Center, your voice matters.
We are seeking cyclists, commuters, students, and transit riders who can answer the following:
• How often did you use the lockers?
• Did the lockers make bicycle commuting to the train station possible for you?
• Did you experience vandalism, theft, maintenance problems, or difficulty obtaining a locker?
• Were you aware that the lockers were scheduled for removal?
• What type of secure bicycle parking should replace them?
A transportation center should serve all users—not just drivers and train passengers, but cyclists as well. Before these lockers disappear, let’s have the public conversation that should have happened first.
Share your experiences, photos, and comments with your city council representative and cc the Fullerton Observer at contact@fullertonobserver.com. The future of bicycle access at the Fullerton Transportation Center should be shaped by the people who use it.
Please contact city council representatives at the email and phone numbers below:
-
District 1: Fred Jung Council Chair (714) 738-6311 fred.jung@cityoffullerton.com
-
District 2: Nicholas Dunlap Council Vice Chair (714) 738-6311 nicholas.dunlap@cityoffullerton.com
-
District 3: Dr. Shana Charles (714) 738-6311 shana.charles@cityoffullerton.com
-
District 4: Jamie Valencia (714) 738-6311 jamie.valencia@cityoffullerton.com
-
District 5: Dr. Ahmad Zahra (714) 738-6311 ahmadz@cityoffullerton.com
Caltrans, in collaboration with the City of Fullerton, celebrated on July 22, 2025, the completion of the Clean California Transit Enhancement Project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the historic Fullerton Transportation Center.
The $800,000 project was made possible through Governor Gavin Newsom’s Clean California initiative, a sweeping, $1.2 billion, multiyear clean-up effort led by Caltrans to remove trash, create thousands of jobs and join with communities throughout the state to reclaim, transform and beautify public spaces.
Share this:
Discover more from Fullerton Observer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: Community Voices, Downtown, Health, Local Business, Local Government, Local News
ATC meetings have been cancelled the past 2-3 years by staff due to lack of agenda items. Not due to vacancies or quorum issues.
The announcement of the removal of the bike lockers was not discussed with the cycling community beforehand. This has come as a shock. It is not clear why the city chose the nuclear option instead of simply maintaining and securing the lockers. Now we will not have a feature that is considered standard at most modern train stations. Once again, Fullerton lets down bicyclists.
Good story. I served on the Bicycle Users Subcommittee, the forerunner to the current Active Transportation Committee. Our meetings were also sometimes needlessly cancelled and important street design and other issues were almost routinely sent to council or planning before the BUSC could weigh in on them.
As I recall, the BUSC recommended placing the bike storage lockers near the entrance of the parking structure, where they could be seen from the street to discourage theft and vandalism. That recommendation was ignored and they were instead placed into a dark corner deep inside the structure, with predictable results.
Fullerton’s city government seems to often view the Active Transportation Committee as an inconvenient annoyance to its plans and activities rather than the critical source of collaborative expertise it can be.
“…citing minimal usage, vandalism, theft, damage, maintenance costs, and the inability to obtain replacement parts.” i think those are good reasons.
Yes, use tends to decline when thieves are allowed to steal bikes from lockers. If cars were routinely being stolen from the parking structure do you think the city would close it? Or would they try to do something about it?
Other cities manage to have bike storage, I believe, but Fullerton, the busiest station in the county, somehow can’t manage it.
Those reasons indicate “unmaintained.”
Which for public property I consider a “bad reason.”