As part of my trip to the Rosicrucian Egyptian
Museum, I took the VTA (Valley
Transportation Authority) LRT (Light Rail Transit) from the River Oaks
station. The River Oaks center at North First street also houses the VTA
administrative office. This place is a 20 minutes walk from home and 10
minutes on a bike. VTA provides for bikers to carry their cycles on buses and
trains; I haven’t used either yet. VTA also provides for secure bike parking
through bike racks and bike lockers, and the more recent eLockers. The eLocker
is a lock-and-pay system. VTA works in conjunction with
BikeLink to provide this facility to the bikers.
You sign up with BikeLink, they send you a card, you add money to it and start
renting the eLocker (works just like
Clipper). You can find all
you want to know about how the BikeLink card works and how much it costs
[here](https://www.vta.org/projects-and-programs/planning/bikes-electronic-
bike-lockers). This [page](https://www.vta.org/getting-around/schedules/park-
and-rides-lots-map) lists all the stations that offer electronic lockers. I
cycled to the River Oaks station parking, which has an eLocker facility. This
was the first time I was using the eLocker. I was taken aback with the dusty
and unclean state the locker was in with mighty big spiders lurking around.
The locker space is triangular, not a rectangular cubicle. I just somehow
shoved the cycle in and closed the door. The timer started and I was getting
the first 5 hours free! [](/images/2014-02-07-elocker-by-vta-and-
bikelink/13340951664_8671ba5be9.jpg) | 
—|—
Damn, I was still wearing the helmet and gloves. I stopped the timer, opened
the locker, slung the helmet to the bike handle, and closed the door back.
There, I was all set. UPDATE: I sent an email to the BikeLink regarding the
state of cleanliness of the eLockers. Not only did I receive a prompt
response, but also prompt action!